Superhead = Super Stupid

This is a repost of an article I did over today at Soul Sis-Star Reviews....

[On] my other blog I said I was about to review "Panther", which I still will, but I took a little detour off on the DVD "Kiss And Tail", which starts off being about video girls and groupies for about 15 minutes, then veers off into a bombardment against Superhead, aka Karrine Steffans, author of "Confessions of a Video Vixen" and "The Vixen Diaries".

I want to make it clear that I have ZERO love for Karrine, and it's not because of her sexual exploits. It is because of her as of late consistent 'holier than thou' attitude that I have read about and seen in interviews. I also have no respect for those who want to be famous and known at any cost whatsoever.

You see, I used to be heavily involved in rap on the business side. These dudes would come at you every day, every which way till Sunday. I don't believe they even cared about who you were or what you really looked like, as long as they felt you were even semi-attractive. They just wanted to see if they could get it. For Karrine to act like she cured cancer or something just by getting these guys that practically anyone could get, then blabbing about it to the whole world and acting like she did something special is just so f*cking ridiculous to me. Add that to the fact that she always refers to herself as "a New York Times bestselling author". Oh really, Toni Morrison? Talk to me when you write a book about something besides whose peen you put your mouth on.

Let's just say that it is welcoming to see her get a taste of her own medicine. The folks in this film are for reals, for reals, and they don't hold back, which I absolutely love. It is not speculation, but from the horses' mouth based on actual experiences and interaction with her.


Save the comments about "you have to respect her hustle!". I don't respect anyone that lies about having a baby to get money (see Ma Barker), lies about having been pregnant numerous times (see Darius McCrary aka Eddie Winslow), lies about not having sex with Jay Z (see her own words in her first book) lies about doing porno (see Mr. Marcus and some Samoan porn star dude whose name I forgot) lies about being married, lies about how long she was doing said activities, and lies about almost everything except f*cking, from what I can see.

She has the audacity to say that the things she did like getting paid $200 by Murder, Inc. to give blow jobs to everyone for the day was "Like being in college. I had just got a divorce, so I got a little wild. I deserved that" Ummm....noooo, that is not like college, sorry.

Also this: "I had to do these things. It was L.A., L.A. does this to you. If I didn't do these things I would have died". Whatever, B. I have lived in L.A. off and on for 20 years, and guess what? I never had to s*ck a d*ck to pay the rent, no matter how hard it got. You know why? Cause I didn't want to!

Though the film can get repetitive, and really won't hold a lot of interest unless you know about Karrine Steffans or the folks she juked, it is nice to see a woman that is a complete psycho and has ruined so many people with her ugliness get her comeuppance. You can tell narrator Wendy Williams is loving every minute of telling all of the salacious details as well.

Everyone in this film pretty much agrees that this woman could not have any friends--and I could see all of the anger and hurt of betrayal from those on film that testified. Like Ja Rule said, "Yes, you are famous, but you are not a star. A star is someone you want to emulate, someone that has something you wish you had. I don't think anyone wants to be like Karrine".

Amen.

MMM (Mini Movie Marathon)....

Yeah, I know. I'm the ultimate slacker when it comes to posting. But you know one thing I never, ever slack on is watching movies. I think I set a record for myself over the past two weeks, watching everything from Bruno to Bye, Bye, Birdie (yeah, I watched it--don't judge me!). I'll give on overview of my experiences, and since not much is happening with Black Cinema, most of it is of the other kind....and lest you think I have absolutely nothing to do with my time, bear in mind that I watched most of these when folks are asleep, between the hours of 12am and 6am.

I definitely went on DiNiro overload, for real. I watched not one, not two, but three 3 hour Robert DiNiro odysseys; "Casino" (fabulous!), "Heat" (overrated, yeah I said it!), and "The Deer Hunter" (strange). I love Bobby D., he is always sooo cool and low key, even in Vietnam, as he was in The Deer Hunter. It was weird to see Christopher Walken looking young in it though, almost surreal.

Speaking of Christopher Walken, I also saw a film he was in called "The Dogs Of War" which I'm told is a classic. I tried to stay focused on the story at hand, but I wasn't too thrilled that the plot entailed just 4 white dudes taking out a whole African nation of brothers that were armed with guns.

Anyway, also saw the "hip-hopera" "A Day In The Life" which was written and directed by Sticky Fingaz, and I reviewed on Soul Sis-Star Reviews. The whole film, every single line of dialogue, is rapped. Yes. And that includes Michael Rapaport. I also revisited "Panther", which I will review as well...does anybody remember that Bokeem Woodbine used to be almost a real actor?

"Other" films I revisited were a Nicholas Cage flick called "Red Rock West", which is a cautionary crime-thriller about Karma kicking you in the back of your neck (very dark and trippy, like David Lynch), and a dark mystery called "Frailty" which was surprisingly good. It was directed by and stars Bill Paxton, along with Matthew McConaughey, who, to my huge shock, didn't get on my nerves even once. It is the story of a widowed father and his two young sons, the father one day saying he has been commissioned by an angel to slay "demons", the "demons" being folks in neighboring cities and towns, and also says his sons must assist him in slaying them...very absorbing--I recommend it.

