BEFORE: I admit it was a big thematic jump from "Captain America" to "8 Mile", so to make up for that I'm sticking with the rap theme - or is it hip-hop? Again, I don't know the difference - I'm way off the reservation here, outside the comfort zone, but I'll transition to films about rock music (again) in a couple of days and then I'll feel much more at home. Linking from "8 Mile", I'm rewarded for sticking with a theme, because Taryn Manning carries over, and I didn't plan that.
AFTER: I think this story was a little stronger than the one in "8 Mile", if I'm being objective about it, because I agreed a little more with the message. No, not the one that says "it's hard out there for a pimp" or anything like that, I mean the one that says "everybody gotta have a dream", and that you've got to keep working at it until you achieve it. I'm a little more comfortable with that than I am with "You only get one shot, so you better take it."
How many people, not just pimps and hos, feel like they're trapped in their jobs? Or stuck in a career rut and unable to advance? Sometimes it seems like everyone wishes they were doing something else, or would be happy if only they could skip a couple of steps on the career ladder. Very few are able to do that, so progress sometimes feels like it's moving at a glacial pace. So you count the number of years you've been at it (or, say, the number of conventions you've attended) and you watch that number increase, and after ten or twenty years go by, you feel like you've got to break out somehow - record that demo tape, write that screenplay, or maybe just pull up stakes and move to another company or another city because whatever's there, it can't be any worse than the current situation.
I suppose there are two kinds of people, the kind that make those bold lateral moves, and the kind that just shrug and learn to abide the routine and its lack of progress - perhaps because they feel that there IS something worse than being a cog in the machine, namely being a useless cog without a machine. Routine work, pimping or otherwise, is still good, solid work with guaranteed pay, right? But I'm projecting. I mean, I'm digressing. I'm hear to talk about "Hustle & Flow".
I still worry about the kids who will see this movie, though, and pick up on the subtext regarding success, namely that the path to success goes through drug dealing and prostitution, and then scamming an already established artist into listening to a demo. I work in an animation studio, and every day we get e-mails from students asking us to take a look at their work, and there's just not enough time for my boss to view all of those films, or offer any constructive criticism. Umm, "keep drawing?" Yeah, that advice will get you far.
In fact, the situation is such that any established artist (writer, filmmaker, musician, whatever) could be putting themselves in jeopardy by listening to a demo tape, or reading an unsolicited screenplay or novel draft. If any of the songs on that tape or plot points in that screenplay seem similar to work that the artist later produces, he could be sued for copyright infringement, and the repetition of words or themes might not even be intentional. While we were at Comic-Con, a young animator approached my boss and asked him to judge a short animation he had made, and showed it to him on a tablet. He then asked me to take a picture of my boss watching the animation and text him the picture - and then two days later I realized what I had done. If my boss should make a film in the future with a similar-looking character or even a similar idea, I'd texted him all the evidence he'd need to prove that he could have been influenced, however slightly, by watching that film. Whoops...
So that's my NITPICK POINT of the night. If you give someone your demo tape and they throw it in the trash, it doesn't necessarily mean they hate it. It could just mean that they're savvy about copyright law and they don't want to get sued. Other than that, I don't have much to offer about this film, it just kind of is what it is.
I guess I missed a lot of the backstory, because I didn't understand why DJay cut Lexus loose, or even whether he was Shug's baby daddy or not. I mean, I do NOW, because I read the plot on Wikipedia - I just think the film could have cleared up a couple of these points.
Also starring Terrence Howard (last seen in "Red Tails"), Anthony Anderson (last seen in "Kangaroo Jack"), Taraji P. Henson (last seen in "Larry Crowne"), Ludacris (last seen in "No Strings Attached"), DJ Qualls (last seen in "Comic Book Villains"), Elise Neal, Paula Jai Parker, Isaac Hayes.
RATING: 5 out of 10 microphones
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