Paid in Full (2002)

Editor's Note Set in the early 1980s, this entry in the African-American urban gangster genre puts character development in the front seat for a change as it rolls through the Harlem streets on its usual rise-and-fall route. Ace (Wood Harris) starts out a laundry delivery guy, but thanks to a chance encounter with a Latin coke dealer (Esai Morales), he quickly works his way to the top of a drug empire. Mitch (Mekhi Phifer) is his more extroverted, colorful pal, the "born hustler" whose bravado hides a tragic family life. For a while the money just keeps rolling in and everyone's happy, but then comes the inevitable turn to tragedy, heralded by the arrival of the brash, trigger-happy Rico (rapper Cam'ron in his screen debut). A sensitive script and moody direction by Charles Stone III allows PAID IN FULL to sidestep a lot of the cliched glamour of similar films. The violence is realistically depicted, and the ultimate emptiness and paranoia of the lifestyle is allowed to manifest slowly through a nice, low-key performance by Harris. Roc-a-Fella mogul Damon Dash produced, based on the true story of Harlem drug lords he remembers from his childhood, one of whom even served as a technical advisor.

	Cam'ron
	Regina Hall
	Chi McBride
	Elise Neal
	Mekhi Phifer
	Kevin Carroll
	Esai Morales
	Wood Harris
	Paul Sarossy - Director of Photography
	Matthew Cirulnick - Screenwriter
	Azie Faison Jr. - Screenwriter
	Thulani Davis - Screenwriter
	Damon Dash - Producer
	Brett Ratner - Producer
	Vernon Reid - Composer
	Frank Fitzpatrick - Composer
	Jay-Z - Producer
	Austin Phillips - Screenwriter
	Charles Stone III - Director

Entertainment Weekly
"...[Phifer] is electric and true..." 11/01/2002 p.51

Box Office
"...Anchoring the film with quiet, awkward intensity is Wood Harris..." 12/01/2002 p.56