Let's see...also saw "Isn't She Great" starring Bette Midler, in the supposedly autobiographical movie of Jacqueline Susann, who wrote "Valley Of The Dolls", and it seemed to take great liberties with her life. Also saw "Orphan" (don't ask).

I guess the ones the stuck out the most from the pack (yes there are more) were two pretty dark and twisted films--"Cruising" and "The Bad Lieutenant".

I remember my father taking me to see "Cruising", and only remembered it as a movie where Al Pacino went undercover as a cop going in the deep underworld of the gay leather club life. On reflection, I'm sure my father just went because it was Pacino, and had no idea what he was bringing me into. Pacino has to play a sort of gay hustler to find out who is murdering those that are part of the leather lifestyle. I did some research on the film, and at the time it created quite a stir, narrowly missing an "X" rating. The gay community was supposedly furious at the time, saying that it perpetuated fear and stereotypes about the gay lifestyle. These days, however, they show the film proudly at festivals...so there you go.

"Bad Lieutenant" is about a cop that has gone miles beyond corruption, much less anything that resembles human, played by Harvey Keitel (full frontal nudity alert!). It is filmed in a very late sixties, early 70's style of filmmaking, though it is from 1992. Keitel to me is part of that 70's, 80's cool that included the others I watched in this post, DiNiro, Pacino, Walken and more recently, Joe Pesci. He goes through his day, sexing and drugging it up to feel anything at all; being a cop is a very minor part of his day...he even steals from the people who steal. He is called in to investigate the rape of a nun, and the film just gets progressively darker, and disturbing, and hopeless. There was only one way for it to end, and it does end that way...check it out if you don't have an aversion to sex, drugs, and violence set in a backdrop of religion.

After the darkness comes light, that light being "Bruno". I absolutely loved Borat, so I was expecting great things...don't you make the same mistake (sorry Sergio).

When I look over these films, there does seem to be a commonality...most of them were directed by those who at one time or another considered the "bad boy" directors; William Friedkin (The French Connection, The Exorcist, Cruising), Abel Ferrara (Bad Leiutenant, King Of New York), Martin Scorsese (The Godfather, Goodfellas, Casino), Michael Mann (Heat, Hancock, Miami Vice), Larry Charles (Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Bruno) and the big bad boy, Michael Camino (The Deer Hunter, Heaven's Gate, The Sicilian). Get a film by any of these directors, and trust--there may be a miss or two, but it will never, ever, be boring.

Feast your eyes on a few trailers:

A New Avenue For Black Cinema?

This is a cross-post of an article I did for our Black Cinema collective blog Shadow And Act; please join us over there for updates throughout the day, every day, on Black Cinema and it's offshoots...


Over the weekend, I watched two, ummm...how shall we say, very frugal DVD productions; "Peaches" (thanks a lot Sergio) and "Applause For Miss E." Both are Black stage plays transferred to DVD.

I'd written about "Peaches" starring Wendy Raquel Robinson, a little earlier this year, after Sergio emailed me a trailer of it. It is the story of a Jezebel/femme fatale that drives men crazy and you readers gave it a hearty thumbs down, deservedly so...honestly it was akin to a middle school play--just atrocious.

But when I watched "Applause For Miss E" (to see the trailer click HERE), which is about a woman who missed her chances as a comedienne and in life, it made me much more reflective. You see, it had the same shoestring budget, and the same lightweight elementary school-type plot as "Peaches", but the huge difference was in the casting. It starred Vanessa Bell Calloway and mistress of a thousand hairstyles, Jazsmin Lewis, (no real surprises there) but it made my heart heavy to see the beautiful and talented Gina Torres involved with this. And as much as I talk sh*t about Roger Guenveur Smith, is was pretty disheartening to see him hamming it up and chewing up the scenery with the most mangled southern accent ever portrayed on stage here. He actually seemed drunk and high, and he probably was, to numb the reality of having to actually be associated with this project.

My first thought was, has it really come to this? Our A-list players being reduced to television (i.e. Laurence Fishburne and Angela Bassett), and our B string list going the so-called "chitlin' circuit" route?

But that is too obvious. Something deeper is brewing. Let me begin by saying that I have no problem with these plays being done; I have actually enjoyed a few. There is an audience out there that lives on them, so why should they be denied? Sergio and I were on Afronerd's podcast with David Talbert (who is the original Tyler Perry) and he relayed that he makes the same type of play, with the same themes, and the same morals over and over again because it was what people wanted, and it was the only thing he knew well, and he had absolutely no ambitions beyond that. I gave him a huge amount of respect for not pretending to be anything else.

That being said, maybe we should take a page from Talbert's and Tyler Perry's books. They have taken a mostly ignored medium and have taken ownership of it, with varying degrees of success. They know what the market is, and haven't waited on the YT studio system to give them comfort and aproval, and they have their visions played out to the masses on their own terms. Maybe we can explore the same route in getting our stories told that we desperately want to see...say Harriet Tubman's life story, or a realistic Black romance, via the stage to DVD route.

