''Kill the Poor'' is a 2003 American

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by Alan Taylor from a screenplay by

Daniel Handler Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' and ''All the Wrong Questions ...

, based on the 1988 novel of the same name by

Joel Rose Joel Rose is an American novelist. Career His novels include ''The Blackest Bird'' (2007), ''Kill the Poor'' (1988), and '' Kill Kill Faster Faster'' (1988). He also authored the urban historical, ''New York Sawed in Half: An Urban Historical'' ( ...

. The film is set in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

Alphabet City Alphabet City is a neighborhood located within the East Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. Its name comes from Avenues A, B, C, and D, the only avenues in Manhattan to have single-letter names. It is bounded by Houston St ...

in the early 1980s, when the neighborhood was a center of illegal drug activity. The film's title is inspired by the

Dead Kennedys Dead Kennedys are an American punk rock band that formed in San Francisco, California, in 1978. The band was one of the defining punk bands during its initial eight-year run. Dead Kennedys' lyrics were usually political in nature, satirizing p ...

' song "

Kill the Poor "Kill the Poor" is a song by Dead Kennedys, released in October 1980 on Cherry Red Records as the band's third single, with "In-sight" as its B-side. The song is a scathing satire of the elite who if given the chance, would wipe out the impover ...

". ''Kill the Poor'' premiered at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

on May 9, 2003, and received a

limited theatrical release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

in the United States on January 6, 2006, by

IFC Films IFC Films is an American film production and distribution company based in New York. It is an offshoot of IFC owned by AMC Networks. It distributes mainly independent films under its own name, select foreign films and documentaries under its S ...

. It received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

''Kill the Poor'' begins with a fire in the apartment of tough guy Carlos DeJesus and his trouble-making son, Segundo. The screenplay then focuses on the other tenants of the rundown building in an attempt to determine who set the blaze. The other principals are: * Joe Peltz, a young man who ignored his uncle's warnings to bring his wife Annabelle and their young child into the neighborhood where his Jewish grandparents had their start in America * Spike, an aspiring found-object sculptor * Delilah, a flamboyant gay man * Butch, a presumptuous graduate student * Scarlet, the tenement's resident floozy * Negrito, a fixture in the neighborhood A shared distrust of Carlos and Segundo unites this eclectic group and prompts them to hold "co-op" meetings with one goal: eviction of Carlos and Segundo DeJesus.

Cast

David Krumholtz David Krumholtz (born May 15, 1978) is an American actor and comedian. He played Mr. Universe in '' Serenity'', Charlie Eppes in the CBS drama series ''Numb3rs'', and starred in the ''Harold & Kumar'' and ''The Santa Clause'' film franchises. Ear ...

as Joe Peltz * Clara Bellar as Annabelle Peltz *

Paul Calderón Paul Calderón is a Puerto Rican actor, writer, director and producer. He is a founding member of the Touchstone Theatre, the American Folk Theatre and the LAByrinth Theater Company. He is also a member of the Actors Studio, auditioning and a ...

as Carlos DeJesus * Jon Budinoff as Segundo *

Cliff Gorman Cliff Gorman (born Joel Joshua Goldberg; October 13, 1936 – September 5, 2002) was an American stage and screen actor. He won an Obie award in 1968 for the stage presentation of '' The Boys in the Band'', and went on to reprise his role in the ...

as Yakov *

Damian Young Damian Young (born October 27, 1961) is an American actor notable for his appearance in the Hal Hartley film ''Amateur'' (1994). He also featured in Hartley's earlier film ''Simple Men'' (1992), and has appeared in theatre, television and film. ...

as Delilah *

Heather Burns Heather Burns (born April 7, 1975) is an American actress, known for her role as Miss Rhode Island Cheryl Frasier in the 2000 film '' Miss Congeniality'' and its 2005 sequel, '' Miss Congeniality 2: Armed and Fabulous''. Her other film appearan ...

as Scarlet *

Otto Sanchez Otto Sanchez is an American actor best known for playing Carmen Guerra in the HBO prison drama '' Oz''. He also played the role of Otto in the short-lived drama ''Kidnapped''. He appeared as a supporting character in ''Bad Boys II''. He played t ...

as Negrito *

Zak Orth Zak Orth (born October 15, 1970) is an American actor known for his roles in ''Wet Hot American Summer'', '' The Baxter'', '' Melinda and Melinda'', '' In and Out'', ''Music and Lyrics'', and '' NYC 22''. He also starred in the NBC television dram ...

as Butch *

Larry Gilliard, Jr. Lawrence Gilliard Jr. (born September 22, 1971) is an American actor who has appeared in films, television series, and theatre. He portrayed D'Angelo Barksdale on the HBO drama series ''The Wire'', a role which earned him critical acclaim. He is ...

as "Spike"

Release

''Kill the Poor'' was first screened at the

on May 9, 2003. It was then released on January 6, 2006 at the

IFC Center IFC Center is an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village, Manhattan, New York City. Located at 323 Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas) at West 3rd Street, it was formerly the Waverly Theater, an art house movie theater. IFC Center is ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

Reception

Critical response

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an approval rating of 25%, with an average rating of 5.3/10, based on 8 reviews.

References

Lee, Nathan. (2006, January 6). ''Ragtag Tenants in a Shabby Part of Town''. The New York Times, p. B18

External links

* 2003 films Films based on American novels Films directed by Alan Taylor Films with screenplays by Daniel Handler 2003 drama films American drama films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films Mr. Mudd films {{2000s-drama-film-stub