Customer Reviews

Black & White [VHS]

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

This is probably the most in your face and ridiculous film James Toback has ever made which is no small claim considering his filmography. I say that because it's the easiest film of his to mock and disregard as a dumb movie. That's partly because of the way it was marketed as being about rich white kids (Bijou Philips, Elijah Wood, and Eddie Kaye Thomas) who try to imitate their hip hop idols by dressing and talking like them. We've all encountered our fair share of people like that and indeed we laugh at them and don't take them seriously. I'm not claiming that Toback gives us some kind of psychological insight into why people act like that but when you have actors as talented as Philips and Kaye Thomas you pay attention to them and want to understand them. The film is much more than white kids trying to act black. It's too much more in fact since Toback throws in too many different characters and subplots that all hinge on certain outcomes that don't seem realistic. There's a former gangster (Power) who's trying to go legit as a rap producer, a D.A. (Joe Pantoliano) trying to come to grips with his sons immersion into the thug life, a college basketball player (Allan Houston) who gets propositioned by a gambler (Ben Stiller) to throw a game for $50,000, the basketball player's girlfriend (Claudia Schiffer) who has eyes for his friend, and a group of white kids (including Scott Caan) opening a nightclub in the gangster's turf. Chronicling all of this is documentary filmmaker Sam Donager (Brooke Shields) and her husband Terry (Robert Downey Jr.). Sam initially follows the kids around and through their interactions meets all the other players including Mike Tyson. Tyson plays himself in the film and he is absolutely brilliant. I haven't mentioned yet that most of the film was improvised. Toback provided the actors with an outline of what the scenes were about and let them come up with their own dialogue. Keeping that in mind watch those scenes with Tyson, especially one where he counsels Power who's thinking about having someone killed, and marvel that Tyson came up with that dialogue himself. Toback couldn't have scripted it better. Or take a scene where Downey (whose character is gay) hits on Tyson and watch how quick Tyson turns from passive to violent. It's stuff like that and the brilliant performances of Philips, Stiller, Shields, and Downey that make this film exciting in spite of all the other B.S. Toback throws into the mix. I strongly recommend that you watch this movie twice in order to get a fuller understanding and appreciation of it. The DVD has two extended improvs, one featuring Tyson and Downey Jr. and the other between Bijou and her teacher (Jared Leto). The commentary track by Toback is easily his worst. He sounds stoned here and slurs his words a lot. If you're a fan of the movie and really wanted to learn more about it's creation it's a big letdown hearing Toback in this kind of shape. Easily one of the most uncomfortable commentaries I've ever listened to. The film has moments of pure genius but you really have to get past all the hype and posturing to appreciate them.

"Black and White," as the title implies, is an ambitious attempt to explore race relations in contemporary urban America, without resorting to the shibboleths, sugar-coated platitudes and pat answers one generally finds in more mainstream films on the subject.

Setting his tale in New York City and employing an intriguing mix of established and first time actors, many of them playing themselves on screen, writer/director James Toback explores the ways in which both sides of the black/white equation are essentially attempting to achieve the same basic goal: to gain acceptance in the other side's territory for reasons of either financial gain or personal validation. Here we have, for example, a group of white, upper middle class high school students, disillusioned by the empty materialism of their family and home lives, so drawn to the contemporary trendiness of the black hip-hop culture that they end up emulating and adopting its fashions, its terminology and its angry, anti-establishment attitudes. Yet, acceptance is not a guarantee in any area of life and what these youngsters do not realize is that they are perceived by the blacks as little more than pathetic hangers-on, cultural nomads to be exploited for their willingness to perform sexual favors or rituals of bloodletting when it is most convenient to the users.

Conversely, the blacks find themselves doing virtually the same thing, in this case, cowtowing to the white record industry executives who in turn exploit them for success and profit. Here we have gangster rappers attempting to go "straight" in order to achieve acceptability in the high-class world of the corporate entertainment elite.

Toback explores this often confusing but always fascinating world by laying out its topography in a non-linear fashion. The "story" consists of interlocking and overlapping characters culled from a wide range of social strata. Like a fine jigsaw puzzle, the film reveals a full panoramic picture as the assorted pieces fall nicely into place. The most morally complex plot strand involves a shady undercover cop (Ben Stiller), his ethically ambiguous ex-girlfriend and her new black, basketball star boyfriend. The first two characters in particular so thoroughly defy conventional pigeonholing in terms of moral consistency and clarity of motive that they keep the audience off balance and questioning throughout. In fact, it is this very refusal to simplify the moral (or perhaps amoral) complexities of the world he is showing us that makes Toback's document such a fascinating one to watch.

