Kicks

Kicks (2016) is an indie coming-of-age crime drama you can watch online on iFILM. All fifteen-year-old Brandon wants is a real pair of Air Jordans. He finally lands them, and within days a local crew strips the sneakers right off his feet.

So Brandon and his two friends set out across Oakland and the Bay Area to get them back. The plan is reckless and genuinely dangerous: waiting on the other end is a grown street world where shoes can get you killed. Newcomer Jahking Guillory plays a kid for whom the Jordans stopped being about fashion long ago, and started being about whether anyone sees him as a person at all. Mahershala Ali turns up in a small, sharp role, years before his Oscars.

First-time director Justin Tipping shoots his feature debut as a blend of hard street realism and dreamlike interludes, including a spacesuited figure who trails Brandon through the city. One for fans of street-level indie cinema in the vein of early Barry Jenkins. Stream Kicks (2016) online on iFILM.