Review of Snow on tha Bluff (2012) by Joshua P — 24 Jul 2013

Ok, so here's a shock-sploitative (yes, that is a pseudo-word, but this is a pseudo-movie) "movie" that is bound to reach a big-sized audience in America due to its raw, un-rehearsed take on life in Atlanta's Bluffs.

Close encounters with guns and death take up most of the 'storyline', exposing the underbelly of 'those streets' that have been a part of Snow's family since he was born, at once feeling like some of the Gangland series (Banging In Little Rock, check it out) and also a glimpse of another form of the pain and violence that America's endemic poverty has inflicted on generations of kids like Curtis in 'hoods' like The Bluffs.

There's no doubt now (after reading numerous interviews stating that they had edited much of the story to flow linearly yet still had a no-punches-held in-the-moment documented reality) that Curtis Snow desired this to be a piece of found-footage legend, and to be honest, I hope it does gain that status.

This scenario is enough of a window into the consequences of today's 'notions' of gangster culture that I would definitely claim this could be one of those 'must be experienced to be believed' cult legends that speaks to kids of all racial socioeconomic backgrounds (but most especially privileged white kids who've never seen how a quickly a good drug deal can go bad).

5/5 Tightly wound, gripping, and fast-moving - without a doubt better than any big studio interpretation of gang culture could ever get. This is one that will be talked about for years to come, an important study for both film and socioeconomics students.