Whoop that Trick
Tonight Kate was so gracious as to watch Myles so that I could go to a movie. I haven't been to a movie in months. The life I once led, where I would go to 2, 3, and even 4 movies in one day feels like a movie to me.
I couldn't decide what movie to see--at the time I was going, I could choose from You and Me and Everyone We Know or Hustle & Flow. I had not heard much about H&F, though Kate had read some positive press about it. I saw that it was producced by MTV films, a studio that has contributed so much to American cinema, what with Jackass, and Pootie Tang and Crossroads. I also was wary about this being a "rap" movie, not because I don't like hip-hop or rap, but often these movies devolve into bad cliches or parodies of themselves. But the later start time of H&F helped its cause because I got there when I got there.
I really like this movie. The caveat here is that I am about to write what will appear to be an endorsement of the movie. Please don't take this to be a recommendation. This movie is out-and-out vulgar, a little violent, and very much not one size fits most. If you are intrigued at all by what I write here, reasearch the movie and decide if, in the words of the Christian Science Monitor critic, you " can wade through the thicket of sordidness and foul language" and "find this self-financed 'indie' a labor of love and hope."
Terence Dashon Howard is DJay, a small-time pimp and pusher in Memphis that is renewing his childhood dream of being a rapper. He does not do this out of a a realization of what a dead-end life he leads or that he has a desire to "go straight" (as noted in the USCCB review), but rather he thinks he has some talent at laying down the rhymes and hearing some sort of hook and this talent will make him rich (as I would suppose he thought at one time pimping would). This is somewhat brought on by the anticipated annual homecoming party of Skinny Black, a Memphis born rap star played in the movie by LUDACRIS, and DJay thinking, if he can do it why can't I, both of us coming from where we come from.
The best part of this movie was that as a viewer, I was not constantly rooting for the protagonist. THIS IS NOT A CRUNK ROCKY! In fact, there were times when I found him despicable and disgusting and hoped that he never got off the streets. While some filmakers might even show that his doing what he has to do to survive as noble even if the acts alone are inherently bad (like kicking one of your live-in ho's and her crying baby out of the house at 3 am--I can't even begin to describe this scene without feeling queasy) by dressing it up as necessary evil for his creative process and progress, nothing in this movie is justified by the writer/director Craig Brewer. When you see the movie, you can see the events and actions as they are. I did not agree with this NY TImes review, by the way, because I never thought that the filmaker "bends over backwards to assure viewers that he's a nice guy afterall." I mean, what , because he treasures his father's watch I should ignore what he did to get the microphone? And he is never contrite at all, but he isn't proud either. It was actually refreshing not to feel like the director is trying to manipulate me morally. At times DJay is despicable, at times remarkably tender, at times pathetic......Never do you feel as though Brewer is using the movie as a rant or an excuse. I really felt as though I were watching this movie through a truly transparent lens.
There were two minor shortcomings to the movie, for me, that detracted only a little from my experience of the movie. One is some of the nudity was, well unnecessary. I hold the director a little suspect because he is white (I think) and the strippers are all African American, and it seems almost fetisch as much as he shows for as long as he does. It wasn't even critical to the story or creating the scene. You already figured out that Lex is a stripper, and therefore all her coworkers are strippers. It wasn't critical to the story to show as much in the strip club locker room scene, when all DJay and Lex are talking about is that they are both hungry. The second is that there is a kiss that goes on annoyingly long. After a while I was like, okay, I get it, this kiss means there is something real and special between these two people. Even the set-up to it was a little strange.
Even though some reviews that I read online before and after seeing this movie decry some of the descent into cliches, I really didn't find that to be as much the case. Many times in the movie I started to toll my eyes and think to myself--oh wait, don't tell me what is going to happen next--only to be surprised. There were still some real cliche moments, but the reason that you have cliches in movies is that they are easily understood. If there are other complicated things or people going on in the movie, a cliche will help balance that out so that you can decifer other parts of the movie.
Earlier in this post I described this movie as NOT a Crunk Rocky. It also isn't one of those sappy power of music to bring people together movies. Or a follow your dreams movie. It is a movie about not idealized people in not glamorized situations or even not unnecessarily debased situations who are not being and not about to be reaping rewards. Can you follow that?
