Off Jackson Avenue

Several strangers are connected unawares and those points of contact will bring them into collision. This kind of construction is exciting when executed well, as in "Amores Perros", and again here in "Off Jackson Avenue." A violent Albanian pimp (Stivi Paskoski), a victimized Mexican immigrant (Jessica Pimental), a carjacker (John-Luke Montias) and a Japanese schoolteacher who moonlights as a hit-man (Jun Suenaga)will profoundly impact each other's lives, literally and figuratively. Warning: The brutalization of a young girl is hard-to-watch and enraging. But there is justice, satisfying justice, in the working out of things.

Aside from Mr. Paskoski, none of the actors have a long resume, yet all the characters come across vivid and true. You wouldn't know they were acting. When everyone in a movie is good, praise the director. And he is John-Luke Montias who directs here as well as acts. He also wrote the taut, efficient script. The language is raw, real, and in the case of a Chinese entrepreneur who hires the hit-man, a pungent delight. Jun Suenaga's moonlighting English teacher is fun and funny. I'd hang with him and a bottle of Scotch any old time.

"Off Jackson Avenue" is a gem. Hopefully, it will get a wide distribution. But most indies do not. While it is still available to see in a real movie house, it is well worth the price of a ticket. At just under 80 minutes, not a frame of film or a line of dialogue is wasted. Jim Smith