Something New

"Something New" is a charming chick flick crossed with the BUPpie (Black Urban Professional) genre, like "The Best Man" and "The Woodsman."

While those guy films featured Sanaa Lathan, she really gets to shine here, and her chemistry with the actresses playing her three girlfriends is wonderful. Unusual for a chick flick, the girlfriends all have believable, non-media jobs given their post-graduate degreed education and competence, including lawyer and pediatrician, and are at age-appropriate, mid-'30's points in their ambitious careers. I've never watched UPN-type sit coms like "Girlfriends" to know if the portrayal of their entertaining interchanges, amidst a whirling camera, is unusual, particularly about the woes of dating, but they do sound like a racially charged take on "Sex and the City". I think it is probably unusual that we get to see Lathan's "Kenya McQueen" substantively at work, dealing with subtle issues of racism and sexism (including much discussion of "the black tax"). We absolutely believe she is a workaholic who has just made her first big investment, in a bare house.

But key is that Lathan and Simon Baker are wonderful together and that the stops and starts, hots and cools of their relationship are believable. I find it amusing that non-TV watching movie critics refer much to his appearance in "L.A. Confidential" as that was barely a cameo, while he registered as a hunk in several seasons of "The Guardian" and a hero in "Land of the Dead". But this is the first we've seen him as all get out romantic and the camera loves his rugged, scruffy look, as he's an outdoorsy landscaper.

Their courting and post-coital scenes are wonderfully sweet, the best such sensual scenes since "Bull Durham". I particularly liked the intimate, in tight close-ups, curiosity of their inter-racial discussions (though we only learn about her Afro-centric academic family and not his ethnically neutral one), leading to him committing what Oprah says is the number one no-no: never ask an African-American woman about her hair. At least we learn about his business background and also got one interchange where he seemed like a normal guy and not just too and not just too world-music listening, community garden volunteering, etc. good to be true.

I was glad that her father finally had a speech about historic diversity, sounding like Henry Louis Gates in the PBS series "African-American Lives", because even though debut director Sanaa Hamri and scripter Kriss Turner developed this with Lathan in mind, according to her interviews, she seems as black as bi-racial Halle Berry (as opposed to her darker-skinned friends), as I wondered why her hair au natural wasn't even curlier.

The film goes way out of its way to be fair to African-American men, including a too long stand-up comic routine. It's not easy finding a reason for a woman not to hook up with Blair Underwood.

I'll have to trust that the representations of African-American cotillion culture, including snappy choreography, were correct, because the film was incorrect in having a wedding of, ironically, their mutual friend in a synagogue, as they are not used for such personal events. I hope it wasn't for the sake of a joke by ladies in scanty summer dresses about being in a rabbi's office.

The cinematography has harsh contrasts in the California sun, which Baker has said in interviews was due to the differences between skin color.

I will have to start by saying, I have never been in an interracial relationship but I am not opposed to them. However, I do have friends who have been an IR, so I'm not completely unexperienced with them. That said, some of the things in this film are unbelievable, or maybe its just me. Her girlfriends act as if having sex with a white man was some outlandish thing, like she had had sex with an alien or something. And the whole while I'm going---Jesus, the man is Caucasian, not a martian. I don't know any black women who would be like that, but again, that could be just me. And if it had been the other way around, if the white guy's friends had been like that, wide-eyed and shocked (which probably isn't untrue in actuality) I guarantee that would have been perceived as racist. Rightfully so.

I can't say that I rooted for Sanaa Lathan's character either. Don't get me wrong, I think she's a nice actress, but she was irritating in this film, so was her mother. Some of the issues addressed though in the film ring bitterly true, such as how a black woman might feel in white-dominated corporate America and how it might be difficult for her to find a man on her level, or man who truly wants her for her and not her money. All that said, I watched it until the end because I am a fan of Simon Baker. Its overall a good film, but the best IR flick remains "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."

