''LUV'' is a 2012
crime
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...
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 Sheldon Candis. It was nominated for the
Grand Jury Prize
A film festival is an organized, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors. Films may be of recent date and, depending upo ...
at the
2012 Sundance Film Festival. ''LUV'' was shot in and around
Baltimore
Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...
,
Maryland
Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...
, and had its Baltimore premiere at the
Maryland Film Festival
The Maryland Film Festival is an annual five-day international film festival taking place each May in Baltimore, Maryland. The festival was launched in 1999, and presents international film and video work of all lengths and genres. The festival ...
2012. It was later released in theaters on January 18, 2013. The film has received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
The film begins with Woody Watson (Michael Rainey Jr.) having a dream about him and his mother in the woods, but he then wakes up. Woody lives with his grandmother (Lonette McKee) in the inner city of Baltimore and longs to be reunited with his mother, who is in rehab in North Carolina. His charismatic Uncle Vincent (Common) has recently returned home after being sentenced to 20 years in prison, with his sentenced reduced to 12. He is released after serving 8 years. He is determined to straighten out his life by opening a high-end crab shack. Vincent drops Woody off at school, but when Woody becomes embarrassed when a girl looks at him, Vincent decides to give the boy a tutorial on how to become a man.
After a trip to a tailor to get Woody a custom-fitted suit, the duo take a trip to see Cofield (Charles S. Dutton), Vincent's friend and old crime partner who now owns his own crab shack and informs Vincent that Mr. Fish (Dennis Haysbert), his old crime boss, is looking for him. The pair heads to the bank to sign off on the loan Vincent needs to fulfill his dreams. His bank officer tells him that he needs $22,000 so Vincent can start his business. Vincent has no one to turn to for help but his former associates, including Baltimore crime boss Mr. Fish and his brother Arthur (Danny Glover). Vincent takes a desperate turn when Fish enlists Vincent for one more drug deal to demonstrate his loyalty.
The pair then start going around town to finish the deal. Vincent then teaches Woody how to drive, then how to fire a gun. The pair then go to Jamison's place to arrange a deal. Eventually, Jamison and Vincent fight each other; Vincent tells Woody to fire his gun, but Woody freezes up, forcing Vincent to kill Jamison himself. Later while driving, Vincent, enraged at Woody, yells at him and the two get in an argument.
During the argument, Vincent yells at Woody how his mother doesn't want him. This enrages Woody, which leads him to abandon the car. Woody runs to the train station to catch a ride to North Carolina, but is stopped by Vincent. Woody decides to go home, but Vincent tells him "we ain't got no home." Vincent then convinces Woody to help him with the deal and promises to take him to North Carolina one day.
Woody and Vincent then meet up with Cofield again at the lake. The pair have to go to a drug dealer, Enoch, next, but Cofield believes it's too risky. But Woody comes up with a plan about Enoch not noticing them. The pair then go to Enoch. Enoch's henchmen surround the pair, but the deal goes out as planned and the pair leave. The pair then go to visit Beverly (Meagan Good), Vincent's old girlfriend who is pregnant and has a new boyfriend. Enraged by this, Vincent beats up her boyfriend and drives off with Woody.
The pair then meet Fish and Arthur at their mansion for dinner. However, later on, things take a turn for the worse. Vincent becomes mad at Fish due to the fact that his last drug deal got Vincent locked up. Vincent then pulls out his gun, hits Arthur with it, and aims it at Fish. Fish then reveals that Vincent was the one that got Woody's mother on drugs. This angers Woody, who pulls out a gun and aims it at Vincent. Arthur then grabs a rifle and shoots Vincent, who counteracts by shooting and killing Arthur. Woody grabs his backpack and runs outside just as Vincent kills Fish.
Woody runs into the woods with a critically wounded Vincent right behind him; Woody then discovers him. As the two walk off, Vincent falls over and dies in Woody's arms. Woody cries just as the police arrives. Woody is taken into custody by Detectives Holloway and Pratt (Michael K. Williams & Russell Hornsby) where Woody finds himself involved in a triple homicide, but won't be charged. As Holloway drives Woody home, he tells Woody that he will be brought in for questioning along with his grandmother at 10:00 tomorrow morning.
