ATL

ATL (2006) is a stylish film with a firm sense of place centered on the city of Atlanta. Place means the geographical location itself—the cityscape, the MARTA rail line, schools such as Spelman, the economic differences that distinguish various sections of the city, the Cascade Family Skating Rink, which in the film is simply Cascade Skating Rink. Though it takes up less space than one might expect, it is the film's heart, where the four friends and main characters gather every Sunday night to skate and socialize with others and to work on their skating routines. The Cascade is important as a melting pot for African American Atlanta as well. Skaters come from all over the city, from as far South as College Park, and from elsewhere as well. Where one comes from in the sprawling city of Atlanta determines both a particular skating style as well as other more general aspects of identity. The Cascade provides a concrete way of focusing important themes and conflicts of this film.

In the "making of "commentary on the DVD, director Chris Robinson describes Atlanta as a city struggling to recover from its history. It is, he says, a city in transition, and for that and other reasons he sought to make it a literal character in the film. He accomplishes that goal. Well known for his music videos (I haven't seen them, but then I don't watch music videos), Robinson is clearly influenced by Spike Lee, who like Woody Allen has consciously made New York a vibrant presence in many of his films. Cinematographically, ATL also shows the influence of Michael Mann. Some dramatic night shots of the Atlanta skyline in particular suggest Mann. Stomp the Yard, made around the same time as ATL, also uses Atlanta as a setting, but it is a more generic, less recognizable city than the one we see in ATL. Anyone who has been to Atlanta, and especially anyone who has lived there, will easily recognize the city in ATL.

Atlanta as a character emerges clearly enough as a visual element of the film's mise en scene. More deeply embedded are the economic, historical, and ideological tensions and paradoxes surrounding African American history in Atlanta. From the center of the city to its Southern edges, the city is mostly African American, with a large middle class and significant areas of poverty. (Most of the characters in ATL come at least from the lower middle-class). The Northern areas of the city are predominantly white and more affluent. New New Garnett (Lauren London) in the film is the daughter of John Garnett, a wealthy African American businessman who has moved to the north side, has joined a country club, and in a general sense has left many of his African American origins behind him. When he learns that his daughter is dating a boy from the ghetto Rashad (Tim Harris), he is enraged because he wants his daughter to have an affluent, privileged life. He wants her to attend a prestigious college, not Spelman, the college she wants to attend. New New knows from the beginning that her father will disapprove of her friendship with Rashad, so she hides it. And she suspects that Rashad will not be comfortable once he learns who she is and where she lives, so she hides that too. This conflict between social and economic classes is one of the major interests of the film. It's a conflict also explored in Stomp the Yard.

Historically, Atlanta has been an important center of African American political and economic development. The success of John Garnett (Keith David) is an example of that development. One issue the film explores concerns what African Americans must do to get ahead in a predominantly white world. Here again is a theme we saw explored in Stomp the Yard. One of Rashad's friends is Esquire, who caddies at the country club to which Garnett belongs. Esquire is ambitious and wants a head start in life. When he is introduced to Garnett, he sees someone who can help him out and eventually asks for a letter of recommendation. The question here is whether one must sell out, do what Garnett has done, in order to succeed in life, or whether there is another way that doesn't involve rejection of one's ethnic and cultural roots. Rashad's younger brother Ant explores still another route to wealth: under the tutelage of a character named Big Boi (played by Antwan A. Patton of Outkast), he begins selling drugs.

Although virtually all of the characters in this film are African American, race is not the dominating issue. Clearly it is an issue, and Atlanta is presented as a city in which racism and civil rights struggles have played an important role. The characters do not have lives that are necessarily easy ones: Rashad and Ant lost their parents several years before in a car accident. They live with their inattentive and often bitter uncle, and Rashad feels responsible for the welfare of his younger brother. But these circumstances are not necessarily determined by matters of race. Struggles with racism and with the white community are not the main concern here. Rather the struggles the main characters engage in among themselves and within their own community are the main concerns. The white world hardly exists in this film, except as a faint and not entirely hostile presence at its outer edges. The four main characters stand on the verge of adult life and must decide how to move forward. Issues of family, friendship, and individual and group identity must be resolved. These are the issues that most young people have to address as they move into adulthood, and they are the primary issues in this film, though influenced and determined by the environment in which the characters live.

This is a successful film. It idealizes the world it portrays, to an extent. And it ensures a happy ending for all. Its strength is its characters, their warm interactions, the effective direction, the cinematography, and the music. Along with Stomp the Yard, ATL provides a variation on such predominantly white urban coming-of-age films as Diner and American Graffiti and shows the commonality of experience between the different racial groups they portray.

After thoughts: Apart from the characters and plot of the film, ATL is fascinating simply for reasons of style. Chris Robinson has a fondness for bright primary colors. They characterize ATL. Sometimes within a single scene a color will predominate, such as the color green. At other points a competing group of bright primary and secondary compete for dominance. Scene after scene captures your attention. Another distinguishing device: the film is divided into sections, each one labeled with a title. Although the film is not especially episodic, this device also gives the film a stylistic identity of its own.