Sunday, March 26, 2006

Spike is Back

"Spike is back," my friend said as the credits to Inside Man came up.
Indeed, he was.
This is one of Lee's most commercial movies in years, one about a bank robbery heist in the spirit of Sidney Lumet's Dog Day Afternoon.
But it still retails that Spike Lee edge, those little touches that Lee sprinkles throughout his movie.
The movie draws you in from the beginning when we are introduced to Dalton Russell, played by Clive Owen. Russell introduces himself and says he is pulling off the perfect bank robbery.
And from there, you spend the rest of the movie figuring out how Russell does that. Denzel Washington plays a detective facing an Internal Affairs investigation and Jodie Foster is a powerful woman who specializes in "fixing" things, in this case the bank president played by Christopher Plummer who has a secret hiding in the bank vaults.
There's a lot of waiting around in this movie, but Lee never lets the pace slacken. Instead, he shows off multi-ethnic New York, and the dialogue is sharp and funny. Seeing Denzel Washington work is a treasure in itself.
And the payoff in the end is satisfying. Your face breaks into a smile as you discover the nice treats that Inside Man offers.
Is there a message? Isn't there always one in a Spike Lee Joint? But Lee doesn't let his need to make a point get in the way of telling a good story.
As my friend said, this film comes across as the work of a veteran director, as if all the lessons he has learned over his more than two decades of work came together on this movie.
Spike Lee is back. Thank God.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Take The Lead, or Just Follow

Take The Lead, which made its premiere Friday night at the RiverRun International Film Festival, is an entertaining piece of crap.
Sounds harsh for a movie that was such a crowd pleaser. But Hollywood trots this treacle every few years, the often-told tale of an idealistic teacher who goes to the inner-city school determined to inspire the students and change things for the better.
Well, I saw that movie. It was called Lean on Me, starring Morgan Freeman. And there was that other movie of whose title I can't remember that starred Michelle Pfieffer and featured that Coolio song.
What bothers me is there's a condescending "oh, those poor ghetto kids" white liberal sentiment that runs through those movies. And unfortunately, this movie suffers from it.
The characters are flat, and you never understand the motivations of Antonio Banderas' ballroom dance teacher Pierre Dulane. You just assume he decided one day he wanted to teach the waltz and the tango to a bunch of inner-city kids.
I know, this is based on a true story, and I'm sure the true story is much more interesting and complex than what's portrayed in this movie.
And that's the problem. You could figure everything out before the first credits to the movie end.
There aren't any surprises, and you hardly learn anything about Banderas' character, just that his wife died five years ago and he may possibly have had a rough life.
As for the kids, well, you have the tough but sensitive girl (played convincingly enough by YaYa, who some may remember for America's Next Top Model) and the hard-headed punk who really is trying to do the right thing.
Oh, there's also the white guy who wants to be black, and the awkward white girl from the suburb who feels more comfortable with the ghetto kids than the stuck up rich kids from her ballroom dancing class.
Now, I know this movie will make money. There's dancing. There's Antonio Banderas. But Take The Lead is simplistic and lacks soul.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Pimping Ain't Easy

For the past week, the Oscar win of rap group Three 6 Mafia for its song "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" has been praised and panned. Praised because the win was a historic moment for hip-hop, the first all-black rap group to perform at the usually unhip Academy Awards and to win the golden statue.
Panned because some were embarrased that a song about pimping (i.e. the sexual exploitation of women by men) was rewarded.
Part of me did cringe when the winner was announced. Too much of mainstream rap music glorifies pimping; the music videos are filled with booty flesh and the lyrics are full of sexual boasting at the expense of women.
But another part of me was thrilled. It was a genuine surprise and an indication that hip-hop has truly entered the mainstream. The culture cannot be dismissed or ignored anymore.
That says to me a couple of things. Hip-hop has been and continues to be a powerful force in the world. And hip-hop artists have a responsibility to bring balance to the music.
See, I don't expect every song that comes out to be self-righteous and consciousness-raising. Not every rock-and-roll song is that all the time. Never has been.
What I do demand is that rap music doesn't become bogged down in monotony. Spoken-word artist Saul Williams said it best when he said he simply wants to hear something different. Enough with the ice and the women and the guns and the beef.
Rap about something real. Rap about you, not what the corporate suits think is you or what they think the public will buy.
But in the end, what Three 6 Mafia won is an award. That's all it is. Cuba Gooding Jr. won one of those golden statues for his performance in Jerry Maguire. What the hell happened to his career?
Adrien Brody won for The Pianist. You see he didn't get any nominations for his recent turn in King Kong.
Awards don't change anything. People do.
And one final thought. The song, "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp," fit the movie, Hustle & Flow. The movie is predictable, your basic Rocky formula, except that Rocky is a pimp. But Terrence Howard's performance elevated the movie a bit, made DJay human, complex and real when he could have easily turned that role into caricature.
Howard may not be a pimp in real life, but let's just say he really pimped that role, and it wasn't easy.