NEW YORK TIMES
Three Lost Girls Who
Just Said Yes Instead of No
By STEPHEN HOLDEN
As the Statue of Liberty
shimmers in the distance like a ghostly sentinel in
"On the Outs,"
its image of promise seems to belong to a country apart from
the mean streets of Jersey City, where the lives of three
desperate teenage girls unravel. The docudrama, which opens
today in New York, is certainly not the first film to show
how a crushing urban environment can make a
sensible-sounding antidrug slogan like "just say no" seem
like so much nonsense, but it's one of the strongest.
For children raised in a
neighborhood as blighted as the one in which these girls
struggle to grow up, any promise of an escape from misery,
be it from a fickle gangster's sweet talk or the temporary
obliteration of a crack pipe, is better than nothing.
The movie,
directed by Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik, is based on
actual case studies of young women who spent time in the
Jersey City juvenile detention center. Much of the dialogue
was developed through group improvisation by an ensemble
playing characters who seem as real as if they had been
approached on the street by a cinematographer and told to go
on being themselves.
The realism of their garbled,
profanity-riddled language and of settings that include a
crumbling outdoor crack den and an actual detention center
makes any detail that doesn't seem exactly right look all
the more artificial. The girls' rough physical
confrontations often have the stagy feel of jerry-built
battles set up to illustrate the rising level of violence
among urban teenage girls. The same, of course, could be
said of plot developments in many a
John
Cassavetes film.
It isn't the tics of the plot but the raw human texture
beneath that really matters.
The most
innocent of the three girls, 15-year-old Suzette (Anny
Mariano), lives with a strict, watchful mother, whose
discipline can't compete with the call of the street. Once
Suzette is approached by Terrell, a crack dealer who seduces
and impregnates her, then disappears, she is lost. She winds
up in the detention center after Terrell shoots and kills a
rival crack dealer (a gun-wielding child who's not even
adolescent) and flees, leaving her clutching the bag holding
his gun.
As the movie
tracks Suzette's downfall, you can see the faint light in
her startled eyes flicker out and her expression freeze into
the suspicious glower of someone whose basic sense of trust
has been forever betrayed.
A second
strand of the plot follows the arrest and detention of
Marisol (Paola Mendoza), the crack-addicted single mother of
a little girl. At the detention center she discovers the
hard rule of law; it will probably take years before she can
regain custody of the child who is the focus of her life.
Her hopes rest on the slim chance that she can get a job and
stay off drugs. Learning the bad news, Marisol, whose mother
is also a drug addict, is seized with rending fits of grief,
fury and frustration.
The pluckiest of the three,
17-year-old Oz (Judy Marte of
"Raising
Victor Vargas"),
is a tough, tomboyish crack dealer and good-hearted
caretaker of her asthmatic, mentally retarded younger
brother, Chuey. In the movie's one joyful moment, she
accompanies him on an excursion to an arcade in Times
Square, where he finds himself in jingle-jangle heaven.
"On the Outs" offers no
solutions and no inspirational uplift beyond its ambiguous
final image: a girl who has contemplated suicide but thought
better of it gazes over New York harbor. She faces the
future utterly alone but still alive.
ON THE OUTS (unrated). Lori
Silverbush and Michael Skolnik's crisp drama of three Jersey
City teenage girls with a talent for trouble is a small
miracle of economic storytelling. Silverbush's script was
largely improvised in the best workshop tradition of
filmmakers Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. Among the very adept
cast, Judy Marte is a standout as the toughest cookie of
them all. 1:21
The Statue of Liberty stands with her back facing the Jersey
City neighborhood where "On the Outs" takes place, serving
as a daily reproach to three teenage girls who seem tethered
to their no-exit lives.
Seventeen-year-old drug dealer Oz (Judy Marte, marvelous in
"Raising Victor Vargas"), goes in and out of the nearby
juvenile detention center with such regularity that a prison
worker refers to her intermittent releases as "two-week
vacations."
Also 17, crack addict Marisol (raccoon-eyed Paola Mendoza)
has a small child to care for but leaves her with a relative
for long stretches while she hocks anything she can
(including herself) to feed her habit.
