When his hard earned kicks get snatched by a local hood, fifteen year old Brandon and his two best friends go on an ill advised mission across the Bay Area to retrieve the stolen sneakers. Featuring a soundtrack packed with hiphop classics, Justin Tipping's debut feature is an urban coming of age tale told with grit, humor - and surprising lyricism.
Official Trailer
KICKS - In Theaters September 9, 2016
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Starring: Jahking Guillory, Christopher Jordan Wallace (Notorious), Christopher Meyer ("Wayward Pines"), Kofi Siriboe ("Queen Sugar"), and Mahershala Ali ("House of Cards")
Directed by: Justin Tipping
Written by: Justin Tipping & Joshua Beirne-Golden
Produced by: David Kaplan (It Follows), Adele Romanski (Morris from America), Joshua Astrachan (Short Term 12), Michael Covino
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Synopsis
In Justin Tipping's feature debut Kicks, nothing is as simple as it seems. Fifteen-year-old Brandon longs for a pair of the freshest sneakers that money can buy; assuming that merely having them on his feet will help him escape the reality of being poor, neglected by the opposite sex and picked on by everyone -- even his best friends. Working hard to get them, he soon finds that the titular shoes have instead made him a target after they are promptly snatched by local hood, Flaco. Seemingly the embodiment of menace, Flaco harbors complexities of his own that will be revealed when Brandon goes on a mission to retrieve his stolen sneakers with his two best friends in tow.
Boasting a strong ensemble cast and featuring a memorable lead performance by newcomer Jahking Guillory, the film transcends a deceptively traditional hero's journey to deliver an entertaining and sobering look at the realities of inner-city life, the concept of manhood and the fetishization of sneaker culture. Visually and thematically rich, with an amazing soundtrack of both hip-hop classics and Bay Area favorites, Kicks creates an authentic and original portrait of a young man drowning in the expectations of machismo.
