BLACK AND WHITE (2000)
Grade: C
Director: James Toback
Screenplay: James Toback
Starring: Power, Bijou Phillips, Brooke Shields, Robert Downy Jr., Ben Stiller, Jared Leto, Allan Houston, Raekwon, William Lee Scott, Mike Tyson, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Joe Pantoliano, Method Man, James Toback, Gaby Hoffman, Brett Rattner, Kim Matulva, Claudia Schiffer, Marla Maples, Kidada Jones
The hipster had absorbed the existentialist synapses of the Negro, and
for all practical purposes could be considered a white Negro.
-Norman Mailer (The White Negro)
In 1957 a young writer by the name of Norman Mailer composed the infamous essay, THE WHITE NEGRO, a post-war musing designed as one of many strategies to shock his way into becoming a major literary figure of Hemingwayesque stature. Though the essay itself is consciously offensive (heralding the "Negro" as the definition of coolness), but perhaps in spite of himself, Mailer caught sight of a trend that was in its zygote stages; the glamorization of the black lifestyle, a lifestyle that indicates fashionable oppression as its provocateurist white members see it. The blackness projected by whites who want to be black (somewhat offensively designated as wiggers) is all surface hipness, for of course they cannot truly know what it means to be black, they want to be the black they see presented on that dictator of youth culture, MTV. They call each other "niggaz" and seek out black sex partners because they see them as exotic, and they want to make themselves exotic and different. James Toback's film is mostly about upper middle class whites who take on so-called black vernacular, adorn themselves in the latest hip hop fashions, and steal the attitudes of commercialized black culture.
Toback himself (like Mailer) has seemed in awe of this culture ever since the early seventies when he began his film career. His screenplay for THE GAMBLER (directed by Karel Reisz) was about a man who gambled, not for the money but for the utter thrill of that win or lose moment. It wasn't the result that propelled him but the process and by the end of the film when the gambler ventures out into a dangerous black neighborhood, we realize that it is nothing more than another gamble (one with his life). It's seen as the ultimate test of man hood, and I don't doubt for one second that the gambler is a stand in for Toback.
He explored a similar character in his directorial debut, my favorite Toback film, FINGERS, which ended with a sensual menage a trois between two lithe white women and a big burly black man (played by an eroticized Jim Brown) that soon turned dangerous. This all while the white protagonist watches as if viewing an animal make love to, then inflict pain upon his prey. The blackness Toback gives us in BLACK AND WHITE is similar. At first it's presented as sensual with ripe exoticism as the ultimate aphrodisiac, then titillation gives way to fear--the message being one I'm sure Spike Lee would approve of: that our cultures can never really mix it up without severe repercussions. Sadly, Toback doesn't explore the issue, he exploits it. With this film he's making a blaxploitation flick that thinks it's anthropology. He's so enthralled by rap, by the very essence of soulful ebony sexuality (mostly male) that he forgets to make an actual movie and by the end nothing is illuminated, except that Toback clearly has issues.
The writer\director lays his themes out like bumper cars, all his various views colliding into each other resulting in a mess of provocative ideas. It is reported that about 85% of the film was improvised, and that certainly shows. Improvisation is a chancy way to approach film. When it works it can be highly invigorating as in some of he better Robert Altman films, though when it doesn't, it can be torturously awkward as in some of the lesser Altman films. In BLACK AND WHITE we get helpings of both, though I think by the end the latter response wins out. Most of the invigorating exchanges happen when Robert Downy JR (as an eccentric gay man, though acting completely different from the eccentric gays he portrayed in HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS and WONDER BOYS) is on screen. Much of the film's comedy comes from when he hits on various unassuming men, one of those being Mike Tyson (who is fetishized here in the same way that Jim Brown was in FINGERS), who comes across a little brighter than you would expect, though reacts exactly the way you'd expect. Another terrific example is a scene wherein a bunch of black gangsters confront a white club owner (Scott Caan) over salary, with guns instead of negotiating tactics.
But alas, those are like a Janeane Garofalo appearance in a poorly made film (i.e. just about her entire output). The energy of those scenes only work to show how good the film could have been had Toback reigned himself in. Much of the movie becomes repetitive with elliptical conversations that don't lead anywhere. It's as if Toback blew his load early on and had nothing more to say so he simply repeated himself. That's a shame because the essential idea, to explore an identity crisis among white teenagers aching to be black (hip), is one of great promise.
But Toback doesn't explore these ideas, or points of views, he simply has his characters yap at us, using such devices as a documentarian who asks the white kids direct questions (giving them a chance to provide lengthy explanations), or unfocused conversations between blacks ("What do these white people want from us"). Instead of exploring the culture, he presents us with diatribes and monologues (all be it highly improvised, but Toback still controls the content) given by a crew of actors all in hopes of getting to the "truth". Whatever truths we get come entirely from these Hollywood actors (from teen idols like Jared Leto and Elijah Wood to ex-supermodels making an attempt at artistic credibility like Brooke Shields and Claudia Schiffer) attempting to emulate a culture I doubt they know much about.
In the Tobakian tradition he intertwines a pulp thriller plot with his ponderous anthropological explorations. That plot concerns a hyper verbal cop (Ben Stiller) who offers a college basketball star (real life point guard Allan Huston in a relatively bland performance) a bribe to throw a game. This plot doesn't go anywhere interesting, nor does it cohere with the rest of the film, but Toback has found something interesting in Stiller's character, who isn't much unlike the James Caan character (Toback's stand in, I'm convinced) in THE GAMBLER. He's an ex-con (referred to by others in the film as "the gambler") searching (not too swiftly) for some sort of redemption. The character is so interesting on his own that I would like to see him get his own movie. Ditto for Downy and (trust me this was a big surprise) Claudia Schiffer. Though her character is a typically beautiful, cunning, female fatale (whose motives still remain unclear to me) Schiffer plays her with such a cold, detached ideation that she transcends the Sharon Stone-esque similarities and becomes a rather potent and chilling force. Her final bit (during the end credits) gave me chills because of there not-so-subtle ramifications. Unfortunately Toback gives the majority of screen time to the stoical, emotionless Power whose cold stare never hints at anything beyond coldness.
I know I've given the film a harsh review, but I still applaud Toback for the effort. He's a true renegade, and it's quite extraordinary that he got such an eclectic cast to perform with such intemperance. He gets these stars to do things we've never seen them do and with a terrifically reckless abandon. He's also exploring the American culture with a kind of film that, at least on the surface, resembles the inventive cinema of the early 70's. Currently, we occasionally get Oliver Stone's bombastic ramblings on American institutions, but those are pandering at best. Even the majority of independent films shy away from cultural examination, opting instead for gleeful family dysfunction and cool detached white gangsters. (Though to be fair within the last year we've seen several films attempting to get back to this). Toback is unsuccessful, but he clearly had a vision and while he might not have tapped the pulse of the zeitgeist, he at least hit the wrist, which is something, I guess. It was reported that Toback ended up with four hours of possible footage to cut down. I'm willing to bet that there is a truly brilliant film in there somewhere. Instead Toback fished out a mediocre one.
http://www.geocities.com/incongruity98 Reeling (Ron Small)
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