Singularly Singleton

Inadvertently, last night became a little bit of a John Singleton film festivel. Sadly, we didn't have Boys in the Hood. I checked, and there are only eight copies in all of the PLCH system, so that might be a tough one to hunt down - especially since I can't request a feature film.

We closed the evening with Hustle and Flow the better of the two films. It's a film that received a ton of critical praise last year when it came out, and I think that it deserved every bit of that praise.

In the extras on the DVD, John Singleton says that everybody involved treated the film as a kind of Summerstock, taking on a job that they hadn't done before because they loved the story. Singleton himself produced the film amd bankrolled it himself because they couldn't get funding. Anthony Anderson and DJ Qualls both played dramatic parts instead of the broad comedy for which they are known. Terrence Howard - typically cast as an educated, soft-spoken supporting actor - took the role of a rough, foul-mouthed pimp in his first major leading role. Even the director, Craig Brewer, was helming his first film.

The story - a pimp rediscovering and then chasing his dream with amazing tenacity - is a simple enough one that seems predictable at first but that takes a very different turn from the expected one. DJay (Howard) turns a room in his duplex home into a studio, and he begins to turn his focus from just trying to hustle "a dollar from a dime even though [he] ain't got a cent" into trying to make something that will last, that will allow him to elevate himself from the hood where he pimps girls out of the back seat of his run-down Caddy. The recording of his tracks comes in fits and starts as does the progress of Howard's dream. Clearly leading to a climax that certainly doesn't turn out as many movies would've taken the easy path.

It's that change that truly turns the film from a good one to one worthy of sticking in the collective consciousness. DJay's success - which becomes a success of an entire group of people who have gathered around him - isn't one that comes without a price, but it is a success and one that viewers take easily and readily with him.

The film is excellent and has such echos from the director's life - check the DVD extras, primarily the one titled "By Any Means Necessary" for more info there - that there is an extra poinency to the film.

Four Brothers is another John Singleton film, this time directed by Singleton. The film has a visual style that works - Singleton said in the DVD extras that he aimed for an urban western with wide shots of the four brothers walking down the street together. The acting is good - with Marky Mark going nearly monosyllabic and thugging to good effect. If only the story and the characters weren't two-dimernsional, it might be a good film.

The bad guy, for example, is a little too bad - petulantly throwing the food of his top leutinant on the floor and making him eat like a dog, flipping out and making his bribed councilman sit at the kids table, even wearing a fur coat for the ultimate showdown. Wahlberg's lead character doesn't give us any glimpses into his background. He simply lives in the moment, purely id as opposed to Andrew Benjamin's more seemingly-innocent character (who supposedly has darkness in his background, though we never get a glimpse of it).

It's not a horrible film. That cast is good, the director is good, but it's predictable and lacks the shading and richness of characters that Singleton's best work.