FOUR BROTHERS & HUSTLE AND FLOW - Two from John Singleton, Producer and Director

At the age of 23, John Singleton became the youngest person ever nominated for an Oscar in Directing for “Boyz N the Hood” (1991). It was a coming of age film set amidst the explosion of violence in a South Central LA neighborhood. “Two Women” (1960), directed by Vittorio De Sica, provided the inspiration for his next film, “Poetic Justice.” The former starred Sohia Loren in her Oscar winning role as a mother trying to survive the ravages of war with her daughter during WWII. In the latter, Janet Jackson plays a beautician trying to forget her troubles for a day by going on a road trip with friend, Regina King only to have her world come crashing down around her when she returns home. Both films were about women surviving in a violent world. In his latest film, “Four Brothers,” Singleton explores the role of one woman (Fionnula Flannagan) who tried to make a difference in her crime ridden neighborhood through the eyes of her adopted sons - *Mark Wahlberg, Garret Hudland, Tyrese Gibson and Andre Benjamin. Modeled after the classic western, “The Sons of Katie Elder” (1965) with John Wayne, Dean Martin, Earl Holliman, and Michael Anderson Jr. as four brothers out to avenge their mother’s death, Singleton wastes no time in getting to the crux of “Four Brothers.” Evelyn Mercer (Fionnula Flannagan) is senselessly shot down at a local grocery store. Her adoptive sons, gather to attend her funeral. Despite the presence of the police - Terence Howard (“Crash”- “The Best Man”) and Josh Charles (“Dead Poets Society”) - their neighborhood is as lawless as Katie Elder’s wild west and the filmmakers - Singleton and his writers - treat it that way. Like the attempted land grab in “The Sons of Katie Elder” there is more to their mother’s death than meets the eye. The brothers bulldoze their way through the local club scene, drug dens, and projects to uncover the truth. There are enough plot twists involving corrupt officials, the local crime lord (played to the hilt by Chiwetel Ejiofor in a complete departure from his understated role as an illegal alien in “Dirty Pretty Things,”) and one son’s business dealings to satisfy any mystery lover. The “Four Brothers”’ saving grace is the genuine camaraderie the actors generate in their portrayal of the Mercer Brothers. Their mutual affection is felt in every scene from the shared love for the woman who propagated their racially mixed family, to the playful razzing and hard core action scenes. “Four Brothers” is a mixed bag made palatable by the performances and the movie’s pacing. Surprisingly, this is a bigger hit than the superior “Hustle and Flow” which bears John Singleton’s name in the producer credits.

A few friends of mine are in quandary as to why “Hustle & Flow” has not done as well at the box office as “Four Brothers.” The only answer I can fathom is the way the movie was being sold. The pulsating music and the energy of Terence Howard, as a Memphis pimp in the coming attractions make “Hustle & Flow” look like an emotionally uplifting film while the rap lyrics contradict the trailer’s feel-good quality. In my mind, “Hustle & Flow” was promoted as “Singin’ in the Rain” for pimps. “Hustle & Flow” is none of the above. I can’t imagine the average moviegoer identifying himself with a low level pimp by walking down the street singing or rapping to “Whoop That Trick,” the film’s signature song. “Hustle & Flow” is not a blaxploitation film like “Superfly” from a bygone era. It neither glorifies nor looks down on the people in DJay’s world. It presents them as flesh and blood creatures trying to scrape by in a cruel world the only way they know how. They are users and abusers, tired of living but still searching for some meaning to their lives. It is DJay’s dream to transform himself by expressing the pain of his life through hip hop - in a sense - creating art from the shattered fragments of his psyche. The rhythms percolating in his subconscious erupt into an explosion of beats and emotionally charged lyrics that give his life meaning. They are enough to convince an old high school friend (Anthony Anderson) with some unrealized dreams of his own and an electronic whiz kid (DJ Qualls) to help DJay commit the music of his tortured soul to acetate.

Terence Howard gives a complex performance that carries director Craig Brewer’s story from beginning to end. The biggest surprise of “Hustle & Flow” is the depth of Anthony Anderson’s dramatic performance after being typecast for so long as a comic bungler in movies as diverse as “Barbershop” and “Romeo is Bleeding.” Likewise, rap artist Ludacris proves that his magnetic presence in “Crash” as a hilarious gun crazy car thief is no fluke. In that film he shared one of the film’s dramatic highlights with Terence Howard as a TV producer who loses his cool and almost his life. Here Ludacris plays a successful Hip Hop artist who broke out of the same impoverished area DJay calls home. His mood shifts in a sit down with DJay define his character with speed and clarity in a way that reveals everything one needs to know about his cutthroat rise to the top of the hip hop heap.

“Hustle & Flow” is a solid film with solid performances from a credible cast that also includes Taryn Manning as his DJay’ top hooker. The only flaw in the film is an abrupt ending that encapsulates the gangsta’ image that can contribute to the success of a rap or hip hop artist.

Copyright 2005

*A good one with Mark Wahlberg.

“The Yards” (2000) - This received a limited run when released near the end of the year and has never been given its due. It’s a moody low level gangster film with Mark Whalberg as a parolee who gets sucked back into a life of crime by friend, Joaquin Phoenix. It’s the kind of role that made John Garfield’s career in the forties and Wahlberg carries it off admirably. Also with James Caan.

A superb film from Director John Singleton

“Rosewood” (1997) - Inspired by a segment from CBS’ Sixty Minutes, this fact based story tells the story about the destruction of a Black Community by the neighboring Whites after a White Woman falsely accuses a Black Man of raping her. Singleton unflinchingly recreates the images of the charred bodies of hung men that still dominate the history books depicting the uncontrollable racism of the era. Don Cheadle, Ving Rhames, Michael Rooker, Jon Voight, and the late Esther Rolle star. Bruce McGill (“Animal House,” “Collateral”) is frightening as one of the town’s white supremacists.