On the surface, this collection of shorts by up-and-coming African American filmmakers arrived at a perfect time. The cutting-edge products of the New Black Cinema of the early '90s had disappeared, giving way to embarrassingly stereotypical, scatological fare such as
Booty Call and
Next Friday. This feature-packed compilation (which includes production notes, interviews with all of the filmmakers, and audio commentary by four) attempts to prove that African American cinema is intent on moving past the lowbrow humor, as six of the seven shorts steer clear of any comedy. For example,
A Gut Feeling is a creepy, supernatural film noir that relies heavily on moody atmosphere, while
Breakfast at Ben's and
Kings look deeply into cultural issues such as racism and stereotypes, featuring protagonists rising out of the ghetto. There's even a documentary here,
Hip Hop: The New World Order, which attempts, albeit thinly, to show the expansive impact of rap music all over the globe. While this is all respectable, most of these shorts reveal the main flaw that's ruining not only African American cinema, but all American movies: The writing is terrible. Many of these directors demonstrate a knack for visual style and a professional handling of their amateur actors, but the writing, for the most part, is paper-thin, cliché ridden, and often painful (
The Gift and
Breakdown tie for worst honors). Ironically, it's Charles Stone III's
true, the shortest film here--and the one that spawned both the pop culture catch phrase "Whazzup?!" and the successful series of Budweiser commercials--that gets it all right. In a span of 2 minutes, Stone's minimalist dialogue and frantic editing give a hilarious look at male bonding, though virtually nothing is said. On his commentary track, Stone says his main focus as a filmmaker is his words; the script is the key. The other six directors here should listen up.
--Dave McCoy
