|
In Mario Van Peebles’s docudrama/tribute to his father, director Melvin Van Peebles (played by Mario) walks away from a studio deal claiming he doesn’t want to be a "token niggerologist" and strikes out on his own to make the "ghetto Western" Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. It’s the racially charged early ’70s, Van Peebles is one of a few young black filmmakers (along with Gordon Parks and Ossie Davis), and independent film is more concept than reality. The struggle to make what would become the cornerstone of blaxploitation cinema is what drives the film. Everything that can go wrong does; most critically, the financier gets tossed in jail for drug trafficking, but through it all Van Peebles, driven by Ahab-esque fanaticism, perseveres. As director, the younger Van Peebles (New Jack City) lays down the free-love, psychedelic-drug culture with kitschy pizzazz. It’s a witty, socially charged exercise that runs into predictable snags of bathos and narcissism. Rainn Wilson adds welcome levity as the far-out producer; such icons as Earth Wind & Fire, the Black Panthers, and Bill Cosby elicit cultural nostalgia. (108 minutes)
BY TOM MEEK
|
