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An Old-School Legal Drama

The American Violet Trailer / Dustin Rowles

Trailers | April 14, 2009 | Comments (6)

Here’s the trailer for American Violet, a quietly impressive film that screened at SXSW last month. Based on a true story, it’s about an African-American single mother in Texas who, as was routine at the time, got scooped up in a housing project drug raid based on flimsy or fabricated warrant-supporting affidavits. District Attorneys would then hold these arrestees in jail until they agreed to a plea bargain — whether they were guilty or not — thus quickly increasing their conviction rates and bringing in more federal money. Newcomer Nicole Beharie plays the single mother, and she’s excellent. Meanwhile. Tim Blake Nelson plays an ACLU attorney who teams up with local counsel, played by the always magnificent Will Patton, to go after the racist D.A., the impressively loathsome Michael O’ Keefe.

There’s nothing particularly momentous about American Violet but it is a swell little legal drama that benefits from strong performances and a nice lift-me-up-light feel good ending. And there was nothing more satisfying than watching American Violet in Texas only to hear the crowd erupt into hisses when George Bush, via archival footage, made a brief appearance. God Bless (parts of) Texas.


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Comments

Gonna cross my fingers and hope this reaches down here.

Yes, I know I've made that statement before but it's a sad fact of life in T&T that the only movies that are sure to be in the cinemas here are the certified block busters.

And we all know that 95.5% of those these days are pure caca!

Posted by: Four Eyes at April 14, 2009 5:11 PM

I saw a good PBS documentary on this very topic a few weeks ago. Let's just say, chilling.

I couldn't stay up that late to finish watching it (what? I'm old) but the parts I saw were damn interesting. And frightening.

Posted by: Stella at April 14, 2009 5:44 PM

And there was nothing more satisfying than watching American Violet in Texas only to hear the crowd erupt into hisses when George Bush, via archival footage, made a brief appearance.

Now that makes me feel good inside.

Posted by: Cindy at April 14, 2009 8:32 PM

Oooo, Mrs. , LOVES her some legal thriller.

I may have read a book about this case, where a town hired this sort of loose-cannon undercover drug operative and he busted something like 50 black people for selling crack in their little 500-population town. (Or maybe it was a 5,000 population town; in either case, it was an astonishingly high number of busts when you stop to ask: If everyone in town is dealing, who's buying?)

Posted by: , (the commenter formerly known as bucdaddy) at April 14, 2009 11:56 PM

This movie is amazing and a story that definitely should be told everywhere on the big screen. It pulls at so many different emotional strings and keeps you engaged throughout the entire movie. I am still amazed by the fact that this type of injustice still occurs today in the U.S. But I have to remind myself the reason for my surprise is because these types of stories just do not receive the attention they deserve. Instead we hear about the sensational celebrity battles that consume the headlines. But I highly recommend seeing this movie and Nicole Behaire did a phenomenal job portraying Regina.

Posted by: Kae at April 15, 2009 12:44 PM

I saw an ad for this the other night (here in DC) but wasn't sure if it was TV movie or not. Glad to hear it's pretty good but I'll probably Netflix it.

Posted by: amanda47 at April 17, 2009 6:42 PM