'3 Black Chicks Review...'
"The Best Man" (1999) Rated R; running time of 120 minutes IMDB site: http://us.imdb.com/Title?0168501 Official site: http://www.universalpictures.com/bestman/ Written by: Malcolm D. Lee Directed by:Malcolm D. Lee Starring: Taye Diggs, Nia Long, Morris Chestnut, Harold Perrineau Jr., Terrence Dashon Howard, Sanaa Lathan, Monica Calhoun, Melissa DeSousa
Review Copyright Rose Cooper, 1999 Review URL: http://www.3blackchicks.com/bamsbest.html
Remember what I said about "The Wood"? Well, ditto for this one. Get up, get out, and get tickets to "The Best Man", NOW. Sooner than that, even. Because as good as "The Wood" was, "The Best Man" runs circles around it.
The Story (WARNING: some spoilers contained below): Reminiscent of "The Big Chill", "The Best Man" tells the story of a group of old college friends who've come together for the weekend for the wedding of their friends Lance (Chestnut), a professional football player, and Mia (Calhoun), the love of his life. Complicating matters is the fact that Harper (Diggs), a writer, has written a book called "Unfinished Business", a barely-fictionalized account of the group's time together on campus--including the unfufilled night that the character otherwise known as Jordan (Long) spent with Harper's character, and more importantly, the character otherwise known as Mia's tryst with Harper's character. Since the book wasn't to be published until well after the wedding, Harper didn't sweat it too much--except unbeknownst to him, up-and-coming TV Producer Jordan had an advanced copy of the book and shared it with Murch (Perrineau), a law student who can't keep a secret (not to mention not being able to keep Shelby (DeSousa) off his tip long enough to straighten out his spine around her), and Quentin (Howard), a "ne'er-do-well professional student" (in Harper's eyes, the group member most wasting his talents), who can't wait to bust on Harper (since Harper constantly berates him for his life-choices). Further complicating matters is the Thing that Harper and Jordan still have for each other--much to the dismay of Robin (Lathan), Harper's girlfriend of two years with whom he can't quite bring himself to make a full committment.
[Did I forget anything?]
The Upshot: Never--not after "Soul Food", not after "love jones"; not even after the aforementioned "The Wood"--never have I come out of a mainstream motion picture feeling like I felt after seeing this one; feeling as if I saw myself and my college friends again. This movie touched on so many of the situations we all went through, it was scary. Though it was, of course, exaggerated (none of us seemed to have wound up with the football star, and I'm still working on that first novel), "The Best Man" rang true to me, on a personal level. And the funny thing is, not all of my college buddies were Black (I'll get back to that later).
Without having the "luxury" of being able to rely on the trickery of "thug life" or "booty call" flicks, the success of "The Best Man", and movies like it, depends on a strong, talented cast, writer, and director. This movie has all three in...uh, abundance. There wasn't a clunker amongst them, though Diggs (in my opinion, the second-weakest of a strong group) kept reminding me of both his "The Wood" and "How Stella Got Her Groove Back" characters. Still, he held his own, as did the rest: Chestnut (who looked yummy with that facial hair of his goin' on) was not only convincing as the former playboy baller turned committed groom, who believed in God and wanted his best man--Harper--to Feel Him too, he was also very funny in the role. Long's "Jordan" (who reminded me in many ways of our own Diva!) was on it as the professional Black woman who, unlike way too many of her sisters, did need a Black man in her life...if only for one night. Perrineau could swing those locks of his my way, any day; though he surpassed Diggs in the "needed to stretch the acting chops" category, his character was quite sweet in dealing with the hilarious Shelby--and DeSousa should win something for that performance of hers; she had me rollin'! Calhoun's "Mia" seemed otherworldly, especially in her first appearance; right away, I knew there was something more there than meets the eye. And as Robin, Harper's long-suffering girlfriend, Lathan's plea of "I'm not perfect [in comparison with Jordan]" to Harper, hit home with me, after all of the arguments I've had on various Black lists about how some Black men say they want "A Good Black Woman", but mean they want "The Closest Black Woman With Good Looks And A Slammin' Body That I Can Find Right Now".
But by far, my most favorite character was that of the oldest-looking one of the bunch, Quentin; which is saying a lot, because he was my least favorite character to begin with. The trash that fell from his lips (see below), annoyed me--until I realized that it was just much talk and bravado, covering up the deeper side of Q (the bid whist scene is what turned it around for me; and that these characters chilled over a game of bid whist, warmed me all the more to this movie). The more Q made me laugh, and the more I saw his instigating for what it was meant to be, the better I understood him (and like Jordan, Q reminds me of a scaalister who shall remain nameless, but everybody who follows scaalist, knows who I mean, I bet), and by his closing scene, I found myself wanting to hang around this great character--and his friends...
