Bomb It

Tracing the history of graffiti culture from territorial marking to “wild style” murals, this documentary from Jon Reiss (Better Living Through Circuitry) offers a CliffsNotes primer on the hip-hop art form. Old-school legends like Philadelphia’s Cornbread (the grandfather of modern tagging) and the Bronx’s Taki 183 get shout-outs, cops recount their crackdown efforts, and street Picassos from Brazil and South Africa describe how they’ve utilized graffiti for guerrilla political protests. The subject is never less than fascinating, though the film’s repetitive format and reiteration of the same points ad infinitum will wear you down before the paint can dry.