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Wassup Rockers
First Look Pictures Releasing


8.3

based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 3 votes
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FILM:

Bully

MPAA RATING: R for pervasive language, some violence, sexual content and teen drinking

Starring Jonathan Velasquez, Francisco Pedrasa, Milton Velasquez, Yunior Usualdo Panameno, Eddie Velasquez, Luis Rojas-Salgado, Carlos Velasco, and Iris Zelaya

Ten years after "Kids," Larry Clark hits the streets of South Central Los Angeles. Wassup Rockers is based on the real life experiences of a group of Latino teenagers who do not conform to the hip hop culture of their gang-infested neighborhood. They wear their clothes tight, listen to and play punk rock, and ride skateboards. Constantly harassed for being different, they fight to be themselves. (First Look Releasing)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Larry Clark (also story) Matthew Frost (story)
DIRECTED BY:	Larry Clark
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 21, 2006 Theatrical: June 23, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	111 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA
LANGUAGE(S):	Spanish / English

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves

Very different than "Kids." Where the earlier film was exhausting in its nihilism, the latest retains a good-natured charm.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

You could think of Larry Clark's Wassup Rockers as "Ferris Velasquez's Day Off."

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Somehow, this rollicking day in the life of a band of skateboarding Latino punk-rockers doesn't exude the voyeuristic smarm of previous Clark forays.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Throughout the film, music is used to define character and place. Two metal bands, Moral Decay and South Central Riot Squad, dominate the soundtrack whenever the gang is on the move.

Variety Robert Koehler

A thoroughly winning and unexpectedly observant lark about the antics of seven Latino skateboarding pals in South-Central Los Angeles.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Shifting his focus away from white kids seems to have done Clark good, because Wassup Rockers is the least sensationalistic, and hence the least moralistic, of his films. It's an enjoyable if haphazard picaresque.

LA Weekly Scott Foundas

If "Crash" grew a pair of cojones, it might look something like Larry Clark’s cheerfully defiant Wassup Rockers.

New York Post Kyle Smith

Could have been a spiky culture clash. When it tries to shock us with its alleged realism, though, it is entirely a bore.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

The main characters may be refreshingly cliché-free, but almost everyone they meet in Beverly Hills is a stilted cartoon.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

What might have been a fascinating, intimate portrait turns into something much less compelling when Clark tries to impose a sex-and-action-packed narrative on the proceedings.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

At a certain point, Wassup Rockers transforms from a relatively naturalistic slice-of-life portrait into a surrealistic funhouse trap.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

However you respond to Wassup Rockers, it is completely alive, unlike any number of teenage Hollywood movies with their stale formulas and second-hand puerility. And that's mostly to the good.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The sexy, scruffy, neo-Warriors pageantry of ghetto teen hunger would have been a lot more vital if Clark didn't have such a class-war chip on his shoulder.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Noel Murray

It may be truer to the lives of his amateur cast to watch them engage in mumbly, inarticulate conversations between rounds of failed skate tricks, but it isn't especially cinematic.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The stilted performances are especially unfortunate when one considers what a fine documentary Clark might have gotten out of the same material.

The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck

Ultimately more laughable than illuminating, at times approaching a level of camp commensurate with John Waters.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Wassup Rockers is amateurish, but without the redeeming qualities found in "Kids" and "Bully."

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Larry Clark's latest finds the grizzled shock-meister in a thoughtful mode and a mellow mood.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Some moments of off-the-cuff beauty aren't enough to mask the creepy heart of Larry Clark's latest look at outcast kids.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

In drama, tone, character and examination of the social issues tormenting these kids, Wassup Rockers is . . . taxing.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

As a filmmaker, Clark still seems more beholden to his roots as a still photographer: Images are sometimes worth a thousand words, but, ultimately, they will always be skin-deep.

TV Guide Ken Fox

It's hard to believe this shoddy, dishonest mess is Clark's sixth feature film, and not the unpromising debut of a rank amateur.

San Francisco Chronicle Peter Hartlaub

The result is a well-intentioned mess -- a dishonest fantasy that begins with promise and gets more frustrating with every scene.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.3 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it an8:
With every new film by Larry Clarke, there's an audience divided, perhaps unevenly; three-quarters are pervs, and one-quarter are cineastes(there might be a quarter who are both, so the new math is one-half perv, one-half perverted cineastes). In "Wassup Rockers", there is no trollop(that trollop would be Bijou Phillips in "Bully") dripping wax on her nipples, and no nubile(that nubile would be Chloe Sevigny in "Kids") being raped in her sleep. All the sex, and all the nudity are implied this time, because the last time(that last time would be "Ken Park"), there was no American distribution(thanks a lot Christian evangelicals) for this fearless(some say, incendiary) filmmaker. "Wassup Rockers" is a sequel of sorts to "Kids", the frank sex-talk is still there, but this time, " the kids are" likable(they're "alright"). Remember that scene in "Crash", in which Ludacris ran over a "China man", and kept referring to him as such? That same sort of incidental homicide occurs in "Wassup Rockers" when the ghetto boys enter the Californian suburbs, and even though this switch from realism to surrealism mucks up the tone, the social commentary is priceless and worth the imperfection. The murders are a metaphor for how some viewers indict these young boys as a menace to these sheltered suburbanites based on race alone. Their(audience) assumptions are the murder weapons. That's the only way I can explain it. Clarke is doing something extraordinary here. It's as if he's blaming the audience for the deaths, like some kind of frame job. What happens doesn't meet the audience's expectations of how a group of non-white kids would behave, so they finish the job for them. Like the boys said, "We just came here to skate." "Wassup Rockers" is a very interesting film, and I hope this made sense.

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Wassup Rockers First Look Pictures Releasing

Wassup Rockers
First Look Pictures Releasing