| The classic legend of stealing from the rich to give to the poor gets a new spin in Robin's Hood, which makes its DVD debut on May 9th. The film originally screened at festivals in 2003.
In this modern-day version of the tale, Robin is a woman rather than a lad, and her 'hood is Oakland rather than Sherwood Forest. In another twist, her partner in philanthropy is a dyke on a bike who steals Robin's heart among other valuables. The evil king, according to the liner notes, “is the institutionalized racism and oppression that drives people into drugs and crime.”
Robin (the script's co-writer, Khathee V. Turner) is a determined but disillusioned social worker whose ideals lead her to occasionally bend the rules. She covers for a client who fails to show up for a drug test, hoping to prevent the woman's son from being taken away from her by child protective services. When Robin gets caught flouting the system, she quits rather than accepting a demotion to paper pusher. Without her job she is still frustrated by urban despair and at a loss for a remedy to the injustice.
As if on cue, a skinny thief/mechanic named Brooklyn (Clody Cates) swaggers into Robin's life.
Brooklyn quickly seduces Robin then goes on to win the hearts of the neighborhood kids when she dons her mechanic's jumpsuit and whips up a go-cart. It isn't long before the two are pulling off bank heists and making anonymous donations to neighborhood youth centers. Circumventing a deeply flawed welfare system, Robin is finally able to provide real assistance to the people she had been trying to serve.
Robin, who is black, never thought she'd take up with someone white. But in some ways Brooklyn, who is white, is Robin's perfect match and her complementary radical. While Brooklyn is driven to steal from the rich, Robin is driven to give to the poor.
One way we know who Robin does or doesn't consider dateable is that she tells us so in one of her many inner monologues. Both characters share their thoughts in this way, with Brooklyn (whose mother is from France) delivering her voiceovers in French with English subtitles. In both cases it's a convenient but contrived device.
Equally distracting are the cheesy lines that pop up from time to time. Witness: “I may be a thief but I'm no liar” and “Occasional use of marijuana does not prevent someone from being a good mother!” Other humorous quips are more likely intended to amuse, such as “I think I'm falling in love…with a thief…who's white,” and “Can't be smokin' around no fetus!” Either way, there are laughs to be found in this film, even with its serious subject matter and socially conscious plot.
The plot develops slowly while Robin and Brooklyn's relationship progresses at warp speed. Call it reality or call it cliche, but before you know it Brooklyn's doling out the grub to everyone at Robin's dinner table, including house guests, as if she's the one hosting. She orders for Robin at a restaurant and pays the tab with no discussion, and quickly acts so jealous and possessive that she may as well have marked her territory with pee.
The film's title may scream “porn” but its sex scenes are relatively tame. Overly romantic music and too much focus on the bay's glistening water detract from the potential sizzle of Robin and Brooklyn's first kiss. But for some viewers the film redeems itself later, when the women are making out on a couch and Brooklyn takes a swig of beer then swoops down to let it trickle from her own mouth into Robin's. And chances are good that anyone who is turned off by that move won't notice it anyway, as the editing makes it easy to miss.
When the action moves to the shower, though, it looks less like hot first sex and more like two actors nervously giggling through the discomfort of having to do a sex scene in front of a camera. Unfortunately, the booming French hip-hop drowns out any sounds the women might be making, but at least in this scene the music is more pleasing than distracting.
One of the film's strong points is its soundtrack, which varies from hip-hop to fusion to French pop, with other stops along the way. For the most part the music is well suited to the scenes. And the setting feels authentically urban, likely because the film was shot on the streets of Oakland rather than on sets. The digital format makes for overly crisp visuals that are more jarring than intimate, but the lead performances are strong enough to prevail in the end.
According to the press kit, not only were no animals harmed in making the film, but no animal products were purchased to feed or clothe anyone involved. Whether anyone rich was robbed to finance the poor, struggling indie filmmaker remains unstated. But despite the movie's flaws, Robin's Hood director/co-writer Sara Millman deserves kudos for pulling off such original work with so small a budget and so much success.
Get Robin's Hood at Amazon.com |
