‘ATL’ covers all the teen-movie basics

If “Roll Bounce” and “Boyz N the Hood” fell in love and had a PG-13 baby, it would be “ATL.”

Directed by music video veteran Chris Robinson and set in modern-day South Atlanta, “ATL” covers all its bases: For nostalgia, there’s Sunday night skate at the ghetto rink. For class-consciousness, there’s Esquire (Jackie Long), an ambitious high school kid who cozies up to Atlanta’s privileged set to escape the ‘hood. For drama, there’s Rashad (Tip Harris, a.k.a. Southern rapper T.I.) and his kid brother Ant (Evan Ross, otherwise known as Diana Ross’ son), whose parents are dead and who have conflicting goals. Rashad wants to stay clean and provide for Ant; Ant wants flashy rims and diamond studs, which in this version of South Atlanta means dealing drugs.

There are also the teen movie staples, including that MPAA rating, a romance-lite between Rashad and the ghetto-fabulous New-New (Lauren London) and much trash-talking/bonding among best friends who, five weeks from graduation, are “all at the same place in our lives but trying to figure out what’s next.”

Fans of former street hustler Harris might be surprised to see him playing straight arrow Rashad. (Harris told MTV he once couldn’t make a Hollywood meeting because of a date with his probation officer.) But he’s awfully effective as a kid whose circumstances have forced him to play the part of a man. It’s only on Sunday nights at Cascades that Rashad can be a boy, a king really, reigning supreme at the rink with his best friends, Brooklyn (Albert Daniels), Teddy (Jason Weaver) and Esquire. Sunday night at Cascades is loosely based on Sunday night at Jellybeans, the Atlanta rink where producers Dallas Austin and Tionne “T-Boz” Watkins (of ‘90s supergroup TLC) spent their formative years, along with Atlanta natives Jermaine Dupri and Lil Jon. Robinson knows how to shoot skating for maximum thrill (MTV training isn’t all bad), but the movie misses its opportunity to explore modern skate culture, which is alive and booming in cities such as Atlanta, Detroit and Chicago. (“Drumline,” scripted by “ATL” writer Tina Gordon Chism and produced by Austin, brought much more life to another vibrant black cultural tradition.)

What “ATL” does understand is the relationship between Rashad and his friends, all scraping by and holding on to this last summer before, you know, everything changes. Like “Hustle & Flow,” the film brings welcome light on a geographic culture often overshadowed by the coasts. But Ant’s entanglement with drug money and the ultimate drawing of a gun? I’m fairly certain that dope dealing and gang-banging in South Atlanta are rated R.

*

‘ATL’

MPAA rating: PG-13 for drug content, language, sexual material and some violence

A Warner Bros. release. Director Chris Robinson. Screenplay Tina Gordon Chism, story by Antwone Fisher. Producers James Lassiter, Will Smith, Jody Gerson, Dallas Austin. Director of photography Crash. Editor David Blackburn. Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes.

In general release.