Here’s an excerpt of Rosemary Bystrak‘s review of Matthew Binder‘s High in the Streets:

Lou’s attempts to obliterate his sorrows unfold in a series of funny, surprising, and unexpectedly moving vignettes. He sees himself as one of the many downtrodden, lost souls living in the shadow of Hollywood, but nobody is quite who they seem to be.

Binder’s characters seek redemption everywhere they can: money, fame, narcotic ecstasy, physical fitness, friendship, a father and child reunion. A trendy nightclub and a seedy motel and a beautifully articulated last-chance prizefight. He lures us into Lou’s story with all of its squalid glamor, and then pulls the curtain away to show the open sores beneath the character’s macho posturing and his tragic hero self-image. What happens to someone who just doesn’t fit into mainstream society anymore…and maybe never did?

Read the rest HERE.