Illtown

This ambitious third feature from Nick Gomez (Laws of Gravity, New Jersey Drive) is a surreal exploration into a neon South Florida world of stylish drug pushers and junkies. It's told in a languid, abstract way that conjures up an often hypnotic mood -- but mostly it just feels self-conscious. Michael Rapaport is a veteran drug dealer who wants to escape the addiction business and settle into family life with his pregnant girlfriend (Lili Taylor). Naturally his fellow dealers have other ideas. Gomez, whose previous efforts were more straightforward Scorsese-inspired forays into gang-related crime, infuses Illtown with jump cuts, a confused nonlinear narrative, and sequences that may or may not be dreams. In stylistic terms, this is the type of modern gangster film that Antonioni or Buñuel would have made. Gomez, though, isn't quite up to their caliber. At the Nickelodeon.

-- Danny Lorber