I couldn't decide what movie to see--at the time I was going, I could choose from You and Me and Everyone We Know or Hustle & Flow. I had not heard much about H&F, though Kate had read some positive press about it. I saw that it was producced by MTV films, a studio that has contributed so much to American cinema, what with Jackass, and Pootie Tang and Crossroads. I also was wary about this being a "rap" movie, not because I don't like hip-hop or rap, but often these movies devolve into bad cliches or parodies of themselves. But the later start time of H&F helped its cause because I got there when I got there.
I really like this movie. The caveat here is that I am about to write what will appear to be an endorsement of the movie. Please don't take this to be a recommendation. This movie is out-and-out vulgar, a little violent, and very much not one size fits most. If you are intrigued at all by what I write here, reasearch the movie and decide if, in the words of the Christian Science Monitor critic, you " can wade through the thicket of sordidness and foul language" and "find this self-financed 'indie' a labor of love and hope."
Terence Dashon Howard is DJay, a small-time pimp and pusher in Memphis that is renewing his childhood dream of being a rapper. He does not do this out of a a realization of what a dead-end life he leads or that he has a desire to "go straight" (as noted in the USCCB review), but rather he thinks he has some talent at laying down the rhymes and hearing some sort of hook and this talent will make him rich (as I would suppose he thought at one time pimping would). This is somewhat brought on by the anticipated annual homecoming party of Skinny Black, a Memphis born rap star played in the movie by LUDACRIS, and DJay thinking, if he can do it why can't I, both of us coming from where we come from.
The best part of this movie was that as a viewer, I was not constantly rooting for the protagonist. THIS IS NOT A CRUNK ROCKY! In fact, there were times when I found him despicable and disgusting and hoped that he never got off the streets. While some filmakers might even show that his doing what he has to do to survive as noble even if the acts alone are inherently bad (like kicking one of your live-in ho's and her crying baby out of the house at 3 am--I can't even begin to describe this scene without feeling queasy) by dressing it up as necessary evil for his creative process and progress, nothing in this movie is justified by the writer/director Craig Brewer. When you see the movie, you can see the events and actions as they are. I did not agree with this NY TImes review, by the way, because I never thought that the filmaker "bends over backwards to assure viewers that he's a nice guy afterall." I mean, what , because he treasures his father's watch I should ignore what he did to get the microphone? And he is never contrite at all, but he isn't proud either. It was actually refreshing not to feel like the director is trying to manipulate me morally. At times DJay is despicable, at times remarkably tender, at times pathetic......Never do you feel as though Brewer is using the movie as a rant or an excuse. I really felt as though I were watching this movie through a truly transparent lens.
There were two minor shortcomings to the movie, for me, that detracted only a little from my experience of the movie. One is some of the nudity was, well unnecessary. I hold the director a little suspect because he is white (I think) and the strippers are all African American, and it seems almost fetisch as much as he shows for as long as he does. It wasn't even critical to the story or creating the scene. You already figured out that Lex is a stripper, and therefore all her coworkers are strippers. It wasn't critical to the story to show as much in the strip club locker room scene, when all DJay and Lex are talking about is that they are both hungry. The second is that there is a kiss that goes on annoyingly long. After a while I was like, okay, I get it, this kiss means there is something real and special between these two people. Even the set-up to it was a little strange.
Even though some reviews that I read online before and after seeing this movie decry some of the descent into cliches, I really didn't find that to be as much the case. Many times in the movie I started to toll my eyes and think to myself--oh wait, don't tell me what is going to happen next--only to be surprised. There were still some real cliche moments, but the reason that you have cliches in movies is that they are easily understood. If there are other complicated things or people going on in the movie, a cliche will help balance that out so that you can decifer other parts of the movie.
Earlier in this post I described this movie as NOT a Crunk Rocky. It also isn't one of those sappy power of music to bring people together movies. Or a follow your dreams movie. It is a movie about not idealized people in not glamorized situations or even not unnecessarily debased situations who are not being and not about to be reaping rewards. Can you follow that?
Comments