Cut Throat City
By Jeffrey M. Anderson,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Hurricane Katrina themes give mature heist movie a boost.
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Cut Throat City
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Based on 1 parent review
Amazing
What's the Story?
CUT THROAT CITY takes place in 2006 New Orleans, just after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Four childhood friends -- artist Blink (Shameik Moore), drug dealer Miracle (Demetrius Shipp Jr.), dog lover Junior (Keean Johnson), and jazz trumpeter Andre (Denzel Whitaker) -- can barely make ends meet. Blink is newly married and has a child to support, so he and his friends go to "Cousin" (Tip "T.I." Harris) looking for work. He sends them to rob a casino, and -- despite disorganization and a tragedy -- they manage to get away with some money. But Cousin isn't happy with their haul, and the friends must hide out with Blink's estranged father (Wesley Snipes). Soon, the friends decide on an even bigger heist, one with symbolic significance.
Is It Any Good?
Director RZA's epic crime drama is ungainly, overly long, and overly familiar, but its particular time and setting give it an ambitious scope and a righteous passion that energize it. Cut Throat City begins with the four friends, each of whom is defined by a single characteristic. (For example, Miracle is such a bad drug dealer that his friends tease him because he's always broke.) It's not a promising start, and then there's the casino heist, which is rather chaotic and not very suspenseful. It's all a little too straightforward.
The veteran supporting cast helps. Snipes is great as Blink's father, and there's also Harris (albeit with distracting makeup), plus Isaiah Washington, Terrence Howard, and Eiza Gonzalez. Ethan Hawke has a few scene-stealing moments as a corrupt city council member that are flat-out funny. And then the Hurricane Katrina themes come in. Black people are denied FEMA aid. There's a conspiracy theory about how and why one levee broke toward the Black side of town, rather than the White side. An arresting sense of dark fate, of discrimination, creeps into the regular plot proceedings of Cut Throat City; life just isn't fair for these characters, no matter what they do.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Cut Throat City's violence. How intense is it? How did it make you feel? Is it shocking, or thrilling? What's the impact of media violence on kids?
Are drugs glamorized here? Are there consequences for using (or dealing)? What about alcohol and cigarettes?
How does the movie relate to the Black Lives Matter movement? How does it represent the lives of Black people in the wake of Hurricane Katrina?
Movie Details
- In theaters: August 21, 2020
- On DVD or streaming: October 20, 2020
- Cast: Shameik Moore , Demetrius Shipp Jr. , Tip T.I. Harris
- Director: RZA
- Inclusion Information: Black directors, Black actors
- Studio: Well Go USA
- Genre: Drama
- Run time: 123 minutes
- MPAA rating: R
- MPAA explanation: violence, pervasive language, drug content, some sexual material and nudity
- Last updated: January 22, 2023
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