Sleight
This movie is a lot like Dope without all the comedy and 90s hip-hop nostalgia with just a hint of The Prestige. It's about a boy named Bo who, a year prior to the film, loses his mother and is forced to become the breadwinner of his household, turning down a track scholarship in the process. He takes care his little sister, Tina, with the help of neighbor. His primary income is doing street magic for LA tourists, which he supplements with a night job as a drug dealer. His supplier seems to play a father figure-like role, but things take a turn when a new drug dealer moves into their turf. Also, he meets a girl and they start dating.
This is a film from WWE Studios, and is way better than what you'd expect from that label. The story is very well written, and the acting is good for such a small cast. I found the main character very relatable: he just wants to take care of his sister and does his best to hide his "real" job from her. If you've seen the trailer or TV commercial, you might think this is a superhero movie; it's not. The movie slowly explains how he does his magic tricks, which becomes a major plot point towards the end. You actually get a scene of him tinkering with a new trick, which I wish the film had more of. I liked the pace in which it's explained. The movie escalates really well, as the Bo's choices end up catching up to him.
A few things that bugged me: there's one scene where the characters have to do math, and they don't math right. It's not of heavy plot significance, but it bothered me. The sister, Tina, does something adorably annoying but still worrisome for someone her age. The film also fails to stick the landing at the end. The plot ends very nicely, but that last scene was just a total face plant.
8.5/10
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