Explicit Ills

A painterly eye clashes with thematic preachiness in actor-turned-filmmaker Mark Webber's earnest indie drama "Explicit Ills," set among inner-city Philadelphians of many colors and ages, and in various stages of tension and release. A 7-year-old asthmatic boy (Francisco Burgos) being raised by a single mom (Rosario Dawson) seems weighed down by world ills as much as his breathing condition.

For much of its 87 minutes, “Explicit Ills,” an episodic movie about a number of Philadelphians living, working and often struggling in the same neighborhood, appears to move from life to life without particular reason. Its first-time writer and director, Mark Webber, doesn’t immediately reveal the story’s structure or his intentions: he simply places you among some dozen characters — children and [...] Vai alla recensione »