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GET RICH OR DIE TRYIN'
 By Rachel Deahl Review Film Critic As musicians go I thought I liked Eminem more than 50 Cent. And, as filmmakers go, I thought I preferred Curtis Hanson to Jim Sheridan. Given that Sheridan's new film, "Get Rich or Die Tryin,'" is a thinly veiled fiction of the supposedly factual life of hip hop star 50 Cent, the comparisons to Hanson's 2002 Eminem vehicle, "8 Mile," are both inevitable and unavoidable.
Hanson's film, which also ever-so-slightly
fictionalized the life story of Marshall Mathers (the
Detroit-born trailer-park-raised kid who became Eminem), seemed the
template for "Get Rich." Like "8 Mile" before it, "Get Rich" pairs an
unlikely director in Jim Sheridan (known best for intelligently played
Irish heart-string-tuggers like "My Left Foot") with an unlikely
subject: the life story of a self-professed gangster rapper.
Thankfully Sheridan's take on 50 Cent is
different enough than Hanson's on Eminem. "Get Rich" is ultimately a
very different film from "8 Mile," and 50's story a far cry from
Eminem's.
As it turns out, the life of Curtis
Jackson, aka 50 Cent, at least as it plays out on screen, is
more about drug dealing than rapping. Best known for singing about his
hard knocks life on the street-while much of 50 Cent's music features
standard pop riffs about women and partying, like his not-so-deep single
"In the Club," others delve deeper into a past of nine millimeters and
street hustling-50 Cent's most infamous claim is that he survived 8 gun
shot wounds. And that's what "Get Rich" builds up to: The story about
the star who, Rasputin-like, lived to tell the tale of being brought
down by a hail of bullets.
Beginning with his childhood in the Bronx
growing up the only child to a single mom-a beautiful, beloved
neighborhood woman who dealt drugs to keep food on the table and a roof
overhead-through her murder and his subsequent years selling cocaine for
the local drug kingpin, "Get Rich" plays out as the long overdue
gangster-style saga of the inner-city.
Where so many films have failed, from
cheaply melodramatic fare like "New Jack City" to the more recent
DMX vehicle "Never Die Alone," "Get Rich" offers both a more
nuanced storytelling and a more complex, sympathetic cast of
characters.
Set against the backdrop of the war between
the blacks and Colombians for control of the crack business in the Bronx
in the '90s, "Get Rich" chronicles Curtis's rise as a local dealer and
his subsequent fall, with a stint in prison followed by his emergence as
a wannabe rapper.
Ironically,
"Get Rich or Die Tryin'"
brings an honesty and relevance to 50 Cent's music that isn't inherent
in a lot of songs. While much of the artist's singles seem to celebrate
little more than partying and screwing, often funneled through the
gangster rapper lifestyle, here 50 Cent's music is shown to be the
heartfelt salvation of a kid who had been quietly brewing and surviving
in silence.
Grade: B+
GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK
 Filmed in lush black and white, George Clooney's "Good Night and Good Luck" tries very hard to look like a relic from the era it depicts: the 1950s. Set primarily in the CBS newsroom, where the crew of reporters and producers behind Edward R. Murrow's nightly news program smoked incessantly and argued over the bounds the show could push, Clooney's film sometimes feels as if it's more a snapshot of a bygone era than anything else.
But this feeling is a passing one,
thankfully. "Good Night and Good Luck," which chronicles the showdown
between news anchor Edward R. Murrow and Joe McCarthy, is
actually a perfect film for today.
Subtly linking the McCarthy communist
witch-hunts with the deceptiveness and treachery of our current
administration, which relies on fear tactics to enforce its own agenda,
Clooney's film is finally a polemic about the politics of television.
Like another film from a celebrated
American actor, Robert Redford's "Quiz Show," "Good Night and
Good Luck" reminds us that television was not always perceived as simply
a cash cow. At one time the medium was viewed with possibility, as
something that could entertain as well as inform.
Now, in an era when TV news is held to the
same ratings standards as everything from "The Bachelor" to "The OC,"
Clooney's film is particularly pointed. It reminds us to take another
look at the media at large and question where it's goingŠand, more
importantly, where it's taking us.
In "Good Night and Good Luck,"
David Srathairn stars as Murrow with Fred Friendly, his
longtime friend and producer, played by Clooney. Doing duty on mindless
stories about Hollywood-at one point he tries to hold back a laugh as he
interviews Liberace about the kind of girl he's looking for-Murrow
pushes his team to take Senator McCarthy to task about his senseless,
unethical activities.
Pushing the network's envelope of comfort
in the process, Murrow and company-his news crew is made up of a
close-knit band of young male reporters played by, among others, Tate
Donovan and Robert Downey Jr.-start airing pointed episodes
where they eloquently speak out against McCarthy. Putting his job and
reputation on the line, Murrow gambles both that the American people
will ultimately trust a levelheaded anchor over an ambition-hungry
politician and that it's more than ok for a reporter to have an
opinionŠand share it.
Though "Good Night and Good Luck" is sometimes weighed down by its over-use of stock footage-it feels as if half the film is given over to shots of McCarthy responding to Murrow or sitting in committee hearings-it's beautifully shot and subtly poignant. And Strathairn, who's been skirting leading man status and significant fame throughout his impressive career, particularly shines as the stoic, brilliant Murrow.
Signing off each broadcast with his titular
tagline and preceding it with eloquent, thought-provoking editorials on
McCarthyism, politics and the world at large (who can imagine hearing
one of today's newsmen quoting Shakespeare on air), Murrow comes off as
the kind of unsung hero the world could use right now.
Grade: A- |
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