Suzette (Anny Mariano), 15, has the most stable home
environment of the three, courtesy of her hardworking single
mother, but she sacrifices her innocence to the cause of a
bad-apple boyfriend.
The lives of these three unacquainted young women intersect
twice over the course of this bracing and remarkably compact
drama, which invests some standard movie tropes of
rough-and-tumble urban life with deep feeling and urgency.
Honing dialogue through improvisations with a largely
nonprofessional cast (many of whom served time at the
Secaucus detention center used in the film), directors Lori
Silverbush and Michael Skolnick manage to pack an amazing
amount of emotion and environmental detail into the film's
81 minutes. If it teeters on sentimentality in brief patches
(Oz's relationship with her mentally challenged brother), it
overrides that impulse with a vise-like grip on the way
things really are.
NY POST
3 STARS - 'OUTS' IS
ON THE MONEY
By LOU LUMENICK
ON THE OUTS
LORI Silverbush and
Michael Skolnik's "On the Outs" is a gritty, well-acted,
documentary-style drama that follows the travails of
three teenage girls on the mean streets of Jersey City.
Developed from stories
the filmmakers heard from inmates at the Hudson County
Juvenile Center, this no-budget film centers on a tough
drug dealer (Judy Marte of "Raising Victor Vargas"); a
crack addict (Paola Mendoza) struggling to go straight
to regain custody of her daughter; and a naive
15-year-old pregnant by a 20-year-old "grown man" who
asks her to hold a gun he's just used in a killing.
"On the Outs" is
sometimes a bit hard to follow as it packs lots of story
into just 82 minutes, but it delivers a genuine
emotional wallop.
LA TIMES
'On the Outs'
Teenage
girls struggle living on the margins.
By Jan
Stuart, Newsday
The Statue of Liberty stands with her back facing the
Jersey City, N.J., neighborhood
where "On the Outs" takes place, serving as a daily reproach to three teenage
girls who seem tethered to their no-exit lives.
Seventeen-year-old drug dealer Oz (Judy Marte, marvelous in "Raising Victor
Vargas"), goes in and out of the nearby juvenile detention center with such
regularity that a prison worker refers to her intermittent releases as "two-week
vacations."
Also 17, crack addict
Marisol (raccoon-eyed Paola Mendoza) has a small child to care for but leaves
her with a relative for long stretches while she hocks anything she can
(including herself) to feed her habit.
Suzette (Anny Mariano), 15, has the most stable home environment of the three,
courtesy of her hardworking single mother, but she sacrifices her innocence to
the cause of a bad-apple boyfriend.
The lives of these three unacquainted young women intersect twice over the
course of this bracing and remarkably compact drama, which invests some standard
movie tropes of rough-and-tumble urban life with deep feeling and urgency.
Honing dialogue through improvisations with a largely nonprofessional cast (many
of whom served time at the Secaucus detention center used in the film),
directors Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnick manage to pack an amazing amount
of emotion and environmental detail into the film's 1 hour and 23 minutes.
If the film teeters on sentimentality in brief patches (Oz's relationship with
her mentally challenged brother), it overrides that impulse with a vise-like
grip on the way things really are.
'On the Outs'
MPAA rating: R, for
pervasive language, strong drug use, some violence and sexual content
A Polychrome Pictures release. Directors and producers Lori Silverbush and
Michael Skolnick. Screenplay by Lori Silverbush. Director of photography Mariana
Sanchez de Antonaño.
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER
On the
Outs
By Kirk
Honeycutt
"What's
the matter with kids today?" sang Paul Lynde in "Bye Bye Birdie" back in 1963.
Seems kids then used too much slang, listened to rock 'n' roll and didn't
respect their elders. Wonder what Lynde would sing about today? "On the Outs"
delivers a compelling albeit highly discouraging portrait of some of those kids.
Not all kids, of course, but teenage minority girls in the inner city, facing
adult problems without a supportive family structure or moral compass. Little
wonder all three wind up in the same Jersey City juvenile detention center.
