Craig Brewer's Two Outstanding FIlms (Hustle and Flow" and "Black Snake Moan") Plus Two Terrible Films

"Finding Bliss"
starring: Leelee Sobieski, Matt Davis, Denise Richards, Jamie Kennedy
directed by: Julie Davis

Here's a film that tries to be a romantic comedy (of errors and misunderstandings) which plays on the idea of a young, innocent girl's naivety as a scapegoat for her utter embarrassment whenever sex is mentioned. It seems far too easy for the filmmaker to decide the best place to put the main character, Jody (Leelee Sobieski), who is an aspiring filmmaker herself in the throes of the porn industry. She'll be uncomfortable as she navigates, innocently, through cute, predictable scenarios and her eyes will be forced open by the very people she doesn't like (porn actors) and what's even more, she'll fall for the one guy she shouldn't (the misunderstood/emotional porn director).

Jody moves to Hollywood, bright-eyed and bushy tailed, ready to conquer the world, after graduating from high school. She kicks around for a bit (not nearly as long as some real-life Hollywood-aspiring folks do, I'm sure), before she eventually finds her way to a porn studio (oh, don't they all) to work as an editor. Being an editor allows the film to show us two things: 1) Jody will bring a little more class to the porn films as she edits them to be a bit more intimate, with closeups of faces and 2) Jody will slowly mature thanks to her interactions with those porn industry folks. Jody will soon discover she can kill two birds with one stone, as she films her own movie at night at the porn studio. And her film is everything you would expect a innocent virgin's perspective of sex and relationships to be: it's awful...until the porn actors become her leading actors.

The director, Julie Davis, is attempting to garner sympathy from the audience for Jody, but instead you just get frustrated- frustrated that in this day and age, someone like Jody still exists. There's an overriding need for symmetry in Julie Davis' film, one that simplifies and also dumbs down such a self-discovery journey for Jody. There's not much romance in the love story between Jody and the porn director (an film-school dropout with a sense of himself and his heart); and there's not much comedy in the dialogue or situations either. I feel bad for Leelee Sobieski because she's never really amounted to much beyond sappy or goofy, unnecessary films, but I'm not too sure she has the acting abilities either. Oh yeah, and Denise Richards shows up as the voice of Jody's consciousness, to a degree, since she plays "Bliss," the actress in the porn film that Jody is editing, who ends up talking to her via the film, until she shows up in real life, as the same actress (sans the wig and makeup) in the lead role of Jody's own film. Jody seems to find her "bliss" through all this.

Skip this and you won't be too unhappy.

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"Meet Bill"
starring: Aaron Eckhart, Elizabeth Banks, Holmes Osborne, Timothy Olyphant, Jessica Alba, Logan Lerman
directed and written by: Melissa Wallack, Bernard Goldmann

Here's the synopsis of "Meet Bill" which makes it sound rather promising, unfortunately, it never delivers on its promissory note of being a screwball comedy. Aaron Eckhart is completely mis-cast as the nice-guy. He's so much better as the conniving asshole.

"Trapped in a marriage both upscale and terminally polite, self-doubting nice guy Bill (Eckhart) works as the largely useless director of human resources at the bank run by his clueless father-in-law (Holmes Osborne). What’s worse, his two-faced wife, Jess (Elizabeth Banks), thinks nothing of cheating on him with blow-dried local TV reporter Chip Johnson (Timothy Olyphant, severely underused in this film, as he has proven over and over again he can steal the scenes he finds himself in). When Bill is roped into mentoring a teenage private-school student (Logan Lerman), he is reluctantly enabled by the kid- a confident, wisecracking con artist who is smitten with lingerie cashier Lucy (Jessica Alba- her stage direction seemed to be as simple as smile when on screen), who finds his grown-up antics amusing. Meanwhile, Bill is also trying to make a good impression on doughnut company reps Jane and Jim Whittman (Kristen Wiig, Jason Sudeikis), with an eye toward segueing from his bank post to head of a local franchise. This is a very weak side story. “Go for the life you want,” Bill urges the Kid, but only after he’s suffered humiliation after humiliation at the hands of family and friends.

The story of Bill would have perhaps been much better if it focused primarily on his interactions with the upscale folks he doesn't fit or belong with (re: father-in-law and wife).

This is a waste of a cast that could have found much better work and makes me realize that sometimes people do things simply for the paycheck, unfortunately. Aaron Eckhart is a much better indie film actor than this film allows him to be. I don't think we ever actually "Meet Bill" in this film, because even though he's on the screen for the majority of the film, he never really shows up.

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"Black Snake Moan"
starring: Christina Ricci, Samuel L. Jackson, Justin Timberlake
written and directed by: Craig Brewer

Craig Brewer has made two unbelievable films back-to-back with his debut "Hustle and Flow" (reviewed below) and then this one, "Black Snake Moan" (which I don't know why, but I haven't seen until now, even though it's been in my Netflix queue for months and months, and includes a decent core of actors). Christina Ricci hasn't really made a decent film, in which she was the lead, for many years, in fact, probably since she was a newly crowned indie queen (re: "The Ice Storm," "The Opposite of Sex," "Buffalo '66," and "Pecker" then a bit later with "Pumpkin" and "Prozac Nation"). Here, with Craig Brewer's script and directing, she shines, which leads me to believe, all she really needs is a great writer and director who sees her potential.

"Black Snake Moan" very quickly, minutes into the film, promises its audience they are about to go on a wonderful journey, albeit rather peculiar story centered around sex, race, and redemption. The two people the story focuses on show each other a bit of promise and never really scare each other.

