Black and White (2000) Reviewed by Eugene Novikov http://www.ultimate-movie.com/ Member: Online Film Critics Society
Starring Brooke Shields, Robert Downey Jr., Ben Stiller, Allan Houston, Elijah Wood, Bijou Phillips, Power. Directed by James Toback. Rated R.
I think that in making Black and White director James Toback took all of the ideas he had and threw them up into the air with his eyes closed and fingers crossed, hoping to God that they somehow land in the right place. Indeed, the pieces fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. The film is about a lot of things and all of them are prevalent in one way or another. With such a maddeningly large array of themes and subjects, it's mighty impressive that Black and White works as well as it does. And yet instead of visualizing a cinematic genius intricately crafting a complex work of art, the image I got from watching the movie was that of Toback, sleep-deprived and haggard, desperately attempting the Herculean task of putting together a magnum opus in 15 minutes and miraculously succeeding.
There are a lot of overlapping storylines here and in its plotting, the film resembles a (deliberately?) disorganized version of Magnolia or Cradle Will Rock. It is being sold as a look at white people obsessed with black culture, but that is only one of the stories. It involves a documentary filmmaker (Brooke Shields) shooting a film about the subject, the group of kids (including a surprisingly convincing Elijah Wood and Bijou Phillips) who are her focus and her husband (Robert Downey Jr.), who is obviously gay even though his wife doesn't seem to realize it.
There is also the story of a star college point guard (real basketball player Allan Houston), who is approached by a policeman (Ben Stiller) posing as a gambler. His proposition: throw the upcoming game and get $50,000 cash. The purpose of this maneuver is to set the nice but gullable kid up and then blackmail him into ratting out one of his buddies who is the head of a gang. The policeman also approaches the district attorney whose son is involved with the gang leader with a different sort of proposal. And then there is Mike Tyson who, playing himself, is funny just by showing up.
Aware that a conventional filmmaking method for such unconventional subject matter wouldn't do, Toback decided to let the actors improvise a lot of their scenes. He gave them a general direction in which to head, turned on the camera and let them do their thing. The result is exactly what he was aiming for: the scenes have a flowing, unforced feel to them. It doesn't feel like we're watching a documentary but rather a movie that genuinely reflects real life. And anyway, no movie in which Mike Tyson gets to say "This is what I'm deciphering from your vernacular" can be all bad.
The surprise here is Allan Houston who has a real affablility and screen presence. Unlike fellow basketball-star-cum-thespian Shaquille O'Neal, Houston may have a real career in store for himself if he chooses to use his talent wisely and not accept projects trying to exploit his basketball stardom. In Black and White, Houston's troubled point guard is the only character I liked as a person.
Not everything works. Not every theme comes through loud and clear. The Ben Stiller character gets a lot of screen time and the movie makes a big deal out of him but he's never really explored and we struggle to understand him. In the end, Black and White works as a gritty slice-of- life movie, not trying to say anything concrete but simply to show. A lot is thrown on the screen and most of it hits home.
Grade: B+
©1999 Eugene Novikov
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