One could quibble with a few editorial choices, of course. The use of Brooks Shields and Robert Downey Jr. as a couple of bizarre documentary filmmakers seems a bit forced as a way to get the "outside world" into the proceedings. Some of the acting seems a bit amateurish, to say the least, and the dialogue occasionally sounds stilted and poorly rehearsed. And the use of Mike Tyson, appearing as himself, is positively surreal in its effect as we see him beating up a man who has made a sexual advance on him and advising a buddy to commit murder as an act of retaliation. How Toback got Tyson to agree to such an unflattering and downright damning portrayal of himself is truly beyond imagining.

Despite its few weaknesses, "Black and White" provides a searing look into the world of racial relations in this country. For its honesty, bravery and refusal to compromise, this is a film well worth studying and applauding.

I had long been waiting to see "Black and White," and when I finally did, I was torn between whether I liked it or not. It's hard for me to judge it because I had been waiting so long to see it. As the film opened, I thought that James Toback did an excellent job with the camera work, as well as the pen. He clearly showed the viewers the "differences" between the two races and how they try to intertwine. His use of witty vocabulary and camera techniques made his films deserve three stars, but the way he chose to proceed with the story and develop his ideas could have been done in a different way. As the film ended, I was wondering if this is how James Toback really sees the world, or if is just one of his fantasies. Worth watching on DVD for the deleated (and entertaining) scenes.

I have watched this DVD several times, and that ususally means it is one of my favorites, a five star performance. In this case, however, because of the director's inability to create cohesion between his two visions of how to tell this story (these stories) I give the film only four stars.First of all, there are the films many strengths: the hip-hop world has never been better and more honestly and more non-judgmentally portrayed; Mike Tyson, Downey JR., Houston, Phillips, and Schiffer give great performances; Much is learned about the connection between affluent white kids and hip-hop culture. Deep stuff.The big problem with the movie is that it would have worked as a documentary style film, or it would have worked as a plotted detective story. When these two ideas come together, however, the gritty reality of the hip-hop world does not mesh with the necessarily artificial plot contrivances of the detective story (even though it is a pretty good detective story).

Silly movie, that starts off focusing on Bijou Phillips' fascination with African American culture, especially the teenage hip hop phenomenon. Her parents are perplexed by her sudden change in attitude and behavior. Opening scene starts off with Phillips engaged in a menage-trois with Rich,(Power Grant)in the heart of Central Park. Rich, could be the confirmed main character if this convoluted story made any sense. Since it doesn't we are forced to make sense of this foolish movie. Phillips, who's silly rebellious nature allows her to "mix it up" with her fellow renegade "wiggers" and attempts to ingest the most out of "black life". The story starts out with good intentions, but ultimately takes a twist focusing on murder, point shaving, corruption, and you could include a love story. This movie could have received three stars if the following actors were not included; Claudia Schiffer, Alan Houston and Ben Stiller. Schiffer and Houston can be excused since they are not full time actors. But, Stiller has no explanation for being involved in such a project. An actor with such a solid body of work, shouldn't sell himself so cheap in this movie playing a detective/con-man. After seeing the movie I still don't really know what the Stiller character was. Robert Downey Jr. is excellent as always as Brooke Shields's homosexual husband. Mike Tyson, has a short speaking role in this movie, and a scene involving the troubled boxer and equally troubled actor is "hilarious". But besides these small funny moments, this movie is an awful depiction of a growing craze. During the movie, Power asks. ...."What do you think these people want from us"? He should have known....."A DECENT SCRIPT!!!!

Although I had a feeling this film was going to be "bad news", I decided to watch it anyhow. After watching it (looking for something redeeming), I found very little. For the most part, it was pointless. However, I will attempt to elaborate on why I didn't like "Black and White"...

