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Last Updated: Mar 5th, 2009 - 15:20:26 |
The triumph and tragedy in the life of the Notorious B.I.G (also known as Biggie Smalls, Big Poppa and Big) comes to life in the ebullient biopic “Notorious,” which captures the energy and raw talent of a defining era in hip-hop.
Much of the film’s weight is carried on the shoulders of Jamal Woolard, the emerging Brooklyn M.C. who grew up not far from Biggie’s block and had all but given up on his career before auditioning for this part. Woolard gained more than 50 pounds to play Big when he was at his heaviest—with a double chin and considerable paunch. He obviously mastered the inflection and cadence of Big’s performance style, which is the key to making several scenes work, from impromptu freestyling on Brooklyn corners, to studio sessions, to big-venue concerts. Then there are the gestures, movements and even the breathing patterns of an asthmatic that were Big’s personal signatures.
These scenes are integrated into a narrative, written by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker, that doesn’t take the easy way out with an overemphasis on performance; this is not a two-hour music video. A whiff of the crack era is inserted and some care is taken to develop characters, which are given a big assist from other exceptional performances, most specifically by acting newcomer Naturi Naughton as Lil’ Kim and Derek Luke as Sean “Puffy” Combs.
The story is not working with a long life so much of the action is concentrated during Big’s teen-age years and early 20’s. Born Christopher Wallace on May 21, 1971, Biggie grew up in the home of his mother, Voletta Wallace, a hard-working Jamaican immigrant who cared about her son’s education. Even with this relative stability, Biggie wound up on the wrong track as a teen-ager and began selling crack on corners. Part of the recreation for he and his drug-dealing buddies was spitting rhymes and a mixtape he made for fun wound up in the hands of Puffy, who was desperately trying to salvage his career at Andre Harrell’s Uptown Records. After being fired, Puffy eventually took his new artist with him to his new label, Bad Boy Records. Big’s debut album, Ready to Die, which featured an infant with a big afro on the cover, would eventually be certified quadruple platinum, or more than four million in sales. (His second album, Life After Death, released 16 days after his death, has been certified diamond, or more than 10,000,000 in sales.)
Though this is not a documentary, it does touch on the controversy of that era, namely the hyped East Coast-West Coast beef and the disagreements between Biggie and the rapper Tupac Shakur (who was also shot to death in September of 1996). As this is a movie about Biggie, that conflict is told from the perspective of Biggie and the East Coast hip hop establishment. Director George Tillman (“Soul Food,” “Men of Honor”) accomplishes his goal of delivering the story in a flattering palette that reflects the energy and youthful passion. Though some of the childhood scenes look too much like made-for-television, most of the film—shot on location at key spots in New York—has a sense of realism that takes us back to a few years that shook the musical world—and nation.
This review also appeared on Tom Joyner's BlackAmericaWeb.com,/i>
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