X
  • 1998
  • R
  • Kino Lorber
  • 1 h 40 m
  • 1998
  • R
  • Kino Lorber
  • 1 h 40 m

Summary Grand Jury Prize, 1998 Sundance Film Festival. A talented youth (Saul Williams) copes with urban crime and despair by competing in poetry slams. Sonja Sohn of "The Wire" costars.

Directed By: Marc Levin

Written By: Richard Stratton, Sonja Sohn, Bonz Malone, Saul Williams, Marc Levin

  • 1998
  • R
  • Kino Lorber
  • 1 h 40 m
  • 1998
  • R
  • Kino Lorber
  • 1 h 40 m

Slam

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 19 Critic Reviews
73
User Score Available after 4 ratings
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Where to Watch

Summary Grand Jury Prize, 1998 Sundance Film Festival. A talented youth (Saul Williams) copes with urban crime and despair by competing in poetry slams. Sonja Sohn of "The Wire" costars.

Directed By: Marc Levin

Written By: Richard Stratton, Sonja Sohn, Bonz Malone, Saul Williams, Marc Levin

Where to Watch

Top Cast

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Critic Reviews

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Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 19 Critic Reviews
73
79% Positive
15 Reviews
21% Mixed
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

 View All
Metascore
Generally Favorable Based on 19 Critic Reviews
73
79% Positive
15 Reviews
21% Mixed
4 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews

  • All Reviews
  • Positive Reviews
  • Mixed Reviews
  • Negative Reviews
100
Not only does Slam strike me as one of the best films about being a writer I've ever seen, it is also the least sentimental coming-of-age movie to come along in years. [06 Nov 1998, p.19]
By Jay Boyar FULL REVIEW
83
Directed and cowritten by Marc Levin with an intentionally untidy, restless, handheld style that owes a lot to his background as a documentary filmmaker, Slam effectively gets at the deadly, no-way-out despair that can squeeze a man as he realizes he’s become a numbered nobody in the huge, imperfect justice system. Levin’s best idea, though, is to counterbalance that hopelessness with freeing blasts of verse, performed with such drama and passion that audiences may want to break into applause.
FULL REVIEW
80
What Slam possesses is real passion, and that is in short supply in movies these days.
By Stephen Holden FULL REVIEW
75
Slam, directed by Marc Levin, is schematic but effective as it makes its points about African Americans caught in the Washington, D.C., criminal justice system. It's got a wonderful eye and, for a film, ear.
By Bob Graham FULL REVIEW
63
Slam is a film about rap poetry, romance and gangster culture that blends melodrama, visceral excitement -- and a lot of preaching. [23 Oct 1998, p.D3]
By Liam Lacey FULL REVIEW
60
It's flat, unrevealing, but powerfully sincere. [11 Apr 1999, p.6]
FULL REVIEW
50
Although it begins promisingly enough, with a documentary-like look at the options available to young African-American men who grow up in the "ghetto life," this visually polished film stumbles when it comes to actually telling a story.
FULL REVIEW

User Reviews

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Details

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Production Company Off Line Entertainment Group
Release Date Oct 7, 1998
Duration 1 h 40 m
Rating R
Genres
Tagline Words make sense of a world that won't.
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Awards

Film Independent Spirit Awards
• 2 Nominations
Cannes Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
Sundance Film Festival
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination

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