Quality of Life
By Mal Simons, Blockbuster.co.uk
A stunning film from director Benjamin Morgan, Quality of Life is a surprisingly involving film about two graffiti artists who find their lives heading in a whole new direction after being caught by the police. A low budget indie, Quality of Life shows how the two friends’ lives change as one attempts to break his graffiti addiction and goes ‘straight’ while the other spirals more and more out of control into the abyss. A labour of love from director Benjamin Morgan, Quality of Life gained quite a following on social networking site My Space and is a bleak take on modern life.
Lane Garrison (
Prison Break) stars as Michael Rose, a graffiti tagger who spends his days working for his dad as a painter and his nights spraying graffiti over the walls of San Francisco’s Mission District. Michael’s best friend is Curtis Smith (played by Brian Burnam) who accompanies him to work and on to tag the streets. The two are inseparable.
When out ‘tagging’ a truck with graffiti, the two young men are arrested and charged by the police under a ‘Quality of Life’ law that many American cities have adopted which classes graffiti as a crime comparable to robbery and rape, punishable by serious jail time.
Appearing in front of the judge, the two are given a week in county jail, one hundred hours of community service and a year’s probation, which, the judge made it clear - if they are caught tagging within the year, they will automatically be sentenced to a year in prison.
Michael’s dad reacts to the judge’s verdict by laying down the law to his son and firing Curtis from his decorating firm. Michael finds it very difficult to adapt to not going out and ‘expressing himself’ but then tries to move on with his life; Curtis on the other hand, refuses to take the judge’s ruling seriously and ends up on a path of self destruction.
Initially, I didn’t know what to expect with Quality of Life, the back of the box certainly didn’t inspire me to put the disc in the player and I don’t know how ‘mainstream’ this title actually is but suffice to say, if you know that ‘sick’ means good…and say it or understand this in everyday conversation, you should enjoy this movie.
Special mention should go to Brian Burnam who, the former neighbour of the film’s director and original screenwriter Benjamin Morgan, was brought in to the project in order to consult and bring a sense of ‘realism’ to the script. After making extensive suggestions and amendments, Burnam completely re-wrote the story and when one of the lead actors quit the project, Burnam stepped in with no acting experience and did a top notch job.
In the DVD Extras there is quite an amusing story concerning a scene shot outside of a local store. Burnam had to enter the store, grab a beer, drink the beer and then do the scene… after the eighth time, he had to go home. Other Extras explain how they got the film to market and the problems they faced with a very small budget.
All in all a solid, well acted film that is, admittedly quite depressing but well worth a watch (with the proviso that this is quite targeted to the indie market); Burnam and Garrison put in stellar performances and it easy to understand the hype on My Space. Good stuff. Add to your list now.