BLACK AND WHITE R
Starring Power, Raekwon, Allan Houston, Claudia Schiffer, Brooke Shields, Bijou Phillips, Scott Caan, Robert Downey, Mike Tyson, Ben Stiller, and Method Man
Eric says: ******** 1/2 (8 1/2)
A traditional, light, movie plot whose background, foreground, and motivation happen to be about race. I was expecting a heavy-handed morality play about racism. What I got was a simple movie that actually chooses its spots cautiously when trying to make a point.
Sub-plots abound as a documentarian follows a group of middle-class white kids who long to live the hip hop life. As we follow them, the line between reality and fantasy blurs wonderfully as we meet a rapper playing a rapper, a basketball player portraying a basketball player, and Mike Tyson being himself. I had heard a little about the improvisational nature that director James Toback took in the scenes involving the non-actors, and it comes across in a favorable way when watching the movie. Everything Tyson says seems just like that - that he is saying it to real people. There is an "organic" feel to many scenes, almost becoming a doc itself.
While there is a central plot involving the life of trying-to-reform street thug Rich Bower and the web of friends and enemies he has collected, the movie as a whole breezily just gives us a day in the life of interesting people. I left the theatre having a general warm feeling of contentment. The fact that that warmth emanated from an entertaining movie more than any deep understanding of race relations is actually a compliment to Toback - I enjoyed the movie without bothering with the race, which is probably the point he wanted to make all along.
David says:
-CURRENT MOVIES-
U-571
THE SKULLS
BLACK AND WHITE
AMERICAN PSYCHO
RULES OF ENGAGEMENT
ROAD TO EL DORADO
FLINTSTONES:VIVA ROCK VEGAS
FREQUENCY