On the Outs (2004)

Directors:

Lori Silverbush
Michael Skolnik

Writer:

Lori Silverbush (written by)

Release Date:

8 March 2006 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

A drug dealer. An addict. A runaway. The story of 3 girls.

Plot:

Follows the choices made by three young women - one a drug dealer, one an addict, one a pregnant teen - in Jersey City. |

Plot Keywords:

Drug Dealer | Drug Addict | Gun | Prison | Brother Sister Relationship

Awards:

2 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Anny Mariano	...	Suzette Williams
Judy Marte	...	Oz
Paola Mendoza	...	Marisol Pagan
Dominic Colon	...	Chewey
Flaco Navaja	...	Jimmy Ortiz
Danny Rivera	...	J Stutter
Don Parma	...	Tyrell
Earl Thomason	...	Pancake
Rokafella	...	Evelin
Kamilah Forbes	...	Frances
Raven Hamilton	...	Raven
Gloria Zelaya	...	Rosa
Autumn Collier	...	Autumn
Nikki Jean	...	Malia
Julian Mohamed	...	Milkman

Also Known As:

Ekei exo (Greece) (festival title) [el]
Girls in America (France) [fr]

MPAA:

Rated R for pervasive language, strong drug use, some violence and sexual content.

Runtime:

86 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

USA:R | France:-12

Filming Locations:

Jersey City, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Fader Films

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 20th IFP Independent Spirit Awards (2005) (TV)

Highly recommended.

I saw this film on its last night at the Film Forum in NYC. It was a special night as one of the producers, one of the actors, and a good crowd showed up. The producer spoke before the show and asked us to spread the word if we liked the film, and to keep it to ourselves if we didn't...I'm spreading the word.

Shot in grittier parts of Jersey City, which lies just across the Hudson River from Manhattan, with a cast of mostly unknown actors, this film does a fantastic job of peeling back the lid on urban ghetto life. It's not a documentary but has a cinéma-vérité quality that is truly remarkable for a fictional film. Being young and working in film is cool, but making a first film that is as incredibly powerful as this one is an extraordinary achievement for the cast, crew and writer/director, Lori Silverbush.

I enjoyed seeing a film set in the much maligned Jersey City. I lived there for several years and the locations used were well chosen (kudos to the location scouts). The montage of JC images (places and people) in the beginning of the film did an excellent job of establishing the setting for the viewer, and was well-queued with the throaty, resonating rendition of "Motherless Child" (kudos to the editors for that one). I was happy to see the beautiful Judy Marte, from Raising Victor Vargas, playing a super-tough drug dealing lesbian(?). If not always strong, the entire cast had an honesty to their performances that made it seem as if they were really playing themselves caught on film. The seduction scene with Tyrell (Don Parma), for instance, gives mothers in the audience a picture of the kind hustler boyfriend you don't want your daughter to have.

I was deeply moved, and I hope this film gets a lot of mileage. If I were still a public school teacher in the hard knock Bronx, I wouldn't hesitate to send those permission slips home (because of profanity and drug use) in order to show this to my students. I highly recommend anyone who works in urban education to see this film...and share it with their students.