Highly Overrated But Still Good

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Ryan Prows' thrill ride of a movie "Lowlife" is an absolute mind-bender, so hold on to your seat and save your judgements till the ride is over... and maybe even then, take some more time to consider the judgements you've had all your life about that person on the street or that person struggling with addiction or just that general oddball family member. We're all human after all and Prows weaves a magical tale that recounts the hero's journey through the common man (or common woman in this case). It's a story as old as time of the human experience, but told with genuine heart... and lots of bloody organs to boot. But Prows has used blood and guts to good effect, and any 1 star reviews of this film clearly didn't take time to look deeper under the gritty surface to understand the truth of what it means to be human and disenfranchised in Trump's "Make America White Again" world. Prows makes us look, and laugh, and cry, and then think, which is unusual in a thrill ride coming out of Hollywood these days.

This is one of those 1 star movies you'll regret giving a chance to. I got fooled by the reviews, which are obviously written by paid shills. Don't make my mistake and avoid this movie like the plague. Talking about directing and cinematography doesn't make any sense when you have a script as atrocious as this one. I'll be honest here, I normally watch movies until the end, even if they are bad but by God, this thing was so incredibly stupid that I couldn't make it until the end. Make yourself a favor and skip this one.

If you watch this and it feels like a comic book, with different parts and different heroes, all telling their own story ... well that was the intention of the filmmakers, so you are not far off with that feeling. It may feel messy because of that at times, but it does work overall in being gritty and down and dirty.There is one scene that got to me (and probably others) more than others in a bad way. But not because of anything the filmmakers, the actors or anyone else did. This was playing at Frightfest, which was just shortly after the Charlottesville "incident" (terrorist attack). So in the movie there is a particular line about Nazis ... and when that sentence was spoken out, I had to cringe ... loud! You wouldn't think this is something that would touch a nerve with people. It was meant as a joke, but also as truth ... but in regards to comments and statements made by a person who should be uniting people instead of dividing them ... Well let's leave it at that.Maybe when you watch it, this won't play a role at all, maybe you'll think at that particular moment back on what happened and how crazy it is ... whatever the case, the movie is absolutely good and should not be judged in a bad light because this other individual who pretend plays to be in charge ...

Back in the 90's every movie wanted to be PULP FICTION, that trend has died down (even Tarantino makes stuff that is beyond his sophomore feature by now) but in this day and age a film like LOWLIFE comes along and becomes a true descendant of that film by taking the madness of the times and using it as its backdrop. Matter of fact, LOWLIFE makes PULP FICTION seem quaint simply by being a product of the current decade.This is a violent crime film with a capital V and it's also delightfully mad, and yet it doesn't seem unrealistic at all; we live in the Trump era, reality packed its bags long ago and now we are left in a bizarre world similar to the one painted in this film. A world filled with vicious ICE agents raiding motels full of illegal immigrants who are in turn harvested for their organs and enslaved in sex dungeons, a world of Legendary Mexican Luchador who have lost their noble way, a world of people in need of health-care who have to turn to organ traffickers for a chance at salvation and a world where reformed Neo-Nazis get triggered when suggesting they are racist and are woke as F.LOWLIFE is also hilarious in the most pitch black of ways. This is comedy that will make you feel guilty for laughing at stuff that would ignite a Twitter war. Its intersecting L.A. crime stories provide a variety of crime tales that make the film an entertaining ride of depravity and violence, not without making social commentary along the way which keeps it from being gratuitous. Each character is provided with so much personality that they could all have their own spin-off, which is the key to these type of fragmented time-line crime films.Director Ryan Prows transcends the Tarantino homage and makes a film that announces his arrival to the film world as a creative force and we should keep an eye on him. He shoots the film with 90's era David Fincher grunge that dips the film into a dark pit of fun nastiness. It's a dirty, depraved affair that will make you want to take a shower, but that dirt won't wash away because this film will stay with you for a long time. It's that good. In the following years movies will try to comment on the Trump era, those movies will try to be LOWLIFE.Review By Enrrico Wood Lagonigro - Senior Curator Oaxaca FilmFest.