Educational Media Reviews Online

Award-winning filmmaker Darius Clark Monroe’s first feature documentary, perhaps a MFA thesis project at NYU’s Tisch School of Arts, provides an intimate retelling of a decade-old bank robbery committed by the filmmaker and his two friends. With the help of executive producer Spike Lee, Monroe is able to reconstruct a personal tale interweaving interviews from family, friends, accomplices, and victims of the robbery.

Perhaps the title of the film is a little misleading. There are small events in the filmmaker’s upbringing which suggests frustration and helplessness, but the events are not so egregious as to lead to an evolution of criminal activity. By all accounts, Monroe is a model student, and good citizen. He considers himself the product of a middle-class upbringing with love and support from his immediate, and extended family. From all outwardly appearances, he grows up within a tight-knit community on the outskirts of Houston, Texas. Considering how many children suffer neglect and abuse, it is, at times, hard to imagine what drives Monroe to consider committing a criminal act.

However, things begin to unravel at the Monroe household. The filmmaker begins to feel constant verbal pressure from his mother that the family is drowning in debt. The conversations begin to manipulate Monroe’s psyche. At the same time, a home burglary sets the wheels in motion for Monroe to begin to engage in criminal activity. While working for a warehouse, he begins to steal electronic equipment. It is also during this time that a segment about a bank robber on the television show, “America’s Most Wanted,” implants the idea that it’s possible to rob a bank, and not get caught. Robbing a bank is the medicine needed to answer Monroe’s family’s financial prayers. After careful planning, Monroe recruits two high school friends to pull off the heist at a near-by local bank. The three teens are not immediately caught, but it is inevitable that one person will boast and brag about the illegal activity, a sure-fire way to being caught by law enforcement.

Praised and screened at several major film festivals in the United States, I walk away with mixed-emotions about the film. Although I highly recommend the film, I also have a few reservations. For example, there are not enough talking heads to address the consequences and repercussions of robbing a bank. Most people in the film seem to either gloss over what takes place, or offer multitudes of forgiveness. As a reviewer, I am at a loss about what happens during incarceration. Is there mistreatment of the prisoners? Are the juveniles treated differently while being incarcerated with adults? Also, no one candidly and openly admits that one of the accomplices “snitches” to law enforcement. Lastly, this reviewer’s bias and believability about the reasons “why” the filmmaker chose to rob a bank stands on shaky ground.

If the purpose of the film is to inform and educate younger generations to not make the same mistakes, or believe that there are second chances, then the film serves its purpose. After incarceration, the filmmaker turns a new leaf and is accepted into NYU’s Tisch School of Arts to become a filmmaker. I believe in second-chances, redemption and forgiveness, and yet, I have to ask the filmmaker if he had considered additional choices, other than the job at the warehouse, to support the family?

While it is true that psychological studies prove that behavioral development of the brain continues well into a person’s mid-to-late 20s, many would also agree that you don’t need a degree in criminal justice to know the difference between right and wrong. The film Includes interviews with family, friends, teachers, classmates, victims of the bank robbery, and reactions from NYU’s Tisch School of Arts Deans and former teachers. Music by T. Griffin is beautifully interwoven throughout the narrative, and the technical aspects of the film are okay.

Highly recommended with reservations for students studying African American studies, criminal justice and film studies.