Clearly this is not "light" viewing. A worthy film on the festival circuit for
more than a year, "On the Outs" now makes its theatrical debut, where it should
attract concerned adults in specialty venues. Those who should see it -- the
"at-risk youths" -- might catch the film later, one hopes, on cable TV or DVD.
The three stories here spin out of a workshop conducted with young women in the
juvenile justice system. Theater games and writing exercises produced vivid
details for these three composite portraits of troubled girls. Directors Lori
Silverbush and Michael Skolnik approach these stories in a documentary style yet
employ talented actresses to anchor each. So the feeling of verisimilitude is
quite strong. The single, most telling cross-reference among all three is a
troubled relationship with a mother and the absence of any adult male figure in
the household.
Suzette (Anny Mariano), 15, is a sheltered high school student who nevertheless
leads an independent life because her mom works multiple jobs and entrusts her
little sister to her. She falls under the influence of a smooth-talking street
hustler (Clarence "Don" Hutchinson), which causes her to get pregnant. When her
mom insists on an abortion, Suzette runs away to be with her "man."
Marisol (Paola Mendoza, who also helped create the stories) has a 2-year-old
daughter and invalid aunt. She is in the clutches of a demanding crack habit.
When she is hit by a car while doped up, she lands in juvenile jail. Her world
collapses when the state removes her daughter to foster care.
Oz (Judy Marte) is much more in control of her life than the other two girls.
She is a drug dealer with her own corner and street cred. Home life is chaos as
her mother struggles to steer clear of smack while her grandmother clucks in
disapproval of her life. She feels close only to her brother Chuey (Dominic
Colon), whose mental disabilities are a result of his mother's drug habit. Her
main problem is that she can't stay out of jail.
Story lines intersect at times, but each is designed to reflect the
rudderlessness of many teenagers in a hard-core urban environment. Blame,
judgment and social moralizing are thrown aside in favor of an unblinking look
at the reality of the street. That each girl is her own worst enemy is
abundantly clear; that paths lead all too easily in wrong directions is equally
apparent. The performances are terrific: None is showy or actorish but earnest,
truthful jobs laying bare souls in anguish.
Under Silverbush and Skolnik's direction, the stories play out so naturally that
one hardly notices the solid structure in Silverbush's screenplay. Each takes
the main character through complex developments in their key relationships and
incidents that deepen their understanding of where their lives are headed. And
each leads to an epiphany where the girls understand that the choices are still
theirs to make.
ON THE OUTS
Polychrone Pictures
A Youth House Prods. & Fader Films production
Credits:
Screenwriter: Lori Silverbush
Directors/producers: Lori Silverbush, Michael Skolnik
Created by: Paola Mendoza, Lori Silverbush, Michael Skolnick
Director of photography: Mariana Sanchez de Antonano
Production designer: Katya Blumenberg
Music: Ricardo Leigh, Brian Satz
Costumes: Leceika Rijfkogel
Editor: Martha Skolnik
Cast:
Suzette: Anny Mariano
Oz: Judy Marte
Marisol: Paola Mendoza
Chuey: Dominic Colon
Terrell: Clarence "Don" Hutchinson
Jimmy: Flaco Navaja
MPAA rating R
Running time -- 83 minutes
LA OPINION
El drama es real en ‘On the Outs’
Las actrices que
protagonizan el filme se inspiraron en muchachas de un centro de detención en
New Jersey
Christian Del
Moral
Especial para EDLP
NUEVA YORK — Debido a que las mujeres jóvenes son el grupo de mayor
crecimiento en las cárceles de este país, un grupo de cineastas decidió llevar a
la pantalla grande On the Outs, una historia de tres chicas latinas cuyas
vidas se cruzan cuando ingresan a una cárcel juvenil.
“Ésta es una historia que no
se había hecho y es una gran epidemia en la nación”, asegura Paola Mendoza,
actriz protagonista que recibe crédito como cocreadora de la cinta, que se
estrena hoy en cinco cines del sur de California.
On the Outs
aborda la problemática de la encarcelación de las adolescentes en Estados Unidos.
