Notorious is a film that fails to succeed completely because of its inability to cross between cultures. It's too familiar for the people who would actually be interested in seeing it, and it's too inept and poorly-paced to make converts of the sort of people who would need convincing. It has a good number of the same problems that all music biopics do: it's overlong, many of its actors seem to be merely imitating the characters, and it fails to bridge the gap between good, bad and real. Reading reviews of the film after writing this writing, I had to go back an append it for something I noticed: most of the reviewers that have no connection to this genre of music seemed to feel that Biggie came off as a wholly unlikeable individual that the film not only failed to explain to outsiders why he is so loved, but made those in a neutral position shift towards the negative.
Watching the film, I felt it balanced the tone well between the redeeming charm and innate goodness, and the lunkheaded, morally ambiguous badness, but I wonder how much of that is due to my overt familiarity with the artist himself. Being someone who knows the words to almost every song he made, my opinion and familiarity of the man made Notorious a series of cinematic reenactments of events and recordings and stories that I've heard a thousand times. Like someone watching an adaptation of a book they've read hundreds of times, I ended up focusing on the recreation more than the storytelling, so I can understand the reactions based on the difference in point of view.
The Notorious B.I.G. was such a unique, memorable individual that any attempt to emulate or inhabit him would be nothing but an imitation, and the role as essayed by first-timer Jamal Woolard is one of someone who studied really hard trying to learn his specifics, instead of someone who gets the heart of the man. He can ride a track just fine, but in dialogue, his voice sounds more like Shyne than Biggie, which is fitting considering that accusations of being a poor man's Biggie were leveled at Shyne until he took that gun charge for Puffy. Speaking of Puffy, Derek Luke's acting is more of a mockery than an imitation, which is odd considering that Puffy is an executive producer. Then again, it almost balances the fact that Puffy as a character is whitewashed to the point of almost being a guardian angel. He's not seen in much detail, but when he is, it's only to serve as a catalyst to success, a shining beacon of Right. Being essentially a budget production, the rest of the no-name cast is uneven. Praise should go to most of the female actors. Angela Bassett actually does get Voletta Wallace, from her disposition to her accent, Ex-3LW member Naturi Naughton similarly gets Lil' Kim (as well as naked), and Antonique Smith is a dead ringer for Faith Evans. On the other hand, Anthony Mackie zaps 2Pac of all his humanity, and an even more fascinatingly divergent character than Biggie turns into a gibbering, ignorant hooligan, despite Biggie's slack narration about how "complicated" he was. Sean Ringgold makes Suge Knight as a big, threatening man, but fails to recreate Knight's simmering menace, brought to the forefront by his version of the Source Awards clip, one of the most played and infamous moments in the entire beef.
In the end, though, it's the technical aspects that let the film down even more than the acting. The direction is uninspired and mostly observatory, point-and-shoot stuff. The writing is a combination of lack of effort and lack of ideas. Half of the film writes itself since the entire situation is so well-documented, both in the media and by Biggie himself. In fact, the film's biggest weakness is to emulate Biggie's talent for speech and wordplay. Notorious the man, was a great speaker because he had a talent for painting vivid pictorials and bringing humanity into otherwise sketchy situations, while Notorious the movie brings to us a dull narration and a proclivity for awkwardly rounded storytelling (i.e. he finally finds his Meaning of Life minutes before being gunned down) that just makes everything seem blunted (and not the good kind).
The man who famously said he went "from ashy to classy" has been done a disservice by the people who care about him the most. To keep that metaphor, this film needs some damn lotion. If you're interested in the facts of the legendary coast battle that led to the death of "the black Frank White" as well as Tupac Shakur, maybe look into the documentary Biggie & Tupac (which I have not seen) as well as the excellent Tupac: Resurrection (which I have). If you want to know about all the details of Biggie's backstory, just pick up a copy of Biggie's Ready to Die and put it on track 10. Or, go to YouTube and type in "notorious b.i.g. juicy", and you'll be able to see the recreation of the event with Chris Wallace himself in the role of Biggie. Notorious lasts 123 minutes. "Juicy" lasts a twenty-fifth of that length, and is twice the artistic achievement. That track's a 10. Notorious? 'Bout a 5.
