Black and White (1999)

An examination of the New York rap scene in the late nineties uncovers a lot of characters who don't know anything about themselves, and don't care about much about anything else.I just watched this film sixteen years after it was made, and give the film credit for attempting to catch the language of the generation that it portrays. It doesn't succeed. It doesn't even try to catch the trouble of the times, nor the immediacy of the subject matter. The topics of racism, poverty and discrimination - which powered most of the New York scene in the nineties - weren't covered. Instead, much of the focus was on confused European Americans who worshiped hip-hop as a form of rebellion. Those scenes weren't even done right.James Toback wrote and directed the film in a vignette format. He jumps around from character to character giving them very little to do other than show no respect for whoever might be the authority figure.Who are the authority figures? Well, one is a banker, and another is the D.A. of NY. Ironically, the banker was probably involved with trading dirivatives which would go on to wreck the worldwide economy seven years later. And the real D.A. of NY at the time of this film's making would later be thrown out of elected office for funneling money to a prostitute and her escort services business - an escort that he was seeing at the time of the film's release.That's the problem with Toback's film - not that it lacks foresight. (It truly has no vision.) The principal problem is that it doesn't take the grievances or problems or wants of the character's it tries to portray as serious. Part of it was because he didn't do sufficient research into the characters or the genre of Hip Hop.The black rappers in the film are gangsta rappers - which if Toback would have done any type of investigation into the field, he would have found that the group he was writing about were West Coast rappers - not East Coast. There is no Puff Daddy or 50 Cent in this group. The basketball player that he portrays wouldn't have been asking his girlfriend if he should take $50,000 from a gambler. He would have asked his super rich drug dealing friend if he should have taken $50,000 from a gambler. Not to show any disrespect to his girlfriend, but his friend had probably more experience with that type of money, and problems caused by taking that type of money.Was Toback trying to create a film that showed his dislike of Rap? It seems that way. That's not where the fault lies. It lies in the fact that his dislike of the subject matter blinded him from doing the necessary crafting that goes into making a good film.

A white woman and her gay (sic) husband are making a documentary about white high school kids who hang with and emulate black people. There are several sub plots, one involving a basketball player who is offered a bribe to throw a game, but it's not clear if there is actually an overall plot to which the rest can be sub.James Toback is a well respected indie writer/producer/director, and he got a stellar and eclectic cast to work in this film. There's Robert Downey, Brooke Shields, Elijah Woods (in probably the only serious role he's ever had), Claudia Schiffer (speaking flawless Americanese), Mike Tyson (worth seeing just for the novelty), Joe Pantaleone, Ben Stiller, and some folks who are probably famous rappers but I am not acquainted with that world.What happens when you put this wildly inconsistent cast on a film that has a very loose plot and a kind of cinema (quasi-)verite style (shot with steady-cam) it's a little like watching an ice hockey game in which all the players are chess masters -- it sure is strange. I didn't say bad, or uninteresting, or unworthy -- just strange! Mike Tyson playing himself in this film is about what you'd expect -- shallow, unreliable, and self-absorbed, like any ex-con you'll ever meet. Elijah Woods gets what amounts to a cameo of no substance. Robert Downey Jr. does a clichéd gay man, and I couldn't help but think he looked very worried what his friends would think about it. Claudia Schiffer absolutely cannot act, but fortunately she gets to play a woman who is twisted and obscure anyway. Putting her in this film was a poor choice, but casting Ben Stiller as a NYPD detective and Claudia's ex! has to be the casting blunder of all time.So this is not your ordinary flick, but if you're up for something different you might enjoy it. Fans of James Toback will no doubt enjoy it for its subtler fine points, but I think most people will just be baffled by all the noise.

Robert Downey Jr. is fantastic in all of his 60 or so seconds in this film. I think he is one of the best comic actors of all time.Brooke Shields also does a spot-on amateur documentary film-maker shtick. I didn't even recognize her in her dreadlocks in the first half of the film. She and Downey trail a bunch of rich white high school kids half their age, trying to be one of them as they go slumming. Shields best moment is when she meets a recently married old friend on the Staten Island ferry, and you feel the disparity between Shield's refusing-to-grow-up character and her ordinary, grown-up old friend.Downey's best moments are when he tries to pick up Mike Tyson and when he tries to pick up one of the high school students, reprising his character in Wonder Boys. It's too bad Hollywood has an insurance clause against him now, because everything he does is exceedingly knowing.The flattest moments are the James Tolback Obligatory Sex In Central Park scene, apparently a rehearsal for an identical one in this year's "When will I be loved?", and in the contrived Typical Banker's Family Dinner with the Sullenly Rebellious Daughter While The Manservant Ladles the Soup. Please. We know Tolback has a lot of celebrity friends; they're all in his movies. I doubt he has met a single real banker in his life.Also we are treated to the same flaw which is in Black and White, namely the highly implausible plot devices that tie all of the characters together, wherever they live in the movie and whatever their social strata. He is a big buyer of the Deus Ex Machina.He's also a big buyer of improvisation. In the DVD he says almost all the films are improvised except the one where Claudia Schiffer impersonates what one critic called "the world's most unlikely graduate student", and another called "a surprisingly believable turn as a faithless brainiac". Whatever. She looks hot for the most part except towards the end where they're one outdoor shot in a riverside park where her lips just look too big and she looks like a squeaky and insufficiently made-up skinny yin-yang. What can you do. Her funniest moment was the split second sitting next to and conversing with Robert Downey Jr. when he turns to compare perfume notes with the young man sitting next to him, and she figures out she's no longer the center of attention and suddenly gets up and walks away. Her least likely moment is when she is about to have sex in a bathroom with her boyfriend's best friend. Not that the premise is unlikely: She is just too Teutonic and awkward beneath all that prettiness to look like she's about to tongue-wrestle with a big sweaty gangster. (Much more believable is the news story about her I read the other day where she is applying to private schools for her unborn child.)Tolback cast himself as Tolback pretty much, as usual. If you're the director, why not throw yourself a cameo? It's just a stone's throw from there to writing in a sex scene with the lead actress, but if he did that he'd have to write himself a lead part and then he'd be Vincent Gallo, but he's not, he's more of a voyeur; enough to write those Central Park scenes and shoot them in closeup with full improvisatory rein given to the actors. Let them really get into the moment, keep the cameras rolling.Am I boring you with this review? Is it running on a little long? Does it seem a little disconnected?If you think this is bad, go see the movie.

black and white doesn't make gray, this film is filled with colorful characters and great cameos, I love film like this which just sweep you up and take you around town with these different individuals just living with them for a few hours, the musical choices fit perfectly and performances Toback draws from his actors - no surprise even Tyson gets to impress me. another interesting choice for Downey JR. look for Brett Ratner overall 8/10