El guión narra las aventuras de tres chicas en un barrio pobre de Jersey City,
New Jersey, donde sus vidas transcurren entre carencia económica, en hogares
destruidos, drogas y un ambiente urbano definitivamente hostil.
La historia está basada en
los testimonios de muchachas de entre 13 a 18 años de edad que estaban recluidas
en el Centro Juvenil de Detención de Hudson, New Jersey, durante un taller en el
que participaron los cineastas en el verano del 2003.
On the Outs
fue codirigida por Lori Silverbush y Michael Skolnik, quienes han sido aclamados
por la crítica especializada por su dramático realismo en esta cinta.
“Siempre [Michael y yo]
hemos estado interesados en presentar las historias de chicas que viven en los
barrios de escasos recursos”, dice Silverbush, quien actualmente trabaja en un
guión sobre la frontera mexicana.
Para los creadores, lo más
importante es que el filme sea visto por quienes puedan estar pasando por
circunstancias similares.
“La razón por la que hicimos
esta película es para que los adolescentes la vieran y hablaran sobre los
asuntos que se tratan. Era importante que ellos se vean reflejados en ella”,
dice Mendoza.
Según los cineastas, unos
cinco mil jóvenes del área metropolitana de Nueva York podrán asistir a verla de
manera gratuita, gracias a la participación de organizaciones interesadas en el
proyecto.
Después de su aclamado debut
en el cine con Raising Víctor Vargas, donde personificó a la chica guapa
del barrio, Judy Marte regresa a la pantalla grande con un personaje totalmente
distinto en On the Outs.
“Oz es una chica bastante
fuerte”, dice Marte sobre su personaje, cuya interpretación el año pasado le
valió una nominación como mejor actriz en los premios Spirit, que honran a lo
mejor del cine independiente.
La actriz de origen
dominicano nació hace 21 años en el corazón del Lower East Side, lo que le ayudó
para su personaje.
“No era un barrio adinerado,
claro que ahora tampoco lo es, pero antes había mucha pobreza. Cuando fui al
junior high school había chicas como Oz a mi alrededor todo el tiempo.
Tiendo a observar mucho y eso lo llevé a mi personaje”, comenta. También asegura
que conoció a las chicas en las que se basaron los personajes de esta película.
“[Una] me enseñó a cómo caminar, hablar y hacer todas esas cosas. Ella es
bastante fuerte”.
Para la debutante Anny
Mariano, de origen dominicano y residente en el Bronx, “la experiencia fue
fenomenal… cada vez que veo On the Outs lo primero que pienso es que no
quería asistir a esa audición”, confiesa la actriz, estudiante de secundaria en
Manhattan.
“Pensaba que no estaba
preparada del todo para la audición”, recuerda la actriz de 18 años de edad,
quien el pasado verano visitó la República Dominicana por primera vez.
En esta película, interpreta
a Suzette, quien se enamora del hombre equivocado y por el cual llega a la
cárcel. “Fui muy afortunada en obtener este rol”, dice.
Por su parte Paola Mendoza —quien
da vida a Marisol, una madre soltera y adicta a las drogas— dice que su
preparación consistió en conocer a varias chicas con los mismos problemas, así
como asistir a lugares donde había gente consumiendo drogas.
“Pasé tres meses en el
centro de detención. Aquí comenzó mi preparación con los talleres que hicimos y
así pude conocer a 16 muchachas quienes compartieron sus historias de una manera
honesta y abierta”, recuerda la actriz nacida en Bogotá, pero quien se crió en
Los Ángeles.
Actualmente, la actriz
residente en Brooklyn trabaja en un documental sobre la vida de la niña que
interpreta a su hija en este filme y en la primavera se estrenará su próxima
producción cinematrográfica, Sanctified.
LA DAILY NEWS
'On the
Outs' shows ghetto's chaos
By Glenn
Whipp, Film Critic
The
gritty drug drama "On the Outs" opens with a searing, a cappella version of
"Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child," and then very quietly drives the
song's point home later, showing Lady Liberty herself looming over the desolate
streets of Jersey City. The message: No one is embracing the movie's tired,
poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free, and the filmmakers' sense of
outrage is palpable, matched only by the despair coursing through the movie's
brief 81-minute running time.
