Top Five

I knew he could do it,

And what's cool is that he shows some depth I knew he was capable of, but never saw him do. I think CB4 was the last funny Chris Rock move, and that's saying something, cause it was not really that funny.

But finally, Chris Rock writes, directs, and producers his own star vehicle that fully lives up to the comedy spectacular that is Chris Rock.

He gets it right with a satire about being a funny man, turned actor who after finding success, fears going back to comedy because he's fears not being funny, but finds a spark in a Times writer who follows him around all day to get to know the man behind the fame.

Although, a lot of the movie is a cliché you seen plenty of times in the past, it's heighten by the fact that the filmmaker is Rock himself who's not afraid to share the comedy spotlight with his friends who make funny appearances. From the always funny Kevin Hart who held it down, to Cedric the Entertainer whose funny moment in the trailer was just a small part of his overall funny cameo, plus a few other hilarious cameos from his friends I would not want to spoil.

Overall, it was Rock's best moment on the big screen.

Clearly a personal project for writer/director/star Chris Rock, Top Five isn't quite a comedy and isn't quite a drama. It nestles snugly, firmly into the in-between, dispensing funny little slices of life alongside serious, self-searching notes about midlife insecurity and the desire to make something more of yourself. Rock basically plays himself, a longtime comedy superstar who worries that his silly wide-appeal earlier works have trapped him in a vicious cycle of self-loathing and alcoholism. His character is grounded and real, afraid to play anything for big laughs because the pressure to meet earlier comedy heights is so crippling. For the most part, it's the story of his swift rapport and burgeoning relationship with a tailing New York Times reporter (Rosario Dawson), which clicks on all cylinders. The two work so well together, it can be enjoyable just watching them interact over the inconsequential, and that's the real draw. Don't go in expecting riotous laughs; it's funny, but also sweet, and an effective stepping stone to broader subjects.

Eight stars while Rosario Dawson's on screen, otherwise six. Chris Rock is Andre Allen, a successful standup comic who's arrived at his "Stardust Memories" moment—he's done a couple of dumb action comedies about a crime-fighting bear and wants to redeem himself with a serious film about Haitian slave rebels that nobody wants to see. Some of the plot mechanics are a little creaky, some of the comic set pieces are just distracting (especially the gross-out foursome with Cedric and the topheavy hookers), but the two leads have great chemistry, and the scenes with the two of them just "wandering around bullshitting" (as Ethan Hawke says in "Before Midnight") are totally engaging.

The comedy sideshow stuff is hit or miss. An extended sequence with Tracy Morgan, Leslie Jones et al. as Andre's old cronies from the 'hood—maybe meant to illustrate Chris Rock's claim that he was only the tenth funniest guy on his block—mostly hits; the shtick with J.B. Smoove coming on to every plus-size woman he meets mostly misses (except when Gabourey Sidibe tells him to knock it off...). Romcom convention dictates that the two leads have a falling out that keeps Rosario out of the picture for a while, which requires a nonsensical plot twist and results in a few flat scenes near the end, but all in all it's an entertaining film.

Maybe the example of Louis CK has encouraged Chris Rock to base his character more on his own life, instead of playing, e.g., a dweeby investment banker ("I Think I Love My Wife"); as with "Louie," the NYC locations are a big part of the story. He claims that this is the "blackest" film he's made so far, but I have to say that a standup guy from Bed-Stuy who remakes an Eric Rohmer classic ("My Wife"), costars with Julie Delpy ("Two Days in New York") in a film set in Tribeca and steals from Preston Sturgess and Woody Allen is my kind of postracial auteur.

Andre Allen (Chris Rock) is a standup comedian who became famous for a movie franchise character Hammy The Bear. He wants to stop playing Hammy and do serious roles. He tries to promote his historical drama about a Haitian revolutionary but people only want to talk about Hammy or his impending reality-TV wedding with Erica Long (Gabrielle Union). He reluctantly does an interview with New York Times reporter Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson) as she follows him for the day.

There are some funny moments but in general, the characters feel fake. Chris Rock never really stopped being Chris Rock except when he dives into the drinking. Rosario Dawson is lovely but I don't believe her romantic chemistry with him. I rather she be his sponsor than his girlfriend. After she reconnects with him, she needs to bring him to a meeting rather than a comedy store. When Seinfeld, Sandler and Whoopi show up, it feels like the movie is trying too hard and not terribly funny. Andre's family is funnier. There is an interesting movie here but it takes a couple of wrong steps.

There's a scene in this film, Chris Rock's latest as auteur and star, where he performs in a comedy club. It's the first time in years his character, Andre Allen, has performed and from a story point of view it seems rushed and contrived. How he gets to this point isn't exactly organic to what's been going on just before, and only makes sense in the sense that the script dictates it's here that he gets, for lack of a better phrase, his 'groove' back on stage. Nevermind that the character hasn't performed in so long - albeit some of the material, to be fair, ties back in with some troubles he's having with his fiancé, so that's fine - he kills and everyone loves it. Why do they love it really? Well, this is where it gets tricky, and why I recommend Top Five: it's funny. And Chris Rock's funny. He's a great stand up. He doesn't transcend his own problematic script, but he and the cast do much better than it could've been.

The basic premise has more than a touch of Stardust Memories - in case you can't tell, which is possible, Woody Allen is one of Rock's heroes - as Allen doesn't want to do funny movies anymore (he's been "Hammy the Bear" for three films, making this kind of a double-bill/companion piece for this year's Birdman), and has a new, serious work where he plays a Haitian white-man-killing revolutionary. He's spending this one day going around New York city, promoting the film, visiting his family, doing this and that, and he's tagged along by a journalist (Rosario Dawson, who is terrific here by the way), who wants a personal-profile scoop. He's not having it, at first, but over the course of a day and night and lots of memories of things gone wrong - he was/is an alcoholic, as she is, conveniently enough - he opens up.

Again, not a strong story entirely, though it has its moments. Really, it's actually the moments that Rock wins best at here: when he goes to visit his family (first his father, who seems to be kind of a bum but it's funny/sad seeing Allen have to haggle with him over money) and how they all rag on him, and he rags on them back, you can see the warmth and improvisation going on (how much is scripted is anyone's guess, but the tone is just right and the jokes all work in this piece). His set pieces, mostly in the flashbacks, keep bringing the comedy forward and he has many, many funny lines, but even funnier situations for his actors. Cedric the Entertainer especially steals his scenes, but the same can go for Kevin Hart, JB Smoove (to an extent, though he has really one shtick), and even Brian Regan in an uncredited cameo. And DMX... Jesus.

A lot of the film also hinges on Rock and Dawson, and despite a third act reveal (is it a twist?) that made me roll my eyes, their chemistry really sells much of the film. He has just great dialog for the two of them to play off one another, so that we can still buy *them* even if not always the story or situations that develop.

And, again it must be stressed, the movie is funny. Sometimes it's very funny - I'd be remiss to forget that Seinfeld and Adam Sandler show up at a bachelor party and had me crying laughing - and that helps it make it just an unabashed crowd-pleaser first, cutting satire second, which I think was really Rock's goal here. Whether he was trying to also make a GREAT film, I don't know. At its very best, it does come closer than any Rock film to show the sorts of topics he does in his stand up brought to a dramatic context, like the whole marriage-TV-show sub-plot with Gabrielle Union (who is also fantastic here).

But hey, for a night out - as a date-night movie it's especially adept - it works, and it'll get you thinking about your own Top Five after a while. Or if you'd ever see Rock play a Bear-cop (obviously a play on Martin Lawrence more than himself, though ironically Rock wrote the script while on set for Grown-Ups 2, so it goes).