No Auge da Fama

I am sooooo not in the audience for a Chris Rock film--or so I would have thought. I'm white, in my 60's, liberal but not urban or indeed hip in any sense, and the only five rap artists I could name are those who went on to acting careers.

And yet...this was a definitely movie for me. It's observational, mature, witty, good-hearted, mostly a rom-com but also about the battle between external expectations and inner desire, young adulthood and maturity.

The plot of the movie, which has everyone but a few good friends wanting poor Andre to keep doing his funny stuff, the talking bear movies, while he wants to do more significant work? That ends up perfectly predicting the audience reaction you see here via the reviews. "Where's the hysterical Chris Rock **** jokes?" people stuck in 1992 want to know.

There is some of that in here...and it's exactly the stuff I hated (Cedric and the whores; the tampon thing--ish, edit them both out) and that made me rate this a couple stars lower than I might have otherwise. So as I pity Andre in the film (omg, having "Hammy!" shouted at you 1000 times day!), I pity Rock even more for living out this life, even in the year since this movie's release, even right here on IMDb, with angry comments by old-school fans of his. Man, that's life imitating art imitating life.

I hope I see more like this from him.

I enjoy that I was able to like all these characters and sympathize with them. I liked the set up for the reveal about Chelsea. I liked how Silk was a stock character you thought you knew, until he wasn't in the final 1/4 of the film. I was tickled. I was moved. I was pressed to think.

(and I did sort of like the rap song running over the end credits, so one never knows, eh?)

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).

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.

Top Five isn't the best comedy I've seen in recent years, and it is largely forgettable throughout, but it is definitely a breath of fresh air in a movie genre that has, in recent years, become flooded with loud, obnoxious, and expensive blockbusters that try much too hard at being funny and end up only genuinely being funny for enough scenes to fill up the time for its preview. Or even worse, they go on to turn the movie into sequels or trilogies only to repeat the same basic plot with a few new characters for the sole purpose of making money, instead of making a quality film.

Top Five is a relatively mature and intelligent comedy throughout, that ends leaving the viewer satisfied, and for some wanting more but still content with it being the conclusion to this particular story and set of characters. I don't normally review movies on IMDb, but due to the irony of some of the cruel and unnecessarily critical reviews of this movie given by a decent amount of users that I read, after watching a movie that spends time shining light on the effects words have on people, no matter how famous, rich, or happy they are/appear to be.

This movie is by no means Chris Rock's masterpiece, but it is an intelligently crafted, and entertaining film that doesn't deserve to be given any less than a 5 rating. The 7 rating I gave it is largely due to the fact that I enjoy Chris Rock's comedy and he showed me in this film that he hasn't lost a bit of talent since his first big break. It's not a movie I would go see in theaters, but if it pops up for streaming on Netflix, its worth a watch for sure.