A while back I did a "7 Questions" with actor Carl Gilliard, and his advice to up and coming filmmakers was to keep costs down by filming a movie like a play. Few actors, just a couple of sets, and really concentrate on the script. We have complained many times about how quality Black films are either not getting greenlit, or are not distributed in a way to reach a general audience. Could this be a way to take matters into our own hands?

Think about it. In the 70's and 80's, stage plays were hugely popular and big events for Blacks--Colored Girls Who Have Considered, Your Arms Too Short To Box With God, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, Dreamgirls...I could go on and on. Of course, these were more pricey productions than the current state of stage plays, but that is my point. Why not tweak the current formula and bring in Black Hollywood actors that are undervalued and underused in the YT system? (I don't know about you, but I am tired of seeing the same 5 Black actors in high profile movies). Build beautiful set designs, use amazing scripts, maybe some big name Black directors with stories we want to see? Plays written from bestselling Black books? The possibilities are endless. Then transfer these plays to DVDs. Black folks surely have always found a way to buy Tyler's Madea plays en force. This can be a very genuine and viable way for us to command our own ship, so to speak (with the real threat of piracy, haha).

I'm not saying that this is the end all, but it can be a real way to get out of the dreadful and sorry current state of Black Hollywood, because in my opinion, it certainly can't get any worse than it is right now. Ask Roger Guenveur Smith if you don't believe me.

Movie Review: The Human Contract

I didn't write about this film "from writer-director Jada Pinkett-Smith" on my movie review site "Soul Sis-Star Reviews" as I don't really consider it Black Cinema, but wanted to comment on it because of it's director, Mrs. Will Smith.

Full disclosure: I am not the biggest fan of Jada--I am not even what you would consider a small one, but I tried to stay as unbiased and objective as possible while viewing this.

I am, however, a huge and devoted fan of those who do many things in their lifetime, and do it with confidence, swagger, and success. Transistions that a normal person would like to do even one of in their lifetime. People like Paul Newman for example, who was an actor, a race car driver, and a philanthropist. Fred Williamson who was a football star, TV star on Diahann Carroll's 60's TV show Julia, then went on to produce his own movies, making him arguably the biggest Black action star ever.

Then we have Mrs. Smith, though trying out everything in her heart's desire; book author, relationship expert, TV star, rocker, producer, philanthropist, and now director, seems to be a Jack of all trades and master of none. Well, except how to marry very, very, well.

That's not exactly fair, I guess. I have a begrudging respect that she actually does it, tho the results are usually not impressive to me. There is something about her that I find very disingenuous, and with this film I found myself bouncing back and forth from the begrudging respect back to my thoughts of pretension.

The respect comes from the fact that she wrote a film that isn't entirely bad--a story of a bored and suppressed rich and well connected executive, who finds an interesting and much needed diversion with Spanish star Paz Vega.

The story is not complicated, seemingly aiming to be a sexy noir-ish film on par with "9 1/2 Weeks" or "Basic Instinct", where a mysterious and sexy stranger shakes up the life up a formerly repressed and conservative protagonist, bringing out a freak inside they never knew existed, thereby freeing all other emotional, spiritual repression, blah, blah, blah.

There are several issues which prevent this film from reaching the annals of the movies I just mentioned....first of all let me state that I promptly fell asleep 15 minutes in, despite the fact there was a sex scene and Idris Elba using his real Brit accent 10 minutes in. Not a good sign.


There is also the lead, probably the most unsexy dude ever in a supposedly erotic film, Jason Clarke. He is unlikeable in every way, not that handsome or hot, only showing emotion when he is angry, and when he is angry, then someone always gets beat down. Badly. What executive goes around doing things like that? (It is part of the supposed "big reveal"). The pacing is very uneven, mostly deadly slow, with no tension or anything compelling to keep you wondering what will happen next. In fact, the film doesn't really even have a point until about an hour into it--surely a factor that will lose many a viewer. Jada Pinkett plays the executive's sister. Ummm...why is he white and she's Black? Why is absolutely no explanation given about that? (at least not one that I heard).

Great attention is given to a rice dish that Vega feeds the exec; it pans over the plate slowly no less than three times, yet a scene where the exec saves a homeless man from near death is given exactly 15 seconds. Huh?

Anyhoo, Paz Vega turns out to be married, but she and her husband have "an understanding" and apparently he is solidly behind her while she's out juking whomever, male or female. Is this art imitating life, Jada? Or just titillating stuff that you do with the press so well?

Turns out the exec ends up having a problem with the husband situation, even though she'd been quite clear and honest all along from practically the beginning. And despite the fact that all she does is look extremely beautiful and is extremely kind and understanding to him, even though he is a self-centered, spoiled, whiney crybaby. Just a couple of the many holes in the story. He ends up learning about life and love through her, after it's just a bit too late.


What we have on our hands is not a 9 1/2 Weeks or a Basic Instinct, but something in the realm of their massively inferior sequels; "Wild Orchid" and "Basic Instinct 2", both also very unsexy "erotic" thrillers. But I must admit, even saying all of this, it is a pretty film to look at, and Jada has potential if she could focus on one thing. Maybe just writing, or maybe just directing. And no Spike Lee-ing by inserting herself in the film. Just my opinion.