Customer Reviews

On the Outs

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Chances are that if you watch much film and/or television--you won't find the subject matter of "On The Outs" to be particularly new or enlightening. This small film is a cautionary tale of drug use in the inner city and how it affects the local youth. By intertwining three character studies, the film gives you several different tales of addiction, dealing, and corruption that intersect at a juvenile detention center. But while the stories told in "On The Outs" may seem quite familiar, that does not mean that this film isn't also worth seeing. For what is unusual, "Outs" is told from the vantage point of three underaged girls--and that's not a demographic that is commonly investigated in these types of film. Believably written and performed, "On The Outs" is a worthy addition to the genre of realistic urban street films.

The film follows three girls. We have Oz, a successful drug dealer who is alienated from her addict mother. She bounces into and out of the detention center frequently on routine drug busts, it's just a normal part of her regular life. Marisol, a single mother, struggles with an addiction and the potential loss of her daughter into the foster system. And Suzette, a young girl with a supportive mother, falls in love with a local street dealer and tries to enter his world. All three characters are believable and all of the actresses, though unknown, are effective at depicting the different stages within these sometimes unpleasant stories.

This is not a fun film, but nor does it seek to deliver some "important" political message. It's just a slice-of-life drama about characters caught up in a system. While you may root for them, there will be no conventional "happy endings"--their situations are too realistic to tie everything up nicely. Glimmers of hope and moments of heartbreak alternate in this quiet, small film. Effective, but not groundbreaking, the film succeeds due to the committed performances and nicely realized scenarios. KGHarris, 01/07.

Besides having a deep love for gritty street dramas, I am also passionate about strong characterizations, realistic narratives that don't fall into Hollywood machine contrivance, and mindblowing performances. "On the Outs" has all of this and more. It's a daring, bold and courageous character study of three teenage girls caught in a whirlwind of inner city desperation and desolation. Each actress gave an amazing performance, especially Judy Marte who just has an effortless and natural screen presence. I'll say it here first and mark my words, Marte may be one of this generations most gifted and promising actresses. She plays Oz, a thugged out drug dealer caring for her mentally disabled brother and battling internally with her dope fiend mother. Then there is Paola Mendoza as Marisol, a crack-addicted single mother who loses custody of her child while in a juvenile corrections center. And then there is Anny Mariano as Suzette, a young impressionable teen who falls in love with a drug dealer and his dangerous world. All three of these characters represent the broken and saddened voices of American youth today. These are America's "forgotten" daughters. The young women of color who have all the potential in world with very few opportunities to rise above their harsh conditions. I highly recommend this movie to anyone looking for a moving and brutal story with dynamic performances. Prepare to be deeply affected by the wounds of these girls as they struggle to make sense of a world that never quite allows them to heal.

This sad and gritty film has earned a half dozen festival awards and nominations. It follows the tragic fates of three young women from Jersey City's ghetto--Suzette (a pregnant runaway teenager), Marisol (a crack addict and young mother), and Oz (a drug dealer), whose lives intersect after their separate paths to prison. Nearly every influence in their lives, whether personal or social, is harmful to them, including school, music, home, friends, drug and alcohol abuse, and, most of all, their trash-talking, gangsta boys. The girls live in a malevolent universe that is parallel to anything you would consider normal. Whether they got there by bad luck, bad choices, or by a heartless society that has victimized them is debatable. The director shows his hand, though, with several shots of the Statue of Liberty.

I thought this was a movie review section, not a blog on your personal political views about this country..oh well.

In order to have compassion for the characters in this movie you need to be a compassionate person, not a blowhard "they get what they deserve" type of person. If you are closeminded don't bother.

This is a great movie - true to life, gritty, real.Well acted and moves along at a fine pace. Hollywood needs to take a lesson from indie films.

On The Outs from Polychrome Pictures is the outstanding tale of three young women, Suzette, a fifteen-year-old runaway, Oz, a seventeen-year-old drug dealer, and young Marisol, a seventeen-year-old single-mother struggling with both custody of her child and a serious drug addiction. Depicting a tale based on the lives of real girls, On The Outs captivates viewers through its incredible telling of each of the girl's individual stories through to their meeting in a juvenile jail and the evocative occurrences which brought them each there. On The Outs is very highly recommended as the engaging story of three young women captured in a vivid reality faced by so many teens today.

I really felt this movie. Independent films are improving dramatically. In most films depicting the harsh realities of growing up in the ghetto, the main characters are men, and black. I am proud now to see women playing the lead roles in ghetto stories.
I can relate to 2 out of the 3 stories. Marisol was my mother before she(my mom) was killed. I was Marisol's daughter, hungry and wondering when or if my mom was coming home.
I made a real personal connection with Oz. I related to her tomboyish ways and her attitude. Oz was tough, but only because she had to be. With an aging grandmother, and a drug-addicted mother who has repeatedly let her down in life, Oz's only choice of survival that she knew was the streets. She had to make the way for her and her brother whom she loved terribly. At seventeen, that was a lot to take on. And she thought she could, until it all came crashing down on her too fast.
Suzette was a promising young teenager. And she was just that; a teenager. With a hard-working mom who was rarely at home, Suzette was free. Too free. She broke the rules and took a chance on a situation she simply didn't understand. Daydreams defaced reality and she ended up pregnant. Seeing that the boyfriend accepted her situation, she did what most teenagers who believe in fairy tales do; she put her trust in him and a dream. Then she gets caught with his gun and ends up in juvie.
I must say that I am glad to see a film like this in a latin perspective. It shows how black and latin livelihood are very similar in the ghetto and that we are not alone in our struggles. It shows three latin teenage girls who buckle under the pressure with the choice of taking responsibility for their actions and making it better or worse.
Respectable applause. Shout out to Judy Marte (Oz). Good job on being a remarkable tomboy for the very first time. You made an impact on me.

This is a fantastic movie about teenagers dealing with real life issues. I watched it and had to watch it again.

I highly recommend this stunning film to anyone who can appreciate a gritty and at times tear-jerking drama. The cast was perfectly selected, and the characters were so real I found myself checking to see if it was a documentary I was watching. The movie is fascinating and a must see.

good movie ... it captures the "street" feel really well which was really refreshing not to have some over paid actor "dumbing it down" and trying to through some slang around and high five people like he's been doing it his whole life. the actors were believable and i think that's cause a lot of them are from the street or are just super charismatic people in real life and it really shows through in this movie. i picked it up last week from my indie video store so i don't know if a lot of people will get a chance to see it but they should. so overall i'd say job well done, congrats for sure on making a good movie.

This movie is the story of three youbng women who all live in the same neighborhood in New Jersey, don't know each other but become connected through the criminal justice system. You have OZ, a drug dealer who is in and out of the juvenile detention center and whose mother is a recovering addict, Suzette, who is a high school student who defies her mother and becomes pregnanat by her drug dealer boyfriend, and Marisol, a crack addict who fights to regain custody of her daughter after being placed in the detention center after she buys crack from Terrell, who is Suzette's boyfriend.
The girls meet after they all are placed in the center. Suzette gets placed in the center after Terrell puts a gun in her backpack that was used to kill a young boy. All three girls have made bad choices and continue to do so until they come to the realization that they themselves need to change. The cast of this movie is basically unknown except for Judy Marte, but it is a good film. Also, the special features on this film are worth watching. Life imitates art for some of the cast members in this film.