Review of Go With God (2016) by Mike K — 18 Jan 2016

A movie that is the first of its kind.

Executive Producer Monica Esmeralda Leon makes her backyard her filmmaking playground. However, this backyard is no easy walk in the park, it's one of the dangerous neighborhoods of Chicago where the Mexican Olmec street gang paint their faces with skulls controlling the cities organized crime. It's a place where the Italians still have small grips, where the police could be unethical, where Olmec gang leaders sexually abuse their recruits, but it's also a place where there is hope.

The film itself is a demonstration of hope. It's a movie that is the first of its kind, a barrio or ghetto unifying despite differences to make a film. The writer and lead actor Zachary Laoutides was the correct choice as the screenplay writer and the lead actor who takes his performance to deep depths. The film is far from a stereotypical gangster film; the performances are varied from street locals to theatrical performers. Laoutides' natural performance makes his character Rory King upraise the film from any of its shortcomings. Rory King is a half Mexican and half Irishman who is caught culturally between his two diverse traditions. We see his struggles to socially survive the entire film.

The slice I find most appealing is watching Rory who is too deep inside the allegiances he serves, these loyalties that he has used in order to endure all this time, now only to come back drawing him further into the world he's trying to escape. It's a nail biter at the end that should be admired by how well Joseph Mennella, Italian wise guy Gio Angeli and Zachary Laoutides make us feel. Much of the film feels like you're watching a documentary, as if it's really happening (in a way you are due to how the film was completed), Rory and Gio give us just that. By the end of the film you want to know more and wouldn't mind another round of street artistry.