4 stars out of 5
I am always fascinated to see the publicity machine at work. Chris Rock had a movie coming out, that movie was aimed at me as an audience member, so suddenly, Chris Rock was EVERYWHERE i might possibly look: magazine covers, TV shows, radio interviews, etc. (His very funny Letterman appearance is literally re-airing as I type this.) Rock’s New York magazine interview went viral on my Facebook feed. The message I kept hearing over and over: The movie’s great, the movie’s great, the movie’s great; this is the one that will turn it all around for Chris Rock in the movie business.
And yet… I saw the trailer, I’d see the commercials, and I kept thinking: “This is going to be yet another unsuccessful Chris Rock movie.”
Guess what? It hasn’t been very successful. Which is a shame, because it is genuinely a really good movie.
Early on, I wasn’t so sure. I was enjoying it but was thinking, maybe this was overhyped, maybe Chris Rock is not quite as talented a screenwriter and director as he is a stand-up. And while that ultimately may still be the case, Rock ends up piecing together a much more subtle, complex, interesting, ambitious, and satisfying movie than I previously would’ve guessed.
Was it as simple as just “writing what he knows”? Maybe. Rock plays Andre Allen, a popular and well-regarded stand-up comedian who has been wasting his talent on the big screen, so now tries to make… the Serious Film. (There’s clearly some Eddie Murphy in the character too; Allen has walked away from stand-up.) Even with little touches such as people in the background calling out his character’s name, Rock is giving us a very honest portrayal of what it’s like to have a certain level of fame.
Rock also has a wonderful feel for New York; the city is rarely portrayed so realistically. From neighborhood to neighborhood, it feels authentic.
The script is loaded with different topics; it feels a little like Chris Rock’s State of the (Gabrielle?) Union address, or an outline for a stand-up routine transformed into a feature script. Aside from the many plusses and minuses of fame, there’s love, family, friendship, substance abuse, hip-hop history, reality television, Tyler Perry movies, wanting to be what you’re not, and finally, appreciating your own strengths.
And yet, Rock doesn’t really hit us over the head with any of it. (Though I do agree with Terry Gross that a comedic bit on gay sex was played a bit too broadly.) The subjects are woven into the conversation, with lots and lots of laughs as well, as we spend a long day’s journey into night with Andre Allen.
Rock is helped immeasurably by Rosario Dawson (as Chelsea Brown, the New York Times reporter interviewing Allen), who gives the best performance I’ve ever seen from her. The character she creates is smart, sexy, confident, and cool, but also a little jaded and vulnerable. Dawson goes toe-to-toe with Rock the entire movie and absolutely holds her own.
Who else is in this movie? Everybody. I was especially happy to see Ben Vereen, Brian Regan, Seinfeld, Tracy Morgan, Allan Havey, J.B. Smoove, and Wee-Bey.
So, there’s all that, and the movie builds to a really nice conclusion. Top Five isn’t a lock for my top five of the year… but top 10 is looking good.
Jack Silbert, curator