Splash City

by Mike McGranaghan

In the early 1990s, there was a deluge of what the media dubbed “hood movies.” These films - Boyz ‘N the Hood, Menace II Society, Juice, etc. – were important because they were made by Black filmmakers and offered viewers of all races previously-unseen-in-cinema insight into inner city life. They additionally paved the way for Black filmmakers to tell stories not centered around gang violence. Splash City is a throwback to those early ‘90s gems, which is both a blessing and a curse. There are definitely some enjoyable elements here, but the plot and messaging are the same as its forebears.

Slim (Zach Sowers) and Juju (Reed Shannon) are brothers living in a low-rent apartment complex with their mother. Slim is a talented basketball player and plans to use his scholarship to build a better life for himself. Juju is mired in the criminal world, stealing bags and backpacks out of cars, then fencing whatever he finds in them. When the engagement ring he planned to give to his girlfriend is jacked by crime lord Dolo (Quincy “Galaxy” Brooks), Slim goes to set things straight. This ends up putting Juju, who is caught in the middle, on a path even more tenuous than the one he was already on.

You can see from the setup that Splash City follows a template similar to John Singleton’s Boyz ‘N the Hood. There are more specific similarities that I won’t point out to avoid spoilers. Like Cuba Gooding, Jr.’s Tre in that earlier film, Juju has to decide whether he believes he can really get out of the hood or if he’s hopelessly stuck there. The bulk of the story finds him being impacted by various forces and struggling to make sense of it all.

Cliches abound in the plot. Developments that felt fresh in, say, 1991 are hauled out here to much lesser effect because we easily anticipate them by now. The Wayans family skewered these cliches in their 1996 spoof Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood. That was thirty years ago. Time has done nothing to make them less familiar. A weird, old-fashioned misogyny is present, as well. Aside from the brothers' demanding mother and Slim’s one-dimenstional girlfriend Destiny (Destiny Hernandez), the female characters are all hookers or strippers. Even more troubling is that Destiny is dropped from the story after a certain point, as if she never mattered.

Splash City was co-directed by Alex Furrufino and Gilbert Anthony Milam, Jr., better known as rapper Berner. The latter also co-wrote the screenplay. They portray the crime of “bipping” with authenticity you can feel. Scenes showing the characters quickly smashing car windows and making off with loot are tense. Their desire to address how hard it can be to escape the clutches of a lucrative criminal lifestyle when you’re impoverished is sincere. The movie benefits from good performances, too. Reed Shannon has great screen presence, while “Galaxy” Brooks is legitimately menacing as Dolo. Production-wise, the picture is sleekly photographed and tightly edited.

Those positive qualities keep Splash City fairly watchable. The routine story keeps it from being special, though. No new insights are offered, leaving the movie feeling more retro than cutting edge.