For about five years or better yet since I've been married, I have banned all modern day romantic comedies from my precious eyesight. Why you say? Because nine times out of ten they featured awkward pairings of big-name stars who had as much chemistry as a week old can of generic pop that was left in the refrigerator open, the plots were so insultingly predictable that you just wanted to take out a bull horn in Hollywood and yell to screenwriters and movie studios everywhere: "STOP INSULTING US BY RELYING ON YOUR FORMULAS TO MAKE YOUR MOVIES." Honestly, if I see one more chase scene to the airport to stop some chick from moving away, I'm going to blow something up, and finally romantic comedies were just plain unrealistic. I mean honestly, how many of us can believe that Jennifer Lopez, Diane Lane, and Julia Roberts are dateless. And how many women are really knocking down John Cusak's door to get a date? However, alas comes a true romantic comedy with depth, conviction, and heart. And while it did use a few formulas it did not depend on them. "Something New" features very real people, real responses, real dialogue, and most importantly real issues. I champion this movie for being groundbreaking and discussing things that no other (or few) mainstream film had the balls to tackle such as "The Black Tax," the true difference between racism and reverse racism, and Black hair culture to name a few. Don't get me wrong, THIS MOVIE IS NOT A BLACK MOVIE. It is definitely romantic and comedic at its very heart and it is something that can be appreciated by all. But I felt so much better about seeing this film when I realized that it took the time to think and bring some things to the forefront. I hate the fact that this movie was not marketed properly. What a misstep. This movie was for all because we have all had to grapple with pressures from our family, our careers, friends, and culture at one point or another and realize that being true to yourself is all that matters. Oh and by the way, the chemistry between Sanaa Lathan and Simon Baker is phenomenal! I haven't seen chemistry like that in a long, long time. The movie is worth the trip just to see that.

This film has some flaws. It has some moments that are just dreadful. It has entire scenes that would get a C- in a screen writing 101 class. Yet it's a wonderful film. Sanaa Lathan gives a superb performance, as does Simon Baker. Wendy Raquel Robinson, Alfrie Woodard, Russell Hornsby, Donald Faison and Blair Underwood are all wonderful, while Golden Brooks will probably (just barely) avoid be indicted for accepting payment for her "perfomance." (Most of the truly dreadful moments in the film involve her, which is odd as she is not at all a bad actress.) While the film has such flaws, it overcomes them with charm and intelligence, and the wonderful on screen pairing of the leads. Okay, so Kenya (Sanaa Lathan's character) gets what she wants far too easily - repeatedly - and so there's a needlessly absurd scene involving a white boy in a Mexican mariachi outfit at a black high society event, which in real life would be humiliating for everybody within six city blocks.

The film has something of value to say about race, about prejudice - black and white - and about following your heart and finding somebody to love. As a white boy married to an incredible black woman, I can tell you that the best twenty bucks I ever spent was in buying this film for my wife. It's brought her such joy and so many hours of happiness (she's incredible, sure, but she's also a major wacko - she'll watch the same film three time in one day for three days running and love it more each time), that I'm thinking of buying another TV/DVD player, just so I can leave this on 24/7 for her.

The point is, rent it, it's just great (except for the dreadful parts).

I just watched "Something New" on DVD, and was quite pleasantly surprised. I was expecting to see the same old rehash of a spent subject. But, this movie and its fabulous script was very real and some of the experiences depicted, on point. I am a black woman married to a white man, and while neither my family or his ever had problems with our relationship, society wasn't buying it. But, it's really amazing how much color fades to the back as love moves to the fore. We enjoy watching these kinds of things together and with our sons (now adults and married too) because it; (one) reminds us how beneficial it is to listen to your heart and not to people who aren't in it, and (two) how others can come to appreciate your relationship if they're given time to adjust. The only thing I wish they'd shown was more of Bryan's family/friends or his neighborhood and how they would react to such a relationship. They only showed a brief glimpse of Bryan's father and we wished they'd explored that side a little better. But all and all it was totally worth the time.