James Ransome Movies

David Simon's masterful social commentary went back to school, quite literally, in the fourth season, which focuses on Baltimore's crumbling education system. A relevant link to its first three seasons is supplied by Roland "Prez" Pryzbylewski (Jim True-Frost), who left the police department to become a teacher at Edward Tilghman Middle School, a hardscrabble institution on life support that services a low-income, drug-infested neighborhood. (Incidentally, Prez's career path is similar to one of the series' producers, Ed Burns). His eighth-grade math class includes a close-knit quartet of friends -- Randy Wagstaff (Maestro Harrell), Michael Lee (Tristan Wilds), Duquan "Dukie" Weems (Jermaine Crawford) and Namond Brice (Julito McCullum). The wisecracking Brice is ignominiously selected to be part of a university experiment studying at-risk kids, which counts a former police commander, Bunny Colvin (Robert Wisdom), as a consultant. Out on the corners, Marlo Stanfield (Jamie Hector) strengthens his grip on the city's West Side narcotics trade once dominated by the Barksdale gang, and with his cold-blooded lieutenants, Chris (Gbenga Akinnagbe) and Snoop (Felicia Pearson), devises an ingenious method to hide the collateral damage of his ascent from the law. This sleight-of-hand bedevils detectives Freamon (Clarke Peters), Greggs (Sonja Sohn) and Bunk (Wendell Pierce). The trio are flummoxed by the lack of victims that would surely coincide with Marlo's ever-widening domain, a savage power grab that also threatens the relative peace of the New Day Co-Op under East Side pooh-bah Proposition Joe (Robert F. Chew). Meanwhile, the Democratic primary in the city's mayoral campaign pits the entrenched African-American incumbent, Clarence Royce (Glynn Turman), against Councilman Tommy Carcetti (Aidan Gillen), a scrappy politico with a savvy campaign manager in Norman Wilson (Reg E. Cathey), but a long shot to become Charm City's first white chief executive in years. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi

Filmmaker Larry Clark reunites with Kids screenwriter Harmony Korine, with some additional directorial assistance from cinematographer Ed Lachman, for this look at a group of troubled teens and their guardians living in Southern California. The film opens at a skate park, where a troubled character takes his own life; it then proceeds to chronicle the somewhat-interrelated lives of his classmates. The audience is introduced to Tate (James Ransome), a young man living in relative misery with his board-game-playing grandparents. Also tormented by his living situation is Claude (Stephen Jasso), a quiet, shy teen constantly henpecked by his brutish father (Wade Andrew Williams). Meanwhile, the vapid Shawn (James Bullard) occasionally trades verbal spars with his mother, in between leaving the house for sex sessions with his girlfriend's mom. Finally there is Peaches (Tiffany Limos), living alone with her devoutly religious father as she covertly experiments with her boyfriend (Mike Apaletegui). Though Ken Park played at such festivals as Toronto and Telluride in the fall of 2002, it would languish on the shelf for months and months afterward, as its explicit content made finding a U.S. distributor near-impossible. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi