A Brilliant Conflict

A bit overrated, but still an amazing film

It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

A friend of mine passed me this film that he got from a friend and I watched it not expecting much, but I was blown away. This character of Istante, that was played by Silvio Pollio, is one of the best depictions I've ever seen of a drug dealer. I read somewhere that Pollio was friends with this guy in film school before he became a dealer, but nevertheless Pollio is so damn hardcore in this movie, you'd think that maybe he was Istante. Gritty, stylishly choppy and hardcore to the bone, HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN is a must see movie and if you'd like to learn a thing or two about drug dealing and cocaine, this is your tour guide. Pollio takes you through some tough neighborhoods in the Vancouver downtown east side, that is known as scummiest skid row in North America.

"How It All Went Down" is a film that creeps up on you, and stays with you, in a way that's difficult to explain. We are all familiar with the elements of this story..a protagonist strikes a Faustian bargain that proves to be his ultimate downfall. In this case, a young film maker reluctantly turns to drug dealing as an end-run to finance a film project, after his attempts to work within the legitimate, established channels fail. "How It All Went Down" proves the adage that sometimes, it is not so much the story as who's telling it. This story is told so beautifully, and with such passion infused in every frame, that we are swept along with it, despite our sense of deja vu. There's a reason why a literate society continually re-works and re-tells its "myths" and "themes" in operas, books, films and music..it's because these stories resonate with us. In short, it works. And this film works.