Life Is Hot in Cracktown — Film Review

HollywoodReporter.com – By Kirk Honeycutt

Bottom Line: Real life is not to be found in Cracktown.

As for the accuracy of this film’s title, “Life Is Hot in Cracktown,” it all depends on how you define “hot.” If feverish enactments of rape, murder, drug taking, child abuse and transgender prostitution in the inner city fit that description, so be it. By the same token, such imagery has become so commonplace at film festivals, even finding its way into studio releases, that critics have dubbed this increasingly popular subgenre “poverty porn.” So for those wearied by cliches about poverty, rote characterizations of minorities and shocks for their own sake, best to avoid “Cracktown.” Boxoffice potential appears meager.