"On the
Outs" sprang from the case studies of women that the film's directors - Lori
Silverbush and Michael Skolnik - met in the Hudson County Juvenile Detention
Center. Part of the film is even set in the dreary confines of the detention
center, where the movie's three main characters briefly stay before returning to
the streets and their previous lives, no lessons learned, no questions asked.
Indeed,
the power of the movie comes from its matter-of-fact presentation of the chaos
of the ghetto. Shot on grainy digital video, the neighborhood scenes have the
feel of lived-in, blighted reality - much like that in the similarly disturbing
"Down To the Bone" - that makes you understand why someone might turn to drugs
or thugs to escape.
Tough-girl Oz (Judy Marte, "Juicy Judy" from "Raising Victor Vargas") deals
drugs, even as her addict mother (Ana "Rok" Garcia) struggles to stay clean.
Sheltered Suzette (Anny Mariano) falls for a dealer (Clarence Hutchinson) and
remains loyal to him even though he puts her in jeopardy with the law. Drug
addict Marisol (Paola Mendoza) loses her infant daughter after landing in
juvenile jail.
The
movie offers little background, taking as fact the characters' limited options
and subsequent desperate behavior. The girls' choices aren't excused, either;
once incarcerated, they are
berated
by a straight-shooting "inspirational" speaker (though this could be also read
as a comment on a lack of institutional support). Fact is, it's difficult to
root for sweet Marisol getting her kid back when we've seen her criminally
neglect the little girl, going so far as giving her food away in return for a
hit off the crack pipe.
But
then, the filmmakers want you to feel outraged, both at the decisions these
women make and the society that turns a blind eye to the crushing poverty and
hopelessness that is more prevalent in our midst than we care to think. In that
respect, they have completely succeeded.
ON THE OUTS
Our Rating: 
(R: pervasive language, strong drug use, some violence and sexual content.)
Starring: Judy Marte, Ana "Rok" Garcia, Paola Mendoza.
Director: Lori Silverbush, Michael Skolnik.
Running time: 1 hr. 21 min.
Playing: Laemmle's One Colorado in Pasadena; Edwards Southgate; Laemmle’s
Fairfax in Los Angeles; Magic Johnson Theaters in Los Angeles.
In a nutshell: Gritty drug drama follows three young women and the
desperate choices that land them in jail. Delivers the intended punch to the
gut.
TIME
OUT NY
At first glance, On the
Outs has all the markings of a plaintive, earnest
message movie about the horrors and ravages of drug
use and its effects on today's troubled inner city
youth. Its storytelling structure even hinges on
the serendipitous intersections of three different
women and their crack-laced lives, requiring
occasioanl coincidences that might strain even the
most generous viewer's suspension of disbelief. And
there's a string of all too familiar plot points
straight out of Ghetto Life 101: Black men talking
trash and waving guns in each other's faces, teen
pregnancy, a crack addict giving head for a fix.
But just because those
circumstances have been dramatized to death doesn't
mean they don't still happen. And to their credit,
co-directors Lori Silverbush and Michael Skolnik
sidestep the sort of shorthand character sketches
and social-agenda liberalism that populate second
rate TV cop dramas and more than one afterschool
special. Thanks to impressively assured acting,
writing and directing, their evocation of urban life
and the uneasy emotional conflicts bubbling within
each of the protagonists ( a drug dealer, a junkie
mother and a young girl with a harrowing first love)
is never less than absorbing and feel shockingly
fresh.
Women on the Verge:
Troubled Lives Intersect in Jersey City
by Laura Sinagra
In the Lower
East Side coming-of-age tale Raising Victor Vargas,
Judy Marte played a distracted, traumatized girl whose
pained silences could be perceived by neighborhood kids
as a sign of haughtiness. Now as Oz, one of three young
women we follow through a mean season in Jersey City,
Marte rivets as a tomboy roughneck, a corner store thug
with a drug addict mom and mentally challenged brother.
