Watch Five Star

Five Star is a powerful and gritty independent drama about two men from different worlds who form an unlikely bond. The film, which premiered at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival, is directed by Keith Miller, who also co-wrote the script with James 'Primo' Grant, who stars as the lead character. The story is set in Brooklyn and centers around Primo, a member of the Bloods gang who has just been released from prison after serving a sentence for selling drugs. Primo is trying to go straight and reconnect with his young son, but he struggles to find legitimate work and faces pressure from his former associates to get back into the drug trade.

Enter John, a college-educated, white gentrifier who has moved into Primo's neighborhood with his pregnant girlfriend and young daughter. John is a member of the Five Percenters, a black nationalist movement that believes in the unity of all people of color, and he sees something in Primo that others do not.

At first, Primo is suspicious of John's motives and views him as just another interloper trying to take over his turf. But as the two men spend more time together and John shows Primo a different way of looking at the world, they begin to develop a genuine friendship.

The heart of Five Star is the relationship between Primo and John, which is portrayed with a naturalistic, unforced authenticity. Neither character is portrayed as a stereotype, and both actors give nuanced and realistic performances.

Primo is a complex and charismatic character, who is both sympathetic and flawed. He genuinely wants to turn his life around and be a good father, but he is trapped by the limited options available to him. His loyalty to his gang and his pride in his neighborhood are also important to him, even as he recognizes the damage that the drug trade has done to his community.

John, for his part, is a well-meaning but naive idealist who is trying to make a difference in his own small way. He is fascinated by the culture of the Five Percenters and their philosophy of self-improvement, but he is also unaware of the prejudices and privileges that come with his whiteness.

Throughout the film, the tension between these two worlds is palpable. Miller captures the rhythms of life in the projects and the gentrified streets of Brooklyn with a documentarian's eye, and he doesn't shy away from the violence and danger that lurks around every corner.

But Five Star is not a film about gangs or gentrification per se. It's a film about the possibility of human connection and the ways in which we can transcend our circumstances to find common ground. It's about the importance of empathy and understanding, even in the face of seemingly insurmountable differences.

The film's title, Five Star, refers to the concept of "living a five-star life" espoused by the Five Percenters. It's a deeply aspirational idea that speaks to the hope and resilience of the human spirit. In the end, that's what Five Star is all about – the possibility of redemption and the power of human connection to overcome even the most difficult of circumstances.

Five Star is a 2015 drama with a runtime of 1 hour and 23 minutes. It has received mostly positive reviews from critics and viewers, who have given it an IMDb score of 5.5 and a MetaScore of 76.