ATL Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

ATL Blu-ray Movie Review

The Classics Never Go Out of Style

Reviewed by Michael Reuben December 23, 2011

ATL is a sneaky film made by smart people. It arrives dressed up in hip-hop flash accompanied by a pounding soundtrack, and the main characters periodically visit Cascade, a lively skating arena much like the real one called "Jellybean" that became an informal headquarters for future stars of the music scene in Atlanta (or, as Cascade regulars call it, "The ATL"). For much of the film's running time, the story appears to be about an annual contest held at Cascade for the most elaborate and elegantly performed dance moves on roller skates. But when the dust settles and the various subplots involving a handful of main characters and numerous supporting players have all been resolved, the movie has pulled a fast one. It's morphed into the classic American tale of young people yearning for a better life, working hard to make something of themselves, sometimes tempted by easy money and often confronted by hard choices.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of ATL is that, in the end, none of the characters becomes a successful performing artist (unlike the people who made the film). They wind up in situations that reflect more realistic possibilities of American life today. Some go to college, one finds a new partner in life (and maybe hits the open road), and the rest take jobs that run the gamut from newspaperman to counterman at a fast-food joint. In ATL, as in life, success is relative.

The story for ATL was written by Antwone Fisher (the same Antwone Fisher whose life story supplied the basis for Denzel Washington's directorial debut), then turned into a screenplay by Tina Gordon Chism. The raw material was supplied by two of the film's producers, Dallas Austin and Tionne Watkins, members of the group TLC. The director was music video veteran Chris Robinson, making his first feature film.

At the center of ATL is Rashad (rapper T.I., natural and convincing), who lives with his younger brother, Ant (Evan Ross), and their Uncle George (the reliable Mykelti Williamson). Uncle George stepped in as the brothers' guardian when their parents died in a car wreck. The boys attend high school but work in their spare time for George's janitorial service company, a true "small business" if ever there was one.

Rashad is a senior along with his friends Brooklyn (Albe Daniels), so known because he's originally from there and never tires of reminding people; Teddy (Jason Weaver); and Esquire (Jackie Long), who doesn't attend the same school but instead dons a coat and tie to attend a fancy prep school across town through a stratagem that is never fully explained. (There's some rigamarole about faking his residence, but location alone wouldn't cover the tuition.) Esquire is fundamentally honest; he does the school work and achieves high SAT scores. All he wants is the best possible shot at an Ivy League college. What he's missing, the college advisor tells him, is a letter of recommendation from someone impressive.

Go-getter that he is, Esquire targets a local CEO named John Garnett (the always imposing Keith David), who is a member of the country club where Esquire works in his spare time as a waiter. Just as Esquire wants to do, Garnett dragged himself out of poverty on the south side of Atlanta to become wealthy and successful, and Esquire uses their common background (along with a good golf game) to strike up an acquaintance. Eventually he gets his letter of recommendation, but it comes at an unexpected price.

Rashad may not share Esquire's ambitions, but he has his own secret aspirations. An artist and compulsive doodler, he imagines himself drawing the comics in the papers one day. For now, though, he's focused on two things: saving enough money from his job with Uncle George to send his younger brother to college, and winning the annual contest at Cascade. But it's at Cascade that a potential distraction enters the picture in the figure of a girl who calls herself "New New" (Lauren London). Rashad knows her from school, where, as at Cascade, she's usually in the company of twin sisters named Veda and Star (real-life twins Khadijah and Malika). When he gives her a ride home from a party, though, sparks fly between them, because New New sees something in Rashad that no one else does. Unfortunately she herself is running away from trouble at home that will eventually undermine both of them.

While Rashad is distracted by Cascade, his friends and New New, Ant falls under the spell of a drug dealer named Marcus (rapper Big Boi) or, more accurately, the spell of easy money and quick acceptance as an adult, which are blandishments that Marcus dangles with the practiced charm of a pimp. The sudden attention Ant receives from Tondie (April Clark) once there's money in his pocket doesn't hurt either. But as Ant quickly discovers, drug dealing is all handshakes, smiles and celebrations until the day you don't make your quota. Then it's bullets and broken bones.