{Grade: 5/10 (C) / #1 (of 1) of 2009}
Watching the film, I felt it balanced the tone well between the redeeming charm and innate goodness, and the lunkheaded, morally ambiguous badness, but I wonder how much of that is due to my overt familiarity with the artist himself. Being someone who knows the words to almost every song he made, my opinion and familiarity of the man made Notorious a series of cinematic reenactments of events and recordings and stories that I've heard a thousand times. Like someone watching an adaptation of a book they've read hundreds of times, I ended up focusing on the recreation more than the storytelling, so I can understand the reactions based on the difference in point of view.
The Notorious B.I.G. was such a unique, memorable individual that any attempt to emulate or inhabit him would be nothing but an imitation, and the role as essayed by first-timer Jamal Woolard is one of someone who studied really hard trying to learn his specifics, instead of someone who gets the heart of the man. He can ride a track just fine, but in dialogue, his voice sounds more like Shyne than Biggie, which is fitting considering that accusations of being a poor man's Biggie were leveled at Shyne until he took that gun charge for Puffy. Speaking of Puffy, Derek Luke's acting is more of a mockery than an imitation, which is odd considering that Puffy is an executive producer. Then again, it almost balances the fact that Puffy as a character is whitewashed to the point of almost being a guardian angel. He's not seen in much detail, but when he is, it's only to serve as a catalyst to success, a shining beacon of Right. Being essentially a budget production, the rest of the no-name cast is uneven. Praise should go to most of the female actors. Angela Bassett actually does get Voletta Wallace, from her disposition to her accent, Ex-3LW member Naturi Naughton similarly gets Lil' Kim (as well as naked), and Antonique Smith is a dead ringer for Faith Evans. On the other hand, Anthony Mackie zaps 2Pac of all his humanity, and an even more fascinatingly divergent character than Biggie turns into a gibbering, ignorant hooligan, despite Biggie's slack narration about how "complicated" he was. Sean Ringgold makes Suge Knight as a big, threatening man, but fails to recreate Knight's simmering menace, brought to the forefront by his version of the Source Awards clip, one of the most played and infamous moments in the entire beef.
In the end, though, it's the technical aspects that let the film down even more than the acting. The direction is uninspired and mostly observatory, point-and-shoot stuff. The writing is a combination of lack of effort and lack of ideas. Half of the film writes itself since the entire situation is so well-documented, both in the media and by Biggie himself. In fact, the film's biggest weakness is to emulate Biggie's talent for speech and wordplay. Notorious the man, was a great speaker because he had a talent for painting vivid pictorials and bringing humanity into otherwise sketchy situations, while Notorious the movie brings to us a dull narration and a proclivity for awkwardly rounded storytelling (i.e. he finally finds his Meaning of Life minutes before being gunned down) that just makes everything seem blunted (and not the good kind).
The man who famously said he went "from ashy to classy" has been done a disservice by the people who care about him the most. To keep that metaphor, this film needs some damn lotion. If you're interested in the facts of the legendary coast battle that led to the death of "the black Frank White" as well as Tupac Shakur, maybe look into the documentary Biggie & Tupac (which I have not seen) as well as the excellent Tupac: Resurrection (which I have). If you want to know about all the details of Biggie's backstory, just pick up a copy of Biggie's Ready to Die and put it on track 10. Or, go to YouTube and type in "notorious b.i.g. juicy", and you'll be able to see the recreation of the event with Chris Wallace himself in the role of Biggie. Notorious lasts 123 minutes. "Juicy" lasts a twenty-fifth of that length, and is twice the artistic achievement. That track's a 10. Notorious? 'Bout a 5.
{Grade: 5/10 (C) / #1 (of 1) of 2009}