...none of whom could've been realized without the writing and directing talents of Malcolm Lee. Last week, before the movie opened, Lee and some of the cast members of "The Best Man" were on the campus of Michigan State, and because of a previous committment, I missed it, to my detriment. I sure would've liked to have met this man, who has all of the skills of his famous cousin, Spike, but none of the harsh (and sometimes misplaced) anger and overzealous storytelling (though you can indeed see shades of Spike's groove in Malcolm's work. Case in point: during the bachelor party, when Lance reads the passage in Harper's book that addresses Harper's and Mia's book character's involvement, the screen colors shift to a pot-boiling red, and you can see and feel the anger welling up in Lance without a word having to be said. If that wasn't a Spike-ism, my name ain't Bammer). Spike, I loves ya, hon, but Malcolm could teach you a thing or two about telling Our [non-monolithic] story. And so as not to negate Spike's rightful place in Black filmmaking, I'd love to see a more collaborative Spike and Malcolm joint; as my son is wont to say, I bet it'd be tight.
Aside from my personal joy in watching it, this flick told a story that was good in its own right, without the added "...for a Black movie" that is bound to come up in various reviews and general chatter about it. From the very nice opening titles, to the music (more on this in a minute, too), to the smart, sexy, and real characters and equally smart, sexy, and real story, "The Best Man" gets my early nod for one of the best movies of 1999. I'll put it this way: "The Matrix" is no longer standing on its "up there" platform alone.
This is not to say that there weren't problems with this flick, number one being its overuse of the term "nigga" and "bitches" (especially the former). Had they kept it to a single character--Q, in this case--I coulda dug it; but to hear that falling liberally from the lips of Harper (who, as a professional writer in his chosen genre, should've known better) and to a lesser extent, Lance, it just didn't fit the general positive groove of the movie. I also took Issue with the underuse of the extremely talented Perrineau (oh! the beauty of his locks! I could spend hours playing in th...oops. Caught digressing again). Surely there had to be more to him than his lack of balls, Malcolm! The final nitpick I had--that the wedding reception had a cliched live band "playing" obvious recordings of (nevertheless great) tunes by Earth Wind & Fire and Cameo--was completely wiped out by everyone at the reception doing the Electric Slide. Our audience cheered loudly at that, and I must say, I was amongst the cheerers. Good thing I stayed around for the credits too; I would otherwise have missed one of the best scenes in the whole flick.
All of which to say, if you are still reading this and haven't gone out to see the movie yet, shame on ya. Get up. Get out. Get tickets. NOW.
The "Black Factor" [ObDisclaimer: We Are Not A Monolith] As a Black woman, I see the "Black Factor"--things that affect me as a "consumer of color"--in many aspects of life; movies included. Whether from the standpoint of noting Black (and other "minority") cast and crew members (if any), to the (lack of) focus toward "people of color" (dag, I hate that term), to the out-and-out antagonistic attitude toward Us (Jar-Jar, anyone?), the "Black Factor" (BF) is something that plays as much a role in my film enjoyment as any other aspect of the movie itself.
The term "...for a Black movie" (along with its cohorts, "the Black [insert White movie or star's name]" is rife with (not-so-hidden) meaning. Taken one way, it could be seen as dismissal: "oh, that was good--'for a Black movie'". Taken another way, it could be seen as pleasant surprise: "Damn, that did well as the box office--'for a Black movie'" (and while we're on the subject, I wonder what the pundits will say about TBM being number one on its opening day? Hmmm...). But a curious thing happened before this one opened: I had just made mention on the "3BC Scheduled Reviews" page of how this flick was being favorably compared to "The Big Chill", when I saw Taye Diggs on one of the entertainment TV shows, blasting a reviewer for saying that TBM is "The Black 'The Big Chill'". And it made me pause, because I understand what Diggs was saying, and to a certain extent, agree with it: why did "The Black" have to be added to that statement? Does the fact that Blacks make up the majority of the cast, delegate it to being a "Black" movie (on the same lines as, say, "Carmen Jones" or "The Wiz", were?) And what of the Whites who enjoyed it? There were Whites of all ages in our audience; should they not have been there since it was seen as a "Black" movie? And what does that say about "White" movies? After all is said and done, as Diggs said, "I thought we've gotten past all that".
...but you see, on that ubiquitous Other Hand, past that "certain extent", I think Diggs was either being naive, or purposefully stirring up controversy to generate publicity for the movie. Because if you're Black In America (or White, for that matter, not to mention Latino, or Native, or, or, or...) and don't see that there are experiences that are unique to the culture in which you were raised, you are blind indeed (and man, do I hate the term "colorblind", for all that it denotes. "Color Indifferent", I can get with. But once again, I digress.) That doesn't mean that one can't appreciate or experience other situations; but that does mean that, for now, "The Best Man" is seen as "The Black 'The Big Chill'". The extent to which you say, or internalize, that as being racist or being something "we've gotten past", is the measure of where We are as a People, and as a country.
Bammer's Bottom Line: There's a new Lee in town, and his name is Malcolm. We'll be watching for more good stuff from you, my brother (and hoping that some of you will rub off on your cousin).
"The Best Man" (rating: greenlight) I have a space on my DVD shelf reserved for this flick--right next to "The Matrix".
3 Black Chicks...Movie Reviews With Flava! /~\ Rose "Bams" Cooper /','\ 3BlackChicks Enterprises /','`'\ Copyright Rose Cooper, 1999 /',',','/`, EMAIL: bams@3blackchicks.com ICQ: 7760005 `~-._'c / http://www.3blackchicks.com/ `\ ( http://manetheren.cl.msu.edu/~bambam/ /====\
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