Oz's story weaves through those of two other women whose
paths she crosses in juvenile detention—the naive
Suzette (Anny Mariano), charmed and knocked up by a
flossy but homeless local dealer who proceeds to get her
into even more trouble, and Marisol (Paola Mendoza), an
addict–single mom whose absences result in her toddler
being siphoned into Child Protective Services.
Like documentarian Liz
Garbus, whose 2003 Girlhood traces the lives of
two girls in and out of lockdown, the filmmakers
gathered real tales of woe. The lives of On the Outs'
characters, cobbled from the circumstances of girls in
Jersey detention, sometimes feel like the composites
they are. But despite some bit players who use occasions
like a flophouse round of Russian roulette to pretend
they're in a Damon Dash flick, the central trio handles
the narrative burdens well. Mendoza may overplay her
tantrums and Mariano lay too far back, but they're
ultimately sympathetic. Marte is the obvious star, of
course, swinging effortlessly from cool compassion when
Oz takes her adoring brother to play vids in Times
Square to the hard-skully sass and brawl of dead-end
hustling. Most importantly, the environment feels real:
the accents, the snaps, the working moms and warehouse
crack nooks, every dilapidated stairwell, every bodega
and lovingly appointed teenage bedroom sanctuary. Even
frequent panning toward the Emerald City of Manhattan
and the stark commentary of Lady Liberty throwing shade
at Ocean Avenue blight don't seem excessive. After all,
that's the view. On some days it looks like hope; on
others, hypocrisy.
|
3 STARS
|
|
Down & 'Outs' will pull you in
By ELIZABETH WEITZMAN
The three
fictional Jersey City teenagers trying to
survive street life in "On the Outs" were
inspired by actual women the filmmakers met
while working at the Hudson County Juvenile
Detention Center. Partly for that reason,
the movie often seems as real as a
documentary.
During its most
suspenseful moments, it also feels a little
like a horror movie, though not the kind
that finds faceless lunatics stalking
forgettable victims.
The villain
here, as directors Lori Silverbush and
Michael Skolnik make clear, is a
cold-blooded social system that has no room
for girls like Suzette (Anny Mariano),
Marisol(Paola Mendoza) and Oz (Judy Marte).
The three - who
meet, briefly, in detention - have in common
poverty, poor choices and the bad luck to
live in a neighborhood that doesn't offer
second chances.
Suzette, a
sheltered 15-year-old, is taking a rap for a
man she believes loves her.
Sweet-natured
Marisol can't shake a longtime crack habit.
And while Oz has
only contempt for drug users, she makes a
good living keeping them supplied.
Though they
don't always succeed in finding a middle
ground between expressing their outrage and
creating believable stories, the filmmakers
are careful to avoid clichés with each
character.
What makes the
film feel genuine, however, are the
performances - or, at least, two of them.
The twenty-something Mendoza is a little old
to be playing a desperate teenage addict,
and despite some moving scenes, her maturity
and radiant beauty are a persistent
distraction.
But Mariano, a
South Bronx high school student making her
film debut, offers a subtle turn that leaves
a powerful impact.
And anybody who
missed Marte in last year's "Raising Victor
Vargas" has another chance to discover her
before she becomes a star. Even when a
series of awkwardly written calamities
threatens to upend the movie's delicate
balance, Marte exudes a confident charisma
that's rarely seen in far more experienced
actors.
Ultimately, this
is her film, and, one hopes, her springboard
to bigger things - assuming there's more
justice in Hollywood than on the streets of
Jersey City.
|
Over decades of
exploitative, predictable TV movies-of-the-week, the
phrase "based on a true story" has ceased to carry
much weight. The routine simplifications that tie
all the threads of a complicated, nuanced life story
into a neat 90-minute package tend to make real life
sound like homogeneous fiction. The exceptions come
when filmmakers dare to tell stories as untidy as
reality, though such films are risky—it's hard to
find a focus in a story with no clear beginning or
end.
