Always Outnumbered (1998)
An ex-con moves to L.A. to find work and creates a disturbance by fighting for a position. More importantly he touches the lives of many of his neighbors including an older man dying of cancer, a young married couple whose husband is too proud to accept a lesser position which causes strife with his wife, and a young boy on the verge of getting in trouble with street gangs.
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Best movie of this year hands down!
I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.
As I sit here, helping to heal myself from cancer, this cast has let me know and reinforce that redemption is real. As a Melanated woman who is also a Filmmaker/Griot, finding a movie about other Melanated people finding total redemption, is few and far, far, far, far between. What this powerful, well casted cast has done, is transported me to a place of raw strength, and what it takes to 'make it' for real. It takes brutal honesty. It takes being able to accept the experiences we have had and be brave enough to live with the harsh consequences. BUT (I know I'm not suppose to use it at the opening of a sentence, however...) this movie let's you know, with such stark cruelty of this world, there is sweetness and love in a Black man and woman's heart that can take them through anything. Love brings hope. Hard work brings satisfaction and when the two marry, it's brings about The Creator's perfect plan. A knowing in your heart that you've worked to do the best that you can, and the subtle results, one can never take away from you.So, for a 28 year old woman, who had just buried her husband, when this film was released in 1998, I thank The Almighty for allowing me to see this example of how the mercy of the Lord is always on all of us.Thank you Walter Mosley, cast and crew, for this gift.Peace continuously, Rosheena Beek
Socrates is a man of inner strength and depth. His life experience has not hardened him to the simple needs of others, young and old. He's masterfully portrayed by Fishburne...subtley acted. He lets him be very human...not always right, but of strong conviction.The movie is poetically mounted with narration by the accomplished actor Bill Cobbs who is riveting as the old man dying of cancer. I hung on every word of his character, I followed every movement of his body. He also portrayed a strong man, somehow strengthened even more while facing pain and death.The friendship merged by these two characters was so intimate, they touched the screen so gently. The lives that these two touched were made so much the richer, given so much more hope...for living.All characters joined together to bring a most worthwhile story to fruition. A story of black people touching, caring, sharing, loving one another from deep within, with heart.What's always outnumbered? Evil and despair. They are outnumbered here by this representation of generations of a people that reaches back to yesterday for wisdom, reaches out to today for experience and reaches forward to tomorrow for future life, hopes and dreams.I, very simply, loved this film.
Laurence Fishburne is superb as Socrates Fortlow in the HBO movie of Walter Mosley's adaptation of his first book of Fortlow stories. Mosley wove his stories together fairly well in the screenplay. The quest for a job, the serious undertaking of mentoring Darryl, dealing with the dealer/mugger and with the car-jacker are cinematic. Daniel Williams' portrayal of Darryl as a vulnerable discarded child who has to act tough is very, very good. The friendship with Right Burke (Bill Cobbs) is plausible, but having "Right" narrate the film seems unnecessary to me. We can see in Fishburne's performance the kind of many Socrates is without Right telling us how heroic he is. The relationships with women are less convincing, or at least less compelling. I don't remember what Luvia (Cicely Tyson) has against Socrates. His relationship with Iula Brown (Natalie Cole) lacks chemistry (and screen time).
What was the purpose of this film? To show us what it's like for a poor black man to live...? Lawrence Fishburne is a good actor, and he always will be, but this movie was just plain boring and never got my attention as "moving". The plot was nowhere to be seen. This movie began and ended with no sense to it. No thought was put into the movie, only how a poor can-collecting black man can hassel a grocery store into getting him a job. My suggestion of course is to not see this movie, but if your a huge Fishburne fan, go right on ahead, you might enjoy it. The only enjoyment I recieved was how Fishburne took no BS from anyone and how he taught a bad kid a lesson. That was really it, and this was my score: 5/10