Street Poet Movie Review by Ryan A. Loera

Stars:
Jeff Stearns - Jake
Tara D'Agostino - Marni
C. Thomas Howell - David Settles

Director: E. Paul Edwards
Release Date: March 2, 2010
Genre: Drama
Rated R

The life of a poet is not an easy one. It's filled with many hardships and struggles. But there are moments of great creative expression as well.

Jake (Jeff Stearns) is your typical angst ridden poet struggling to get his poetry heard and read by the masses.
Enter Marni (Tara D'Agostino) a talent scout for a major publisher who is very interested in getting Jake's work published. She takes Jake to a well known poet's, David Settles (C. Thomas Howell), book signing/reading with the hope of inspiring him to become more marketable.

Jake is reluctant to conform but he eventually realizes this could be his only shot at being a nationally recognized published poet. So, with some vigorous training and coaching from Marni, he becomes a lean mean poetry machine.

Marni also signs him up for something called a Poetron Slam. Which is just one big spoken word contest in which hundreds of poets compete for prize money.

In between all the training, Jake and Marni become intimate with one another. By which I mean they get it on!
You know what I mean. Eh? Eh? Ha, ha, ha, ha!!

But seriously… Jake learns of Marni's life threatening illness and freaks out a little bit but eventually looks past it.

There's a lot of really well written original poems in this movie. Unfortunately, most of the actors have a hard time conveying the raw emotional attributes of each poem. But they deserve applause for trying.

I really like Tara D'Agostino's portrayal of Marni. When I did a Google search I was bummed to see that Street Poet is her only acting credit. Apparently, she's now involved in selling Aflac insurance.

Tara D'Agostino! If you're reading this… PLEASE return to acting! PLEASE!

On a scale of 1 tamale to 10 tamales I give Street Poet 6.8 tamales.

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:-)