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American hate: (l-r) Washington and Brolin
in American Gangster. |
Old
School
By
Shawn Stone
American
Gangster
Directed
by Ridley Scott
Minus
the gory violence—and, crucially, the racial subtext—Ridley
Scott’s American Gangster could have been made in the
depths of the Depression. It has no CGI flash. No shaky camera
moves. No flash-forwards or flashbacks. Set in the late 1960s
and early 1970s, it’s a traditional epic narrative of two
men, one a criminal and one a cop, and each man’s climb up
the ladder of success. Which, as they sang about Jesus, is
just all right.
That era, you may or may not recall, was the Golden Age of
Heroin. Thanks in part to our excellent military misadventures
in Southeast Asia, smack hit the big time. It devastated inner-city
communities, and took out numerous hippies, suburban dropouts
and Vietnam War vets. It was the dawn, also, of the endless
War on Drugs.
Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) is a Harlem gangster. He is
underestimated because, one, he’s black, and two, he’s all
steely reserve with no flash. Thanks to his tireless efforts,
however, the heroin available to the average consumer becomes
both higher quality and cheaper. Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe)
is a New Jersey cop. He is underestimated and loathed because
he’s ambitious and, even worse in a thoroughly corrupt police
culture, honest. Because he can’t be bribed—and because he
is, while a complete dumbass in personal relationships, very
smart—Roberts becomes the man capable of taking Lucas down.
The movie parallels their successes and mistakes, as Lucas
becomes the number-one smack distributor in metro New York
and Roberts becomes the head of a newly formed Federal drug
task force.
The roles play to each actor’s screen strengths. Washington,
the self-absorbed movie star who often relates to others actors
as, well, a self-absorbed movie star, plays a man whose depths
of pain and anger are revealed only in terrifying (and moving)
flashes. Crowe, who usually comes across as half-thug and
half-asshole, plays the self- deprecating, unsure “loser”
who makes his flaws seem charming, and sticks to business
enough to become a winner. One couldn’t imagine better casting
in the leads.
The supporting cast is just as good, using familiar faces
in expected roles: Ruby Dee as a devoted mom; Ted Levine as
a grizzled cop; Cuba Gooding Jr. as a flashy gangster; Armand
Assante as a mob boss; and Josh Brolin as a dirty cop. It’s
a traditional Hollywood kind of shorthand that works well
here.
The screenplay by Steven Zaillian is panoramic. It captures
the paradox of a successful, racially proud black capitalist
triumphing over the Italian gangsters and white cops who hate
him, while at the same time destroying a swath of his own
community. It reminds us that, left unmonitored and unchecked,
cops can be worse than the criminals they’re supposed to catch.
And there are none-too-subtle political references, to American
military imperialism and the narco-law-enforcement industrial
complex, that keep American Gangster from being just
a popcorn flick.
And yet, the film succeeds as entertainment because Scott
directs American Gangster as if it were just
a popcorn flick, giving no more weight to politics than he
does to Roberts’ sex life or Lucas’ devoted family—or to the
bloody scenes of pure violence. Sometimes, less is more.
New York Buzz
Bee
Movie
Directed
by Simon J. Smith and Steve Hickner
You’d have to have been living under a rock if you haven’t
heard in some form the dire news of late regarding the disappearance
of bees and the resulting implications for the planet. Then
again, you could be excused, somewhat, if you filed it away
in that section of your brain reserved for really bad things
to worry about. Later. After the kids are in bed, or I finish
this report. So I half expected Jerry Seinfeld’s animated
feature Bee Movie to be along the lines of Happy
Feet, in the sense of drumming into our heads the fact
that the world is simmering with global warming. All Hollywood
animated films, it seems, have to be rife with messages like
“Love yourself” and “Follow your dreams.” Of course, it helps
that, without exception, the protagonists of these go from
being misunderstood and mocked into highly successful, often
rich, winners, for whom self-love and affirmation are given
as an obvious birthright.
Thankfully, Seinfeld, who cowrote the screenplay with Spike
Feresten, Barry Marder and Andy Robin, lets both the personal
and environmental lessons play out on their own, preferring
instead to focus on character development and comic situations.
Much like Dustin Hoffman’s character in The Graduate
(which the movie shrewdly spoofs), Barry (Seinfeld) isn’t
sure he wants to follow in the paths of millions of years
of bees before him, by working a particular job until death.
Intrigued by the “jockeys” who leave the hive to pollinate
the world and return with nectar, he accepts a dare to join
them, despite the fact that he hasn’t been bred for this purpose.
Once out in a glorious Central Park, with its beautiful flowers
and vast expanse of green lawns, Barry’s hooked. And when
he encounters the sweet florist Vanessa (Renée Zellweger),
his fate is sealed. Vanessa has a boorish boyfriend, Ken (Patrick
Warburton), a thriving business and, lucky for Barry, the
ability to hear him speak. The movie deftly sidesteps the
idea of a bee-human romance, even though Ken is driven crazy
with jealousy as Vanessa helps Barry launch a court case against
the honey industry for stealing the product of his, er, people’s
hard work.
It sounds crazy, what with Ray Liotta appearing as himself,
defending his manufactured honey, and Sting getting arrested
for co-opting a bee moniker. The animation is nothing spectacular,
and at times the preponderance of yellows and pinks remind
me, queasily, of a Play-Doh meltdown. But what works, really
well, is the emphasis on the shtick. Bee Movie comes
across like an apian episode of Seinfeld, with its
Upper West Side humor, and fast, witty banter. Particularly
funny are bits by Chris Rock, as a mosquito who calls his
compatriots “bloods,” Matthew Broderick, who plays Barry’s
best friend Adam, a very nerdy, nervous type, and Larry King
as Bee Larry King. And watch for a hysterical bit involving
the takedown of one Winnie the Pooh, honey thief. At its heart,
Bee Movie is a boisterous and vivid evocation of all
we love best about New York and its inhabitants—the wisecracking,
seen-it-all, blasé bluster looks a lot better in this production
than the real thing often does.
—Laura
Leon
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