By itself, each of these storylines is sufficiently familiar that it could quickly become hackneyed. What distinguishes ATL is how Chism's script and Robinson's direction keep them fluidly weaving in, around and over each other so that they don't wear out their welcome. Two key propellants help keep the narrative aloft. One is the frequent return to Cascade, where Robinson can stage visually arresting tableaux of costumed skaters with the practiced ease one would expect from a music video virtuoso. The other is the small moments of daily life that give the film a believable texture, like the running battle among Rashad, Ant and Uncle George over breakfast cereal. (It was these kinds of details that helped make the first Friday film a surprise hit.)

The film's time period is deliberately left vague, but we know it isn't the present by the fact that characters aren't glued to cell phones (except for the twins, most don't even seem to have them). Then again, it isn't the Eighties either, because there's no crack in sight (Ant only deals weed). As with many coming-of-age films, ATL exists at a slight remove from time, just as its characters are on the cusp of stepping into adulthood. Listen carefully to Rashad's voiceover narration at the film's end, and you can hear echoes of every film that ever ended with the sentiment: "And then our new lives began."

ATL Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Shot on film by the cinematographer known as "Crash" (The River Why) and finished on a digital intermediate, ATL was an early Warner Blu-ray, and it's 1080p, VC-1-encoded image stands up well against even the latest releases, in no small part because the source for the Blu-ray was a 2K master created for projection in full-size digital cinemas. Detail and black levels are excellent, colors are vibrant and saturated, and no effort has been made to filter high frequencies, sharpen edges or otherwise modify the theatrical image for smaller screens. The relatively small number of extras and alternate audio tracks has left plenty of space for the feature, and compression artifacts are non-existent.

ATL Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Before anyone complains at the omission of a lossless audio track, they should at least listen to ATL's DD 5.1 track, which has been encoded at 640kpbs, the highest available bitrate and twice that of DD in the theater. Pace DTS diehards, Dolby Digital is a highly efficient codec, and listeners in blind tests have routinely been unable to distinguish between DD at a high rate, DTS at its so-called "full rate" and lossless PCM. In any case, the DD 5.1 soundtrack for ATL packs plenty of punch for the musical selections, which is where it counts, with bass extension that is both deep and tight. Voices are clear, but the regional accent is sometimes so thick that you may find yourself consulting the subtitles anyway. Venues like Cascade that offer significant ambiant sound make good, but not showy, use of the surround speakers. The underscoring is by Aaron Zigman, whose diverse resume includes The Notebook, both Sex and the City movies and almost all of Tyler Perry's films.

ATL Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• In the Rink: A Director's Journey (SD; 1.85:1, non-enhanced; 28:45): Narrated by Robinson, this featurette takes the film from inception through location scouting, casting, rehearsal and the fast-paced 45-day shoot. Substantial production footage is included, and it's been smartly edited to convey the stresses and rigors of movie-making ("a marathon" compared to the "sprint" of a music video, as Robinson describes it) in a lively style. Interviews with most major cast members are included.


• Deleted Scenes (SD; 2.35:1, non-enhanced; 5:16): There are six short scenes, all of which were probably cut for pacing. They're the kind of detail, some comic, some atmosphere, some both, that are essential to the film's narrative drive.


• Music Video: "What You Know" by T.I. (SD; 2.35:1, non-enhanced; 4:43): Directed by Robinson.


• Theatrical Trailer (SD; 2.35:1, enhanced; 2:09): You can see the marketing people struggling for a focus. The skating element is minimized, probably because the previous year's Roll Bounce performed poorly at the box office, and focus far too much on Ant's drug-dealing, which is a relatively small element in the overall film.

ATL Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Regardless of the marketing, ATL is a wonderful example of a new sensibility reinterpreting, reinvorgating and reclaiming an array of classic American tropes: coming of age, graduating high school, Horatio Alger, even a touch of Romeo and Juliet. The film has been made with wit and style, and the Blu-ray is technically superior. Recommended.