The film follows the notorious Crips and Bloods story, where it looks for the devastating gang violence that many young people are involved in. It is a look at African-American youth who have coexisted through serious challenges in southern Los Angeles.
The movie feels less like a traditional documentary than an educational video. But it works the way he wants it to: you'll walk out feeling both enlightened and dismayed.
The film works best as a history lesson of the L.A. black experience, arguing that economic neglect, institutional racism and covert government operations fueled the 1965 and 1992 riots and created the leadership vacuum in which gangs took root.
Crips and Bloods hasn't been made out of moral anger or a sense of conspiracy. As matters of journalism, sociology, and humanitarianism, the movie is incurious at best. At worst, it's a recruitment video.
