Five Star

After John’s absent father is struck by a stray bullet, Primo takes it upon himself to verse the young boy in the code of the streets—one founded on respect and upheld by fear. A member of the Bloods since the age of twelve—both in the film and in reality—the streets of Brooklyn are all Primo has ever known. While John questions whether or not to enter into this life, Primo must decide whether to leave it all behind as he vows to become a better husband and father. Set during those New York summer weeks where the stifling heat seems to encase everything, Five Star plunges into gang culture with searing intensity. Director Keith Miller observes the lives of these two men with a quiet yet pointed distance, carefully eschewing worn clichés through its unflinching focus. Distinctions between fiction and real life remain intentionally ambiguous, allowing the story of these two men to resonate beyond the streets, as they face the question of what it means to be a man.

Decent effort but had higher hopes. Feels real but also a bit uncomplete, but I suppose life is like that as well and it's supposed to be more of a slice of a life kind of films than the regular rise and fall gangster tale. In fact there really isn't a whole lot gangsterism's in it, it's more of a character-study and focuses more on family life than anything else. Primo is a real five star general blood gangmember and he plays a version of himself. The teenager is definitly not a part of the life, and he does not quite make his character believable in that regard for me. So a bit of a miscast there perhaps. As far as the rating goes, definitly not a 5 star but a 5.5/10 from me.