"Notorious"

By David Hudson on 01/13/2009

"Keeping biopics of tragic public figures hopeful and reverent, especially one about a hip-hop musician who met with such a swift rise and violent end as Christopher Wallace (aka Notorious B.I.G.), is always a troubling proposition and in the case of George Tillman Jr's largely compromised but never less than fascinating 'Notorious,' it's one that pretty much sinks the entire enterprise," argues Brandon Harris.

"The motions are certainly gone through," agrees Nick Schager in Slant. "Anyone remotely interested in Biggie has long since had these particulars cemented in their brains by countless magazine and MTV eulogies, and 'Notorious' brings nothing new to them save for a mixture of reductivism and a decidedly uncritical eye."

Updated through 1/16.

"[Jamal] Woolard, a Brooklyn rapper in his acting debut, is a teddy bear," writes David Edelstein in New York, "but his performances have an authentic drive. Even if we miss the thinking that went into the creation of Wallace's B.I.G.-ger-than-life alter ego, the movie's performances are exultant. Directed by George Tillman Jr from a script by Reggie Rock Bythewood and Cheo Hodari Coker, 'Notorious' is as upbeat as a movie that opens with its hero getting shot in the head could possibly be."

Tillman "seems partial to the incongruous flourish, and treats Wallace's assassination as though it were the most significant blow to literature since the death of Keats," writes John Anderson in Variety. "At the same time, 'Notorious' might be considered the third in an unofficial trilogy on late 20th-century American popular music - the first two being 'Bird' and 'Cadillac Records.'"

"First-time actor James Woolard delivers Biggie's punchlines too slowly for them to be funny, causing the Brooklyn rapper to come off as a lovable oaf and a bit of a simpleton," writes Sabrina Jaszi for Flavorpill. "By contrast, the most magnetic and complicated characters is one of Biggie's women. Lil' Kim jumps on top of the big man at the front end of the tale, and hitches on for his ride to the top, suffering no shortage of emotional trauma.... (Interestingly enough Lil' Kim has come out publicly opposing the film.)"

Jon Caramanica in the New York Times: "In a recent interview at Frank White, a Brooklyn cafe named for one of Biggie's alter egos, Mr Woolard, also known as the rapper Gravy, had his own explanation for the silence, gasps and tears he faced during his transformation into Biggie. 'Some people couldn't stomach it,' he said. 'Puff' - Sean Combs, who owns Bad Boy Records, Biggie's record label - 'couldn't stay around. He just couldn't take it. But I felt like that's my job. They were hurting, but I'm not here to hurt you, I'm here to give you what you want.'"

"A myth-stoking, vault-raiding, better-than-usual attempt to both confound and inflate the Myth of Biggie, it's equal parts primer and hagiography, divided into three very unequal sections," writes Allison Stewart in the Washington Post: "Biggie Songs You've Already Heard," "Biggie Songs You Haven't Heard" and "Songs About Biggie, Done by Others."

Updates, 1/14: "New York magazine had it right in its review of Biggie biographer Cheo Hodari Coker and Reggie Rock Bythewood's screenplay last February," notes Robert Wilonsky in the Voice: "'It's basically the screenplay adaptation of Biggie's Wikipedia entry.'"

For Tribeca, Elisabeth Donnelly goes "looking for Biggie Smalls in the borough that made him: Brooklyn."

Updates, 1/15: "'Notorious' is merely pop product," writes Armond White in the New York Press. "Repackaging the 'Biggie Smalls' life story as a hip-hop fable, it exploits ribald urban mythology as the dominant social narrative of African-American life. 'Notorious' not only dramatizes events in Biggie's short career from schoolyard nerd to desperately cool drug dealer and from amateur rhyme slinger to hip-hop star; it misrepresents his personal success as a racial victory."

"A few months ago, when 'Cadillac Records' came out, I wrote in defense of the biopic," recalls Dana Stevens. "Why, I asked, has this genre had so much trouble earning the artistic respect that's long been extended to other pop genres, from detective stories to superhero films? 'Notorious'... is a two-hour-long rebuttal to my plea for biopic cred. Like a drunk on a bender, 'Notorious' seems to have given up even trying to moderate its dependence on cliché."

Also in Slate, Jody Rosen: "B.I.G. was the most earthbound and unpretentious of great rappers. He was a formalist, obsessed with rhyme schemes and punch lines and narrative details - the intimations of death in his raps weren't prophecies, they were plot points."

Updates, 1/16: The New York Times' AO Scott finds "Notorious" to be "a messy, lively melodrama, reasonably faithful to the facts of Biggie's life and wholeheartedly devoted to burnishing his myth."

"'Notorious' suffers from biopic-itis, that regrettable tendency to reduce complicated lives to a greatest-hits assemblage of melodramatic highs and agonizing lows," writes Nathan Rabin at the AV Club. "A great rapper deserves a great biopic, but B.I.G. fans will have to settle for this merely passable one."

"Hate the game, not the players," advises David Fear in Time Out New York: "As Wallace, Jamal Woolard gets the raspy, slurry baritone down pat, even if he only scratches the surface of the heavyweight's charisma. Wisely, Derek Luke doesn't try to turn his Sean Combs into a Cristal-consuming caricature (which puts him one up on the real Puffy), while Voletta Wallace's avatar, Angela Bassett, puts her Ruby Dee-isms on hold to give one grieving glance maximum gravitas."

[Photo: "Notorious," Fox Searchlight, 2009]

Tags: Notorious B.I.G.