For the local citizens of Baltimore the 12 O'Clock boys are a bunch of hooligans - a group of urban dirt bike riders with no respect for the law who perform dangerous stunts at excessive speeds through traffic while they evade police. For 12-year-old Pug, an intelligent young boy living on the Westside of Baltimore the 12 O'Clock boys are inspiring, with his desire to join the bikers taking prescient over everything else in his life. Lotfy Nathn's 12 O'Clock Boys is a visceral examination of inner city culture from a perspective rarely shown. It's a poignant and personal story about young Pug and his dangerous dream giving the viewer a great understanding as to how he idolizes the 12 O'Clock Boys. A cinematic experience, 12 O'Clock Boys features cinematography that immerses the viewer into this scene, putting the viewer into the POV of young Pug who idolizes this lifestyle. The use of slow-motion is particularly effective, making this gang of small bikers look like gods. More importantly even, the film spends the time necessary to capture this volatile neighborhood of West Baltimore where Pug lives, capturing the daily struggle and dangerous setting he inhabits on the daily basis. 12 O'Clock Boys doesn't condemn these men nor praise them but it does argue that biking is a release for these young men, giving them freedom from the other issues in their city and neighborhood; it gives them a sense power in a world in which they rarely have any. Lotfy Nathan's 12 O'Clock Boys is never foolish enough to present a simple answer to complex problem, it merely presents the state of this culture in a genius and truthful light. 8.25/10
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AuthorLove of all things cinema brought me here. Archives
June 2023
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