Sundance London: LUV Review

2 STARS.

When Uncle Vince (Common, the Chicago rapper and hip hop artist), freshly released after 8 years behind the bars, teams up with his sister’s son Woody (Michael Rainey Jr) and decides to teach the clever 11 years old “what it takes to be a man” by venturing into the gangsters’ lairs in Baltimore, inevitably suspense unfolds.

LUV, a feature film debut for director and writer Sheldon Candis (her premiere at Sundance) takes us along the 24 hour journey of this unlikely pair. Persistent Woody (a fatherless black child who lives with his granny - Lonette McKee - in the suburbs of Baltimore) is determined to find his missing mum against the odds (we assume she could be a drug addict in North Carolina) while his Uncle Vince is forced to make deals with criminal gangs desperate to set up his own business and start a new life.

LUV is an emotional rollercoaster that alternates hope and despair of the two protagonists in 95 minutes packed with escalating violence, homicides, tears, irksome soundtracks and the improbable twists in the screenplay (by Justin Wilson and Sheldon Candis). The talented actors with their intriguing surrogate father/son relationship bring warmth to an erratic gangster story as we wait for the implausible finale.

By Giorgia Scaturro