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Film Reviews

Notorious

Fox
www.foxsearchlight.com/notorious

A life chronicalling the life and death of arguably the greatest rapper of all time isn’t an easy task to take on. Not only do you have to present a life that every die hard fan already knows the ins and outs of, but you have to tackle the subjects which plagued the career of the man they called Biggie Smalls and make sure you don’t give a watered down account of it all.

Unfortunately, that is what happens in Notorious. The background is handled well enough, documenting the MC’s descent into drug dealing, stints in prison, lucky escapes from the law, arguments with his mother and becoming a father, but it is when we see Biggie rap that the problems begin to occur. With the man himself being used on the backing track, hearing Woolard rap as Biggie just doesn’t cut it. It might be a small point for the casual viewer, but hearing an ordinary flow instead of the voice that captured my attention and drew me into hip hop in the mid 90s really disappoints.

The main crux of the film happens when Tupac is shot and the East – West rivalry begins. This is the meaty part of the story that really would define whether the film is a hit or not but the outcome is a muddled affair which is explained away by the narration as Tupac being confused. Confused? Really? That makes sense then.

With major incidents like Lil Kim’s abortion being glossed over, it is obvious that Biggie’s mother and former entourage are keen to take the negatives away from him as if to say sure, he lost his temper a few times, but he was a lovely boy. The saccharin ending with the rapper ringing all his former flames to apologise to them just tied the film up as what it was – a Hollywood story.

There are positives in the film – Naturi Naughton’s Lil Kim is absolutely perfect, from looks to delivery of the raps and Puffy’s dancing and Violetta’s “What kind of grown ass man calls himself Puffy?” are genuine laugh-out-loud moments – but they are few and far between. Perhaps I am being overly critical, but when you’re making a film about the life of a man who turned the hip hop world on its head, you have to deliver. This film is bound to do well simply because of the man it portrays but unfortunately for me, it doesn’t present the story nearly as well as it should.

Abjekt.