Review of Lost Angels: Skid Row Is My Home (2012) by Thomas P — 22 Jan 2014

A heartbreaking yet triumphant look at Skid Row in LA thru its ppl, its beacons of help like the Midnight Mission, and the LAMP community which specifically helps the mentally ill in that district.

All this, bc the director worked on the movie The Soloist, and felt the ppl he met of skid row would make an interesting documentary.

You'll see the political changes - both good but mostly bad, and what works and does not work to help the ppl there.

There is much ambiguity and contradiction in what the community says, wants, needs, and gets - from needing housing to not wanting to be "herded" into housing, to have protection and multilevel support, but also somehow be allowed their misguided, damaging behaviors.

Thankfully there are several voices of reason thru experts and advocates like Mollie Lowery, founder of LAMP and former nun - who expresses their offer of stability to the disenfranchised, the homeless, and particularly the mentally ill.

The local churches are integral to the help given, and this was my personal joy to see - even a secular documentary could not avoid the immense good done by the fellow believers who pour themselves out for the needy. =D.

It seemed, in the third quarter of the movie the stories of injustice via the area politics muddled the initial message of hope, yet was necessary.

They draw clear lines around the problems and the ineffective actions made by the city of LA, and the LAPD.

The last act, redemptively, refocuses the movie on the ppl. Some are improving themselves and some even improving their community.

Brilliant.

5 of 5.