British cinemas are stuck in a cycle of risk aversion. Distributors lack adventurousness, and when they do take a chance on an unknown entity, liberal audiences applaud them all the way to a neighbouring screen where Minions is playing for the 15th week in a row. This situation causes problems across the board, but its effects are felt most by the kinds of films routinely cited as UK box-office poison: baseball movies, Christian dramas and – most damagingly – films with black leads.
Chris Rock’s latest directorial effort, Top Five, hits DVD this week after a dire performance in UK cinemas back in May. The film directly tackles the limited opportunities available to films with black protagonists – at least those who aren’t trapped in the ’hood or cross-dressing as every member of the Klumps. Casting himself as a comedian struggling to break through as a serious actor, Rock invokes his own troubled road out of mainstream comedy and into French indie fare (2 Days In New York) and remakes of old Rohmer films (I Think I Love My Wife).
The film swiftly proves dazzlingly smart, even as it reveals itself as little more than a 100-minute sociological thesis read aloud by Rock and Rosario Dawson. It gleefully lambasts simplistic attitudes to race, fame and the media but, like the stand-up routines that made its star a household name, it falls back on tired cliches when removed from its comfort zone. The effect is jarring: Top Five is so sharp on its specialist subjects that its mile-wide blind spots – mainly centred on gender and sexuality – feel actively malicious.
In the opening moments of the film, Rock’s character rejects the notion that media representation is trivial, telling Dawson in no uncertain terms that “everything means something”. The assertion lends weight to a caustic discussion of Hollywood’s racial biases but, later, when Dawson forcibly (and inexplicably) penetrates a bisexual man for gross-out LOLs, the words echo on.
Also out this week
Far From The Madding Crowd Sweeping Hardy adaptation.
Bad Words Tediously un-PC spelling bee comedy.
Hot Tub Time Machine 2 Sequel to the 2010 John Cusack film, minus John Cusack.
