Skid Row (2007) User Reviews

Pras doesn't add anything to the movie

[rabzzz · 5/10 · 14 May 2008]

Would of been a lot better if they just spent time filming and interview the homeless people of skid row. Pras' attempt at living 9 days in skid row is more of a joke then anything. He spends most of the time in a underground parking lot with this film crew. I mean they start the guy off with 9 bucks. He refuses to eat the food given at a soup kitchen. Then pan handles for a little builds up like 15 bucks and then goes and eats in a diner and spends it all. Does that seem like someone who is worried about surviving 9 days on the streets of skid row with no help?!? Hes pretentious and so far disconnected from regular people its ridiculous. The man asks a couple of mexicans working at a fruit store if he can move like 15 boxes for them for 2 dollars. The man responds by saying where only getting paid like 2 dollars. Prolly even less then that for the 5 minutes of work it would of taken to move the boxes. By watching the movie its obvious he had plenty of help from his crew while living on the street for the 9 days. Regardless the people he meets along the way and the footage of skid row is pretty good, and makes the movie decent.

Crude as filmmaking at times but gets its message across

[Buddy-51 · 7/10 · 20 September 2012]

Nine dollars and a tent – that's all hip-hop artist Pras Michel (of The Fugees) brings with him when he goes undercover to live on Skid Row disguised as a homeless person. His purpose? To experience first hand what life is like for those who live on the streets, and to share that experience with the world at large. "Skid Row" documents the nine days and nights he spent trying to make it in the homeless capital of the world, Los Angeles.

The movie hits us with a slew of depressing statistics and provides a brief history of the place, while Pras learns how to survive through begging and panhandling and by maneuvering his way through a world few of us will ever know – or even care to acknowledge. The movie, shot with a hidden camera, is a fairly straight-forward documentary, though the substandard sound recording makes some of the dialogue hard to make out. But the message shines through in Pras' heartbreaking encounters with drug addicts, runaways, and friends and families of individuals who have gone missing and may be living on Skid Row.

The enormity and seeming intractability of the problem can make watching this film an overwhelming experience for the viewer, but there are glimmers of hope in seeing how many of the individuals who work with the homeless were themselves down-and-out at one point in their lives (many are themselves recovering addicts), but somehow managed to pull themselves up and are now giving back to those they left behind.

Pras and the others involved in the project deserve praise for their courage and gratitude for opening our eyes to the problem through their film.

Only one side

[laragi · 4/10 · 24 April 2022]

This is a very sentimental and quite frankly liberal viewpoint. There really should have been a little more balance in order. It also needed more b-roll. It's a very limited documentary.

Better than Sicko!

[moviecriticfan · 10/10 · 21 August 2007]

I'm a student at UCLA and was lucky enough to attend the premiere of Pras' documentary, Skid Row. First of all, kudos to Pras for having the courage to go undercover and actually live on the streets with no food or shelter, and tape everything for the whole world to see. This film is extremely revealing. It introduces the homeless as people, it puts a face to the epidemic of homelessness- revealing who they are and how they ended up on the streets. I will never look at a homeless person the same way. Skid Row is not the usual boring voice-over/ talking head doc that many are acquainted with. In Skid Row, you see Pras as a vulnerable man, not as the untouchable hip-hop star of the Fugees that we are familiar with. This is honestly the best documentary I've ever seen. Skid Row definitely deserves an Oscar!

One of the most haunting portrayals of urban decay in America.

[johnnymacbest · 8/10 · 11 June 2010]

Poverty. Decay. Social despair and isolation. The very things that continue to plague our society is portrayed here in this documentary by former "Fugee" front-man Praz as he goes this harrowing and dangerous journey on the streets of Skid Row, Los Angeles, a place so rife with decadence and hopelessness; seemingly isolated from the rest of LA that it's almost a city in itself with it's own history, culture and social norms. But at the center of it all lies heart, with a dozen of lost souls who are eager to reclaim their lost lives. Some have tried and succeeded. Some have failed. Despite their unkempt nature, these individuals are, for the most part, human beings just like everyone else. Powerful and at times disturbing, Skid Row reminds us how easy it is to fall into an inescapable situation where there is no easy way out or answers to one of society's most economically debilitating problems of the human race. For anyone whose very livelihoods are threatened by the financial turmoil that is slowly but surly crippling the nation and the world, I urge you to watch this film. To gain an understanding and think long and hard about the fragility of our society. It may hit too close to home for comfort for some, but it is essential viewing nonetheless. Only then can we, as human beings, come together and eradicate this social menace of poverty once and for all.