Armeena Matthews...one of "The Interrupters"
“THE INTERRUPTORS” My rating: A- (Opens Oct. 21 at the Tivoli)
125 minutes | No MPAA rating
Heart wrenching and gut twisting, “The Interrupters” spends a year in Chicago’s meanest neighborhoods following three individuals committed to stopping the cycle of violence in the inner city.
The protagonists of Steve James’ exhaustive and deeply moving documentary — Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams and Eddie Bocanegra– are employed by the not-for-profit organization CeaseFire as “violence interrupters.”
Their unenviable job is to leap into confrontational situations — invariably involving young people who have grown up with guns and violence — and defuse them before things turn ugly…and deadly.
James, the co-director of the legendary “Hoop Dreams,” has an astounding ability to be in the right place at the right time while adapting a fly-on-the-wall invisibility — he captures intense moments way beyond the imagination of a Hollywood screenwriter. The results will leave audiences dazed, in tears and torn between hope and despair.
