The Stuff of 2013: Gimme The Loot

Gimme The Loot first started to make a name for itself on the film festival circuit all the way back in 2012 — it even picked up the Grand Jury Prize at SXSW —  but 2013 was the year it hit theatres and earned a place in my heart alongside the great New York City-in-Summer movies. It might not drip sweat from the screen like Do The Right Thing or have the classic cinematic beauty of Manhattan, but it has a hustling off-beat charm all of its own. The film follows two young graffiti artists who decide they want to take a run at the holy grail of tagging targets in Queens — the big home run apple that pops up in the centrefield bleachers at Citi Field every time one of the Mets hits a home run — and their various schemes to get the money they need to pull it off. Kinda like a cross between How To Make It In America, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Hoop Dreams and Igby Goes Down all at the same time. With breakout performances by Tashiana Washington, Ty Hickson and Zoë Lescaze, plus a debut director  in Adam Leon. Definitely one of the best movies of the year.

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Find all of our "Stuff of 2013" posts here.

Posted by Adam Bunch, the Editor-in-Chief of the Little Red Umbrella and the creator of the Toronto Dreams Project. You can read his posts here, follow him on Twitter here, or email him at adam@littleredumbrella.com.