As I watched the film, I got the feeling that Toback meant to use hip-hop (rappers) to represent "Black" culture, and upper-middle class white teens, their families, and various other adults to represent "White" culture. I have two problems with this:

#1) There is an imbalance of cinematic representation: on the Black side, we see rappers, two athletes, and just one Black female (Kidada Jones). On the White side, we see teens, their parents (including a District Attorney), a police officer (Ben Stiller), an anthropological student (Claudia Schiffer), studio owners, lawyers, a teacher (Jared Leto), and two documentary filmmakers (Brooke Shields and Robert Downey Jr.). Put concisely, I feel Toback's assertion that Black people as a whole can be defined by solely "hip-hop" culture is just plain silly, and incredibly stereotypical.

#2) Hip-hop, while it has roots in African-American tradition, is no longer the "Black" artform or culture that it once was. Like Jazz and Rock'n'Roll music before it, people of all races (Def Jam Germany anyone?) are currently participating and excelling in their study, appreciation, and performance of hip-hop. A more accurate description of hip-hop music now would be to call it a "youth culture" music.

The fact that some White youths tend to look outside their "culture" for a sense of identity is nothing new, and is definitely not limited to just "hip-hop" culture. Sociologically speaking, some segments of White culture have always been fascinated with the idea of appropriating aspects of foreign cultures (both domestic and international) for their own uses - from Madonna's late '90s fascination with Eastern religions, to Paul Simon's Graceland album. Really, this is nothing new. I think the conflicts (and shocking sex scenes) in this film will only help to crystallize racial divisions in our society. There are no solutions proposed, let alone explored.

The only redeeming performance in this whole film was Robert Downey Jr -- he never seemed to take himself too seriously, and this worked brilliantly well considering the pathetic context of this film.

C.H.R.

My God! My eyes are open! I finally see through the lies of the media! Thank you, Toback! Now I know that all black culture is little more than rap, drugs, murder and basketball! How unenlightened I've been! I now see that the white upperclass of America really is falling prey to the hiphop culture of the street!
What? This isn't true? REALLY? Well, you wouldn't know from Black and White, a by-the-numbers "tell-it-like-it-is" of the true state of the American way of life. Every stereotype of Griffith's Birth of a Nation is present, albeit from a differing angle. I guess this is why so much indie culture comes out of the midwest (the whitest of whitebread); they can say these things in their craft, and everyone here is duped by the result. I grew up in the South, where people of color actually live in large numbers. Not only did I KNOW a black guy, not only did I have black friends, but actually, I lived in (gasp!) a black neighborhood! I sat in classrooms which were...predominantly black! However, after coming to the midwest and teaching four years in the university here, I have had one, ONE black student.
This can be the only reason that Black and White is actually highly regarded. This movie is Tripe (with a capitol T). Oh and one more thing: white critics of America, stop falling for this "commentary" on racial relations in America. Maybe then, we can get something with a LITTLE realism!

Watching Robert Downey Jr. try to seduce Mike Tyson is worth the purchase price alone, but only just. The appropriation of black hip-hop culture by privileged white teenagers should prove interesting ground for storytelling, but James Toback's film is undermined by the lack of even one likeable character. It's very hard to care about the motivations or destinies of people you hate. Maybe that's the point? If so, fine, but it still doesn't make for a very substantial film. Two pleasant surprises amongst the trifling vignettes: Ben Stiller can be convincing outside of trash comedy, and Claudia Schiffer can act.

This is what happens when you make a movie with no script. It's basically a bunch of actors arguing with each other in character. Language, sex, violence...it's all here, but none of it for any discernable reason. I think a couple of the scenes were actually written. These form what little plot there is. There is a funny scene with Robert Downey Jr. coming on to Mike Tyson, but that's about it. I'm sure the filmmaker was trying to make some really profound point, but it's totally lost in the swirling, directionless flow of ... that is this movie going down the toilet.

This should have been a good movie - great cast, director, the camera work is glossy and gorgeous . . . but there's just no plot. There are too many characters, and none are given any depth - as an audience you just don't care about any of them. If you're a fan of any of the cast, and are hoping to buy this to see them (like I did for Elijah Wood) then DON'T. Chances are, they'll have only a few minutes of screen time.

The highlight of this movie was the sheer comedy value of watching Robert Downey Jnr flirt with Mike Tyson. The downside to this movie is . . . every other minute. And why Tyson should be given any screen time is beyond me. He is just as obnoxious and base as in real life and should not be glamourised in any form - which this movie threatens to do.

I'm sure there was a noble idea behind this movie, but it seems to have been lost. Save your money.