Review
A number of first-timers were involved in Jazz in the Diamond District, a coming-of-age film set in Washington, so perhaps they can be forgiven for not realizing how tired this general plotline is: one or more young people see stardom as a way up and out, and have enough talent that they might make it, but drugs, guns and/or pregnancy intervene. Some dreams will be realized, some dashed, but audiences, having been dragged through this story too many times, won t care which. That said, there are a couple of reasons to stick with this film. The main one is the music, which isn t jazz (that refers to Jasmine, a singer who s looking for her break) but the Washington brand of funk known as go-go. The club scenes pulsate with it, and it gets in your bones quickly. Also worthwhile are some attention-getting performances by unknown actors. André Strong, as the frontman of a go-go group, has some crackling scenes with a far more experienced actor, Wood Harris, the band s booker. And Erica Chamblee (who conceived the story) is intriguing as Jasmine s younger sister, Leah, who has performing dreams of her own. Ms. Chamblee is good enough that she almost makes you believe that a teenager could grow up in a tough city like Washington and still be as naïve as Leah is. --Neil Genzlinger, New York Times
Review
Lindsey Christian s Jazz in the Diamond District, from a screenplay by Lindsey Christian and Sia Barnes, is based on a story by Erica Chamblee, with revisions by Erica Chamblee and Andre Strong. The collectivistic complexity of this film s credits amply reflect a project as experimental, innovative and improvisatory as this distinctively D.C.-ish saga of two sisters and the musical world in which they are absorbed but not entirely fulfilled. As starved as I was for audience footage in A Wink and a Smile, I was close to being overpowered by the contagious enthusiasm of crowds responding to the funky versions of hip-hop numbers played by the film s District Legend Band. As long as the music is playing, and the magical smile of Monique Cameron s Jasmine Jazz Morgan is lighting up the screen, the film is hitting on all cylinders. But when the off-stage narrative grinds its way to a mawkish conclusion, the relative inexperience of the filmmakers becomes more evident. As it is, the aforementioned Ms. Cameron, Ms. Chamblee as Jasmine s younger sister, Leah Morgan, and Andre Strong as stormy promoter and drug supplier Flight all make sparkling screen debuts. Wood Harris plays Gabriel Gabe Marx, the romantic lead for both sisters in turn, and Clifton Powell plays Blair Morgan, the physician father of Jasmine and Leah. The film was shot in the seldom-seen-onscreen African-American neighborhoods of Washington, D.C., which are still laboring under the opprobrium of having been designated as the nation s Murder Capital in the 1990s. And though there is no gang violence in the film, the widespread use of illegal drugs is made to seem conspicuously commonplace in the area s music scene. One is left free to surmise that the district s gun violence stems from the trafficking in such drugs. Yet the film does make a contribution to interracial understanding in this year of Obama by showing a highly segregated city as a livable middle-class venue in which career aspirations for its young people are far from unthinkable. Such community landmarks as Ben s Chili Bowl, the Atlas Performing Arts Center and the renowned Ellington School of the Arts are shown as the positive images of D.C. they are. In the end, the music, with its infectious energy, together with Ms. Cameron s onstage charisma makes Jazz in the Diamond District well worth seeing. --Andrew Sarris, New York Observer
DVD ~ Kevin Hart
~ Wale
DVD ~ Karrine Steffans
DVD ~ Vivica A. Fox
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