Craig Brewer knows what he's doing when he sets the film in the deep South. And he shows remarkable understanding of his story by naming Samuel L. Jackson's character Lazarus. His wife has just left him and upon coming back from the grocery store, Lazarus discovers a poor, white girl who's been beaten and left for dead, almost, on the side of the road. Lazarus, perhaps looking for his own redemption, is determined to raise this poor girl from the dead and redeem her from her obvious life of whoring herself around (interestingly enough, the poor white girl, named Rae, seems inflicted with a disease of needing sex for survival).

Lazarus does not have sex with Rae. Instead, his way to her redemption is through chaining her to the radiator in his house. Wearing very little clothing (re: a beyond-midriff bearing t-shirt and cut-off jean shorts that almost act rather as underwear), Ricci manages to be sexy, enticing even though she is very clearly a whore who has been around the block and back again, several times. Lazarus and Rae, in the beginning, have many interactions that involve anger with slapping and cursing, until they somehow come to a common ground about each other and begin to redeem each other. Lazarus even buys Rae some dresses in town (which nobody questions as odd) and she wears the dresses. How they find their common ground is through music (a technique that Brewer uses almost masterfully). Lazarus is a blues musician who dusts off his guitar and plays it for Rae. The film is named after an odd blues tune aptly titled "Black Snake Moan."

This is such a great story, with two unbelievable actors in roles of a lifetime, performances certainly overlooked by awards back when it came out, perhaps because of the film's content. This is a gritty, daring film, because it dares the audience to defy the logics of the story and look deeper for the metaphors, subtle or not, on the road to redemption.

Justin Timberlake even offers a decent performance as Ronnie, Rae's boyfriend who enlists in the Army, only to return and find Rae "captive" at Lazarus' home. Timberlake has shown he is versatile in the few roles he's had (re: "Alpha Dog," this film, "The Social Network"- his best work to date, "Friends with Benefits"- actually a decent film, "Bad Teacher," and this past year's "Inside Llewyn Davis").

I loved this film for everything it gives to us. This is great filmmaking and writing. This is a must-see.

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"Hustle and Flow"
starring: Terrence Howard, Anthony Anderson, Ludacris, Taryn Manning, Taraji P. Henson, DJ Qualls
written and directed by: Craig Brewer

Terrence Howard has been in a ton of films, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it), he has had two outstanding roles:

Hustle and Flow- as a pimp who aspires to life off the streets in the form of a successful rapper
Crash- a successful Hollywood director, humiliated when his wife is assaulted by a cop

Terrence Howard seems to be another actor who benefits extremely when his director pushes him beyond his comfort zone and makes him truly and deeply invest himself in the role.
He plays a Memphis pimp and drug dealer who yearns to make something of himself - to become a rap artist. His quest for success is seen so clearly and with such sympathy by writer-director Craig Brewer that the movie transcends the crime genre and becomes powerful drama.

The movie's first achievement is to immerse us in the daily world of Djay, Howard's character. He is not a "pimp" and a "drug dealer" as those occupations have been simplified and dramatized in pop culture. He is a focused young man, intelligent, who in another world with other opportunities might have, who knows, gone to college and run for Congress. He can improvise at length on philosophical subjects, as he proves in an opening scene about -- well, about no less than the nature of man. I love that dialogue between him and his best-performing hooker, which actually comes back at the end of the film. 

The second act is the heart of the film, because it immerses the audience into Djay's attempts to meet his various business responsibilities while recording the demo. We get the ghetto version of renting the old barn and putting on a show. Djay picks up an ancient digital keyboard, and enlists Key (Anthony Anderson), a family man and churchgoer, to work with him on the music. Key knows Shelby (DJ Qualls), a white kid with musical skills. They staple cardboard egg containers to the walls to soundproof a recording studio, enlist a hooker named Shug (Taraji P. Henson) to sing backup, and make the recording. "Hustle & Flow" is not limited to Djay's rags-to-riches dream, because it is not a formula film. We don't get the rags-to-riches story, because this isn't a typical Hollywood film that presents a dreaming individual whose goals will be met by the end of the film. Djay has to fail, because that's life, sometimes. Much more interesting are his day-to-day relationships. Nola (Taryn Manning), the white woman who gets the benefit of his theory of human life, is his most profitable hooker, even though she tells Djay how much she hates getting into the cars of strange men. 

Djay plays the pimp role and is effective enough, but his heart isn't in it. The dream of the demo record fills his mind and he will do whatever it takes to make it happen. 

What we see in the "Hustle & Flow" is rarely seen in the movies: the redemptive power of art, much like in "Black Snake Moan" which is Brewer's follow-up to this tale of redemption. Djay is transformed when he finds something he loves doing and is getting better at. To create something out of your own mind and talent and see that it is good: That is a joy that makes the rest of his life seem shabby and transparent.

Terrence Howard becomes and fully embodies his character, Djay, with great love and consideration for the character. He never cheapens him, or condescends. He builds him inside-out. He is a pimp and a dealer because he is smart and has ambition, and that is how, in his world, with his background, he can find success. 

This is another must-see film, and yet another film that took me a long time to see, but now that I've seen it, I get it. I truly get it. And it's these types of films that make me really want to delve into the stories I write and write them better. And hey, it says something if the Academy saw in this film what it has to offer by awarding an Oscar for Best Original Song for "It's Hard Out Here For a Pimp." Who would have thought that'd happen?