MOVIE

Univers'l

1997 · 97 min ·

No one's getting along at the Univers'l strip mall in So Central LA on April 29, 1992, the day the Rodney King verdicts come down. An African-American liquor store owner has a nervous crush on a Vietnamese manicurist. A rich Beverly Hills housewife who wants to help "you people" by building a womens' shelter has just had her Mercedes stolen. The Iranian dry cleaners have destroyed a dress, a group of Swedish equestrians is hopelessly lost, and Kong, the Korean landlord, is missing. With a relentless hyperkinetic visual energy and creeping sense of impending terror, UNIVERS'L captures one long day in a rundown mini-mall when the riots engulf the city.