From left, Christopher Meyer, Jahking Guillory, and Christopher Jordan Wallace in Kicks (Focus World)

Kicks is a throwback to the children’s adventure films of the 1980s, such as The Goonies, Explorers, and The Karate Kid, only set against the backdrop of the contemporary inner city. The film’s narrator, Brandon (played by newcomer Jahking Guillory), is a 14-year-old living in the East Bay city of Richmond, California. Almost daily, he is the victim of bullying in his neighborhood because he is small for his age, and therefore an easy target. Once we meet his best friends, Albert (Christopher Jordan Wallace) and Rico (Christopher Meyer), we begin to understand Brandon’s role in their group. While Rico and Albert are the same age as “Lil’ B,” they seem much older, as they are both already at the tail end of puberty while Brandon is a late bloomer. Relegated to being the runt of the group, he is practically mute compared to his loudmouthed friends.

Brandon identifies everyone by their shoes—Albert wears the Jordan 6s, Rico has the 3s. Having the right shoes is key to survival, but Brandon and his mom cannot afford a better pair of sneakers. His lucky day arrives, though, when he crosses paths with a street hustler selling stolen shoes out of his van and who just so happens to have a pair of the original Air Jordans. Once Brandon has the shoes, he is imbued with confidence, suddenly able to talk smack back to Albert and Rico. Even girls start noticing him. His moment in the sun is cut short, however, when he is jumped on his way home, and a tough guy named Flaco (Kofi Siriboe) steals his Jordans.

Having had enough of being picked on, Brandon enlists Albert and Rico to join him on a quest to get his shoes back. In the meantime, he puts on a pair of his mother’s fluffy slippers, a visual metaphor that will be called back to throughout the film, and the trio venture to Oakland to find Brandon’s estranged cousin, Marlon (House of Cards’ Mahershala Ali), whom Brandon hopes will be able to set him on the path to finding Flaco.

Kicks has a rich, magical realism that elevates it above the run-of-the-mill coming-of-age or gangland film, most notably in the imaginary astronaut Brandon sees from time to time. The astronaut, in an Apollo-era spacesuit, at first represents Brandon’s desire to rise up out of the hood, but begins to take on new meanings as the story progresses. Director Justin Tipping has stated that numerous influences came together to inform his debut, including Spike Lee, Quentin Tarantino, and Spike Jonze, to name a few. But what is perhaps most surprising is how much Kicks follows the narrative structure of an old-school revenge western—after all, Brandon forms a posse to get his shoes back.

Flaco is a great villain in the classic mold: a man of few words, who grunts and flashes his fanged grill to menacing effect. He is all toughness, juxtaposed against Brandon’s flowered flip-flops. Tipping, who also served as co-writer, maintains a steady balance of fear and comic relief, and the film continually uses hip-hop hits and images on social media as a reminder that popular culture exudes a thirst for more violence, without considering the human casualties. For instance, Flaco’s initial violent encounter with Brandon is recorded on someone’s phone and shared. Later, Albert and Rico are shown watching the same kind of beatdown videos on YouTube.

There is a foreboding feeling throughout the third act that everything is leading to a truly terrible climax, and the closer Brandon and company get to Flaco, the more intense the images and sounds become. When they finally arrive at their ultimate destination, the film delivers a powerful last, ahem, kick.