First-time
director Lori Silverbush and partner Michael Skolnik
(who's stepping away from documentaries and from
collaborator William O'Neill for the first time) don't
manage much focus in their grainy, anguished slice of
life On The Outs, but what they lose in momentum,
they gain in verisimilitude. While working with
actress/educator Paola Mendoza on an arts-outreach
program in a New Jersey juvenile-detention center, they
gathered stories from the female inmates, who come to
life through the criss-crossing stores of three Jersey
girls: Judy Marte (Raising Victor Vargas) plays a
tough, frequently jailed drug dealer at odds with her
junkie mother and judgmental grandmother, but determined
to support her mentally challenged brother; newcomer
Anny Mariano plays a shy 15-year-old whose unplanned
pregnancy leads her into a life she didn't anticipate;
and Mendoza herself plays a single-mom crackhead who
loses her child to the state and struggles to get her
back. All three characters meet in jail, which isn't so
much an end as a brief pit stop on a bleak road leading
from nowhere to nowhere.
None of these
stories really has a beginning. On The Outs takes
a great deal about its characters as read, from the
history that would lead quiet, unexpressive Mariano to
have unprotected sex with an older, none-too-charming
drug dealer to the social pressures that keep Marte on
the street. The film rarely points out how few options
they have, because it assumes viewers already
understand. And it never judges their terrible personal
choices, because it assumes viewers already sympathize.
That limits On The Outs' value as a window into
inner-city privation, since it's all too easy to dismiss
the characters' troubles as entirely of their own
making. But the cast's fearless, evocative performances
help a great deal: When Marte howls in cornered anguish,
or Mendoza weeps after a visitation with her baby, their
honest, raw pain communicates more about the dead-end
misery of poverty than a dozen neatly manufactured
conclusions ever could. —Tasha Robinson
3 STARS - 'Outs'
portrays agony of constricted hopes
BY STEPHEN WHITTY
Sometimes the situations
you can inhabit as a woman are limited by the world
in which you live. For the poor and uneducated,
often there are only a few roles -- daughter,
sister, mother -- for the way you live your life.
But the ways in which
you can risk your life -- those are nearly
limitless.
"On the Outs," set in
the poorest parts of Jersey City, looks at three of
those women, all from different families, all at
different stages of their lives, all facing similar
dangers from drugs, from crime, from stifled dreams.
Suzette, the daughter,
is still a "good girl" -- but is currently being
courted by a boy with a gun. "Oz," the sister, is
already a streetwise thug -- but with a single soft
spot for her retarded brother. And Marisol, a single
mother, is about to face a choice between the drugs
she needs and the child she adores.
Directors Lori
Silverbush and Michael Skolnick developed this
project through a workshop they ran with actress
Paola Mendoza at the Hudson County Juvenile
Detention Center. The roots in reality show. The
people here make choices -- often bad ones -- and
the consequences are frequently unfair. No one
suddenly sees the error of his or her ways. There
are no happy endings.
There are, however, some
good performances. Mendoza plays Marisol, and she
brings a wrenching anguish to her part, particularly
as the custody of her daughter begins to slip away
from her. Anny Mariano, making her debut here as
Suzette, is still a little awkward and amateurish --
but that suits the part, too.
Best is Judy Marte, as
the tough "Oz," so tough that at first she passes
for a boy. Marte first won attention as the
almond-eyed Juicy Judy of "Raising Victor Vargas";
here, she easily puts all that sleepy appeal on hold
to play a devoted and -- in her own way -- dutiful
sister. She has a strong presence, and although this
is presented as a triptych of stories, hers is
clearly the one that draws our eyes, and our
sympathy.
Sympathy is not enough
for these people, though, and pity less than
useless.
Like many films that
grow out of workshops, "On the Outs" is sometimes
too unstructured for its own good, with a few scenes
-- particularly those that detail Marisol's drug
problems -- going on for too long. Like many indie
films, too, "On the Outs" is often a little too
gritty, with camerawork that doesn't feel composed
so much as it feels caught on the fly.
But it has three great
roles for its actresses. And some sad things to say
about how limited the roles in real life often are.
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