The next morning before 10:00, Woody takes a cab to the crime scene. He makes his way into the woods, where a flashback reveals that he buried some money made from the drug deal under a tree. Woody takes the money and drives off in Vincent's car, symbolizing that Woody has decided to become his own man. Back at home, his grandmother walks into the kitchen where she finds money left by Woody in her Bible. As Woody drives off (presumably to North Carolina), in voice-over form, Woody says "My Uncle Vincent said that they are two types of people: owners and renters. But the real question is, what will you own?" As Woody has another vision of him and his mother in the woods, the movie ends with Woody becoming emotional.
Cast
*
Common
Common may refer to:
Places
* Common, a townland in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland
* Boston Common, a central public park in Boston, Massachusetts
* Cambridge Common, common land area in Cambridge, Massachusetts
* Clapham Common, originally com ...
as Vincent
* Michael Rainey Jr. as Woody Watson
*
Dennis Haysbert
Dennis Dexter Haysbert (born June 2, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the '' Major League'' film trilogy, Secret Service agent Tim Collin in the political thriller film '' Absolute Power'' ...
as Mr. Fish
*
Danny Glover
Danny Lebern Glover (; born July 22, 1946) is an American actor, film director, and political activist. He is widely known for his lead role as Roger Murtaugh in the ''Lethal Weapon'' film series. He also had leading roles in his films include ...
as Arthur
*
Lonette McKee
Lonette Rita McKee (born July 22, 1954) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Sister Williams in the original 1976 musical-drama film ''Sparkle (1976 film), Sparkle''. McKee also had notable roles in such movies as ''The Co ...
as Grandma
*
Charles S. Dutton
Charles Stanley Dutton (born January 30, 1951) is an American actor and director. He is best known for his roles in the television series ''Roc (TV series), Roc'' (1991ā1994) and the television film ''The Piano Lesson (film), The Piano Lesson'' ...
as Cofield
*
Meagan Good
Meagan Monique Good is an American actress. She first gained critical attention for her role in the film ''Eve's Bayou'' (1997), prior to landing the role of Nina in the Nickelodeon sitcom ''Cousin Skeeter'' (1998ā2001). Good received further ...
as Beverly
*
Marz Lovejoy as Angel
*
Marc John Jefferies
Marc John Jefferies is an American actor known for his roles in ''Losing Isaiah'', ''Get Rich or Die Tryin, ''Power'', ''The Haunted Mansion'', ''Nerve'', ''Stuart Little 2'', ''Brown Sugar'' and '' Notorious''.
Career
Jefferies began his car ...
as Newt
*
Michael K. Williams
Michael Kenneth Williams (November 22, 1966 ā September 6, 2021) was an American actor. He rose to fame in 2002 through his critically acclaimed role as Omar Little on the HBO drama series ''The Wire''. He has been described as a "singular pr ...
as Detective Holloway
* Tracey Heggins as Leslie
*
Clark Johnson
Clark Johnson (born September 10, 1954), is an American-Canadian actor and director who has worked in both television and film. He is best known for his roles as David Jefferson in ''Night Heat'' (1985ā1988), Clark Roberts in ''E.N.G.'' (1989ā ...
as Harold Barnes
*
Russell Hornsby
Russell Hornsby (born May 15, 1974) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Edward "Eddie" Sutton on ABC Family's '' Lincoln Heights'', as Luke on the HBO drama ''In Treatment'', as Detective Hank Griffin on the NBC series ''Grimm'', a ...
as Detective Pratt
*
Sammi Rotibi
Sammi Rotibi is a Nigerian-American film and television actor. His most notable roles are Rodney in ''Django Unchained'' and General Amajagh in '' Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice''. His acting idols are Sidney Poitier and Peter O'Toole.
B ...
as Jamison
Reception
On
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 ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 34% based on 41 reviews, with an
average rating
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7 ...
of 5.2/10. On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 52 out of 100, based on 21 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".
Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for ''Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...
of ''
Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
'' gave the film a Cā, writing, "The actor and rapper Common has become a highly skilled screen star, but this touchy-feely dud does him wrong... The first sign that something is off in the movie is when Vincent decides to give his kid nephew (Michael Rainey Jr.) a lesson in thug life. The second is that the director, Sheldon Candis, can't decide if that's a good thing. No wonder every scene wobbles around."
See also
*
List of hood films
This is a list of hood films ā films focusing on the culture and life of African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, and/or in some cases, Asian Americans living in segregated, low-income urban communities, as well as comparably deprived and crime-ri ...
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:LUV
2012 films
2012 crime drama films
American coming-of-age drama films
American action drama films
2010s English-language films
Films set in Baltimore
Films shot in Baltimore
Hood films
American independent films
2012 independent films
2010s American films