Rating: 15/20
Plot: 12-year-old Michael, the titular drug delivery boy in the projects where he resides, tries to survive the harsh lifestyle of the streets and protect the people he loves. Meanwhile, he plays chess with his father, Mace Windu.
At times, this feels like an after-school special with a peppering of motherfuckers. Now, I can't really say much about the authenticity or the lack of authenticity with this culture and its characters. I grew up in Happy Go Lucky White Boy Land (that was the actual name of the town where I grew up), and nobody in my home town had even heard of drugs. And use of the word "motherfucker" was generally frowned upon. I thought the adults seemed authentic for the most part. The kids and some of the dialogue? Well, I just don't know. Still, a lot of this sounded like it was penned by somebody who others would label the Urban Shakespeare of something. The dialogue, stuffed with street jargon and hip hop-isms that were around back when I was the only cracker in Happy Go Lucky White Boy Land listening to rap music until McDonalds started dicking around with the genre for commercials, made me want to incorporate or re-incorporate a lot of phrases into my own vernacular. Using "stupid" as an intensifier ("I'm stupid late"), buggin' out, trippin', stop frontin', bust it, dope, wack, illin'. I got a little nostalgic. Oh, and calling people G or Homes. Such colorful dialogue with people wanting to "grease that motherfucker like Sunday bacon," calling people "you big gorilla monkey ass," or compare a beer to "a tub of piss somebody farted in." That last one might actually be Shakespearean now that I think of it. I wish I could say things like that without sounding too much like that fat kid named Chuckie in this. I also wish I could get away with talking to students like Fresh's teacher does in this. Not only does she drop a "You must be trippin'," but she has these gems as well:
"Who do you think you are, the land of Oz?" (At least that's what I think she said.)
"Shut up and wipe that stupid looking thing that you probably think is a charming expression right off your face, boy."
"Boy, who's talking to you--me or that floor?"
She seems like the kind of teacher who's left a few kids behind in her day if you know what I mean and I know George Bush and his cronies do. Of course, Fresh's real teacher is his estranged father played by none other than Samuel L. Jackson, an actor who is probably going to be playing my favorite character in any movie he happens to be in. Here, he's a fedora-wearing chess player, imparting wisdom that--of course--can be taken literally and metaphorically because that's exactly the type of movie this is, and it's all as wonderful as you'd expect it to be. There's some nice chess trash talk, and Jackson gets to say things like, "If your mind is somewhere else than take your ass over there to keep it company. I'm not going to waste my time with some half-assed fishcake opponent." That's something I guess I could try to pull off, but I doubt I could. Jackson doesn't get a ton of screen time, and I'm not quite sure his character isn't extraneous, but he's great. Just as great is Giancarlo Esposito as Esteban. And he's naked, and I'm not going to hide the fact (but perhaps should) that the guy's got a rockin' bod. Esposito's character has the same kind of calm ferocity that Gus has in Breaking Bad. There is a whole lot of bad acting from the children in this though. Sean Nelson plays the lead well enough although there's a little inconsistency. He doesn't quite have the emotional range to handle every scene his character finds himself in, but he nails an emotional final scene. Luis Lantigua plays his friend Chuckie, his only other role except for a part in a Law and Order episode that came out the same year. The reason for his abbreviated career is probably because he's terrible. Of course, he's not given the greatest dialogue exactly and spends most of his scenes saying "I bust those dope moves" again and again although at least once he says, "I got stupid juice" instead. He's a ridiculous character, and didn't really seem any less ridiculous after I figured out that "I bust those dope moves" was the movie's clumsy way of hammering the idea that he's the knight in Fresh's little chess game into our heads. The idea of having people in Fresh's life represent chess pieces is a good one although I wish it was more fully realized or maybe more complex. I am glad this didn't go full after-school special though and have the character escape his troubles by playing the board game because that would have been stupid. Fresh's scheming is put together cleverly enough. And the chess was pretty legit in this, too. Well, except for Jackson telling his son "that was the first time you ever checked me" which made this sound like it was written by somebody who has never played chess before. But there are some real players mentioned, and I liked watching the few chess scenes in the park in this movie. Fresh's "would have been mate in four if you weren't so dumb" is classic, and I wish there would have been more scenes with Nelson or Jackson playing chess with other people. I don't imagine extended chess scenes would have been all that popular in the 90's or any other time either. Of course, the movie's not really about chess. It's about drug crime, and as expected from a movie about drug crime and children either at the center of it all or on the periphery, there's a lot about this that's intense or just plain sad. A shot of a basketball with no sound other than the shuffling of feet was shocking and nearly brought tears to my eyes. There was also a pair of scenes with a dog that were hard to watch, both because they just looked a little too real. Michael Vick would probably think so, too. I also liked policeman Stewart Copeland's score, mostly because it wasn't too obvious. I'd never heard of this movie, but I liked it a lot despite its flaws. It would have been a checkmate if only Samuel L. Jackson could have had the line "En passant, motherfucker!" in there somewhere. He definitely should say that in one movie before he's done.
Sorry about being late on this one, Oprah Movie Club participants. Reminder: We're also watching Searching for Bobby Fischer by the end of the month. Chess!
2 comments:
Yeah, you got it right again. It was certainly a powerful movie. I feel like it did what it wanted to do: show us the gritty, all-too-realy life of a boy which forces him to be a man all too soon. However, I think the writers/director were trying to be clever with this story and that is what didn't pay off.
The world created here is legit. The actors all do their part to make it intimidating for little Fresh and us, the audience. Even though I would be a bystander watching, I could almost imaging one of the thugs turning to the camera and yelling "what the fuck you lookin' at, motherfucka! I'll pop yo' cracka-ass!" ...or whatever. The point is, it sucks you in and, at times, you want it to let you go.
The times you don't want it to release you are with the ever-charismatic Sammy Jackson. He is a bit superfluous, BUT...it's all good in the hood. He brings a touch of intelligence to this movie. His character almost helps bring home the cleverness that the writers/director wanted.
That "cleverness" that I've mentioned is the chess allegory. Fresh uses his chess skills (and he's certainly got 'em) to work his way out of the drug business for ever. He uses those around him as his pieces. But this just doesn't end up working for me. First of all, if he's so damn good at chess, then why was he so predictable? I understand that the characters didn't see it coming, but couldn't the audience have been surprised as well? Couldn't they have written it so that we were tricked as well? Breaking Bad pulled it off. I just think that it was all way too obvious.
Also, I don't like the Chuckie incident (although, I couldn't take another "dope move" line). Fresh's plan should have been flawless for it to be memorable. Speaking of Chuckie, that kid was the 'illest thing about this movie...I mean illest as in most sickly or putrid.
The good outweighed the bad, however. The boy who played Fresh did a great job for a child actor. I think he was subtle and pretty straigh-foward. The gangstas, thugs, and druggies all bring it. And the most haunting part which is done nearly perfectly is the bloodbath on the basketball court. The kicking sound of the girl's leg, Fresh slowly realizing the reality, and the girl...just holding her throat...laying in the cool pool of crimson. That's tattooed on my memory of this movie.
You're probably smarter than me because I didn't think this was as predictable as you did. I did end up thinking it was clever enough, but you're right that it could have been pulled off better. Maybe a little less obviously?
"Good in the hood"...oh, my.
See, if the Oprah Movie Club actually worked right, people would get a chance to see a really interesting movie. C'mon, people! This is on Netflix, so you have no excuse!
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