We should have posted this last week when we saw the film a week before it hit theaters. We got lazy, sue us.
Is ten years after an artists life too soon to lionize them onscreen? The Notorious B.I.G. became a hip-hop icon not long after his untimely death in 1997 as almost all young stars do when they burn out too soon (or their flame is put out in his case). But something is always unsettling and odd about seeing a performer that you saw on the small screen just… well it feels just like yesterday, played by someone who is clearly not him.
We’re not really big fans of biopics, its kind of a corny and cliched genre and generally you need a good 40-50 years to even try suspending the disbelief that this is not an icon on screen. It generally doesn’t work and its hard to become emotionally invested when you have that layer of incredulousness perennially present. At least we feel that way.
Could you take Jared Leto seriously if he were to play Kurt Cobain? If Paul Dano walked around in the rain with a wool cap and ragged hoodie on could you believe he was Elliott Smith? Or if you saw Jamal Woolard, who seems half as small and one shade lighter, rapping on a microphone could you buy him as Biggie?
These experiences will always be super subjective, but more often then not we don’t really see Johnny Cash onscreen when Joaquin Phoenix tries to sing two octaves below his normal register and turns into a ball of sweat.
So often enough you’re going to have one opaque window of disconnection from the emotional tenor of the script, add any remote traces of cliche around that and pretty soon you feel like you’re listening to a greatest hits compilation behind a brick wall. But good actors can make you forget for even a few moments and maybe even for two hours.
“Notorious” director George Tillman Jr. does a mostly competent job of shooting the B.I.G. story (and its almost a shame it wasn’t all shot in those raw, overexposed and overcranked tones the film flashes to occasionally for no particular reason), but the cradle to grave story is too stock and predictable to offer much in the way of anything that you can remotely call unexpected.
Woolard is decent as Christopher Wallace and exudes charm in spots, but its not til Derek Luke shows up as Puff Daddy, played as a constantly dancing clown much to everyone’s amusement, does the film really take a life. Woolard can act, but its evident that Luke is a professional actor and a high caliber one at that. Anthony Mackie is a phenomenal actor, but as Tupac Shakur he has too small of a role (and therefore one dimensional) to truly shine. Angela Bassett as Biggie’s mom Voletta Wallace is also competent, but her vacillating accent is troubling. Definitely keep an eye out for both Naturi Naughton and Antonique Smith who play Lil’ Kim and Faith Evans respectively as both of them were quite good.
“Notorious” isn’t a bad film per se, but it certainly doesn’t break the formulaic mould of biopics nor does it elevate the genre at all. As a tale of a hip-hop legends life, it conveys tragedy and the import of its subject, but it fails to say much that you haven’t read in a feature length Source article and it won’t move you more than even Biggie’s most forgettable B-sides. [C+]