Features: DVD, No Longer Produced
No one has his rap down better than cody, a jazz trumpeter whotraded his horn for a crack pipe and lost his music, his wife and his son. While regretful, his status with the junkies and the lureto his next high keep him rooted in the park. When redemptioncalls, cody doesn't know whether to crave it or fear it.
Editor's Note
MACARTHUR PARK is the powerful directorial debut of actor Billy Wirth (THE LOST BOYS, WAR PARTY). Wirth's film was initially intended as a documentary on the homeless drug addicts living in Los Angeles' once-elegant, but now crime-infested, MacArthur Park. While interviewing park residents for the documentary, Wirth learned of a script written by a former playwright-turned-crack-addict, Tyrone Atkins, who had lived in the park but was now serving time in prison. Atkins' manuscript was eventually found and filmed by Wirth as a loosely-disguised biographical fiction centered around park resident and former trumpet player Cody (Thomas Jefferson Byrd), who lost both his career and his family to crack cocaine addiction. Byrd leads a large ensemble that cast includes Ellen Cleghorne, Lori Petty, Miguel Nunez, and real-life rappers Bad Azz, B-Real, and Sticky Fingaz as the park's other drug-addled citizens. The vibrant hip-hop soundtrack--composed by Jane's Addiction's Stephen Perkins and featuring an electrifying cover of "MacArthur Park" by Macy Gray--adds a gritty, authentic vibe to the film's portrayal of drug addiction and broken souls.
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