Fandango - Movie Tickets Online
 

Shopping

Travel

Jobs

Bargains

Cars

 

Search Now:

 

Join the MO Network Across the Web!


Film & Video


Black and White, 1999, 98 minutes, Rated R
By Steven Fullwood

Black and White is a film that no one should see without a sense of self-awareness and humor because that way you won't feel completely bad that you plopped down cash to see it. Director James Tolback's film deals specifically with young blacks and whites from divergent background (middle to upper class whites and hip-hop culture) and explores relationships borne out of curiosity and stereotypes. The story revolves around two friends, an aspiring rapper's manager named Rick (Wu-Tang Clan's Power) and a basketball player (Allan Houston.) Both date white women and end up turning on one another in the end.

 


To Buy
Click Here

 

But don't let me mislead you. Black and White is neither a "bad" film, nor a "good" film. What it does is lay bare our national consciousness when it comes to the state of race relations. The film's action is filtered through the eyes of young whites and blacks and numerous taboos are explored, such as the black man/white woman issue. The film's opening scene shows Rick sexing up two white girls in New York's Central Park, while his partner, and three young black boys look on. Nudity, public sex, interracial sex, voyeurism, and pornography flood your consciousness, demanding your attention in a way that doesn't allow you to sit pretty in the dark theatre. You become a voyeur, and thus are trapped. I found myself scrunched down in my seat most of the time, saddled with a queasiness in my stomach.

Toback fills Black and White to the rim with just about every racial and sexual taboo imaginable (black men's genitalia, "wiggers," gay, bisexuality, among others) in an attempt to "keep it real." This is further evidenced in the idea that the cast comprised of raps stars (Power, Raekwon, Method Man), athletes (Allan Houston and Mike Tyson), a model (Claudia Schiffer) and professional actors (Ben Stiller, Brooke Shields, Robert Downey, among others) were given the opportunity to come up with original, non-scripted dialogue. No doubt such a technique can work, but failure was imminent because most of these folks aren't actors. For example when Method Man shows up for his two minutes onscreen, the audience is treated to a boring sermon on the influence of Hip-Hop. The result is that most of the dialogue sounds forced, the non-actors being particularly stiff and noticeably self-conscious.

Despite this, Black and White delivers two good performances by Ben Stiller (Something About Mary) and Robert Downey, Jr. (The Pick-Up Artist). Stiller's twisted, jealous cop is excellent and Downey's predatory homosexual named Terry is quite convincing. In one poignant scene, after Terry makes a pass at beefy Tyson (a bad idea, right?), he gets royally trounced - a gay man's nightmare realized.

Black&White
© Screen Gems

 

Black and White is a fairly accurate, yet an uneven and often shapeless story about race relations (or rather human relations) in the United States. It ambles along, as we do, working through, and sometimes capitalizing, on stereotypical ideas about the "other" in order to sate our sexual and moralistic appetites. M

May 2000

 

AddThis Social Bookmark Button

 

 


Also . . .

Film Archive

 
 

Vote for MO'
Make Donation Below


Web

www.mosaec.com


Orbitz Sun and Ski $75 off hotel Exp Nov 12
 

Gear Up With MO'



ON SALE NOW: T-shirts, mugs, mousepads and more

 


|Art & Museums| |Books| |Culture| |Film & Video| |Music|
|Sites, Scenes & Words| |Sports| |Style| |Television| |Theater & Dance|


Offer from MOSAEC Sponsor

 

|BackTalk| |Community| |Archives| |About Us| |Advertise With Us| |Terms & Privacy Policy|

Copyright © 1999 - 2011 RLP Ventures, LLC and/or its suppliers. All rights reserved.
MOSÆC, MOSAEC, mosaec.com, MoQuotable, MoNews and Pfolio  are trademarks of RLP Ventures, LLC.