Black and White

Rating

Director

James Toback

Screenplay

James Toback

Length

1h 38m

Starring

Scott Caan, Robert Downey Jr., Stacy Edwards, Allan Houston, Gaby Hoffman, Kidada Jones, Jared Leto, Marla Maples, Joe Pantoliano, Bijou Phillips, Power

MPAA Rating

R

Review

PREFACE:
In the early 2000s, I was writing reviews for an outfit called Apollo Guide Reviews. That website has since been closed down.

Attempting to reconstruct those reviews has been an exercise in frustration. Having sent them to Apollo Guide via email on a server I no longer have access to (and which probably doesn’t have records going back that far), my only option was to dig through The Wayback Machine to see if I could find them there. Unfortunately, while I found a number of reviews, a handful of them have disappeared into the ether. At this point, almost two decades later, it is rather unlikely that I will find them again.

Luckily, I was able to locate my original review of this particular film. Please note that I was not doing my own editing at the time, Apollo Guide was. As such, there may be more than your standard number of grammatical and spelling errors in this review. In an attempt to preserve what my style had been like back then, I am not re-editing these reviews, which are presented as-is.

REVIEW:
With an onslaught of race and ethnic-themed films at theatres, it’s often hard to tell which have serious morals and which are pure fluff driven by the traditional Hollywood economy. Black and White takes the former approach by asking serious questions about relations between African American and Caucasian populations in urban settings.

Several stories weave through this surprisingly short film (100 minutes wouldn’t seem especially brief, except that this film tries to accomplish an awful lot in that modest amount of time). The primary story centres on gang leader and soon-to-be rap star Rich (Oli “Power” Grant) whose greatest ambition is to record an album to promote racial harmony. A second storyline focuses on a group of white high school students who imitate the hip-hop culture and end up involved with the third storyline – that of a documentary filmmaker (Brooke Shields) and her gay husband (Robert Downey Jr.) who want to examine the effects of hip-hop on white culture and the rationale behind the mimicry. Then there’s the story of a basketball player (Allan Houston) who’s asked to throw a game in exchange for a few extra bucks, and his girlfriend (Claudia Schiffer) whose master’s thesis is more important than her relationship.

One of the biggest problems with Black and White is its overly ambitious structure. The film is never able to focus on one storyline long enough to make a meaningful statement before moving on to another and leaving the audience unsatisfied.

A bevy of talented and not-so-talented actors makes up this above-average ensemble that sometimes manages to keep us interested when the storytelling falters. Downey is a bit over the top, but Shields gives it her all as the feisty and pushy documentarian. Meanwhile, the actors playing the high school students have talent of their own. Most notable are long-time child star Elijah Wood, Eddie Kaye Thomas and Gaby Hoffman.

Sadly, the worst performance comes from the man playing the central character. Grant never seems to connect with his character, preferring to drone on in a monotonous voice that rarely exudes emotion. There’s no good reason for his character to be as inexpressive. In fact, there are moments when you’d expect him to show rage and others where you’d expect him to be warm and good-natured. But we see neither.

As for the film’s optimistic theme about racial coexistence, it’s difficult to buy the implication that hip-hop brings the races together. The impact of hip-hop is more than slightly exaggerated here – it simply doesn’t touch as wide a range of subcultures as the filmmakers seem to think.

Black and White is an interesting movie that tackles important social issues. However, the film drags too much to keep an intelligent audience interested long enough to fully grasp its message – and even if they do, it might not be convincing.

Review Written

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