Black and White
Much like director James Toback’s most recent work, When Will I Be Loved (which I still haven’t watched again as planned – though this one certainly puts that back on the to-do list), I know that I liked this, but I really couldn’t tell you why, except that I am definitely a fan of Toback (I loved Two Girls and a Guy too, despite myself). It is that clichéd indie movie thing, the camera following Brooke Shields, a wannabe indie moviemaker, videotaping a bunch of white kids who pretend to be black. It’s intercut with another story with real black people. I just loved how it was shot, I loved the score which reminded me of Terence Blanchard’s work for Spike Lee or Anne Dudley’s score for American History X. Brooke Shields and Robert Downey Jr. as her gay husband are fantastic, Gaby Hoffmann and Elijah Wood are almost unrecognisable as two of the kids, Mike Tyson is hilarious, and there are a bundle of other nice surprises in the cast two. There are just a lot of good things to talk about on this one, and not much bad.