WHITEBOYZ (1999)

 

Directed by: Marc Levin  Written by: Danny Hoch, Garth Belcon, Marc Levin & Richard Stratton  Story By: Danny Hoch & Garth Belcon  Cinematography: Mark Benjamin  Editor: Emir Lewis 

Cast: Danny Hoch, Dash Mihok, Mark Webber, Piper Perabo, Eugene Byrd, Lisa Jane Todd, Bonz Malone, Reno Wilson, Jaqueline Williams, Doug E. Fresh, Slick Rick, Kim Wozencraft, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Fat Joe, Dead Prez

In a virtually all-white Iowa town, Flip daydreams of being a hip-hop star,. He practices in front of a mirror and with his two pals, James and Trevor. He talks Black slang, he dresses Black. He's also a wannabe pusher, selling flour as cocaine. And while he talks about "keeping it real," he hardly notices real life around him: his father's been laid off, his mother uses Food Stamps, his girlfriend is pregnant, James may be psychotic, one of his friends (one of the town's few Black kids) is preparing for college, and, on a trip to Chicago to try to buy drugs, the cops shoot real bullets. What will it take for Flip to get real?

This feels like a film that tackles a cultural phenomenon movement but feels a little late. So it also feels stale and a bit out of step. 

While it offers lead actor (and Co-Writer) Danny Hoch a cumulation of his work (as a Caucasian obsessed with the stereotypes of African Americans and their culture) even as he looks too old to play the lead role of a teenager just beginning his post-high school life. 

The same when it comes to dash Mihok even though a little closer to the right age, but it becomes more obvious their age when next to Mark Webber, who actually still looks like a teenager. 

The film starts off being more satirical before becoming more dramatic and serious in the third act. Where it tries suspense and ends in violence. When due to that violence characters finally break out of their fantasy and reveal themselves good and bad as one shows his racism, but it finally adds the edge the film seeks.

As before the third act, the film jumps from Social realism where we laugh at the characters to more juvenile comedy that comes off as goofy. 

This was director Marc Levin’s next film after the Sundance award-winner SLAM. Like that film this film stays rooted in African American culture but whereas that film felt artistic. Even though it was independent also. This seems to go more for a mainstream audience. As well as taking on the story more from a Caucasian point of view trying to look in.

Soon the way to its inevitable end. It tries to provide insight but can’t help but feel a bit preachy while sticking to its small-town roots.

It seems to want to play into its own fantasy world.

Maybe if the film stayed with the character base and let the comedy come naturally from there and their ridiculousness. This film could have been stronger.

As it tries to present a microcosm it doesn’t offer up anything to say. So that it seems like posturing while presenting a subject that seems more comedic and like a news report that never probes any deeper. 

It might have been more interesting if the film opened itself up and explored other characters a little more than the less. Working fine when it decides that I have more of a plot. While it tries to offer insight. It just feels stale and where it’s missing some points

Grade: C