NOTORIOUS
US, 2009, 123 minutes, Colour.
Jamal Woolard, Angela Bassett, Derek Luke, Anthony Mackie, Christopher Jordan Wallace, Aunjganue Ellis, Antonique Smith.
Directed by George Tillman Jr.
You need to be a strong rap fan, even familiar with the 1990s history of rap on the US East Coast and the clash with the West Coast and the personalities, Tupac Shakur, and Sean Combs but, especially Chris Wallace who became the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls Otherwise it is all foreign territory, idiosyncratic music and rhythms, frank and often ugly lyrics which are both streetwise and street foolish.
Though it looks modern with much MTV visual and editing style with a high rap atmosphere, this is really, underneath, an old-fashioned biopic.
It opens with Small's death, uses his voiceover to tell his (short, dead at 24) life, back to Brooklyn, back to his staunch mother (a welcome Angela Bassett), his absent father, his school days and friends as well as ridicule because he was fat. (And in these sequences he is played by Wallace's own son). His adolescent years meant showing he was smart though the butt of teachers, that he dealt drugs and was in police trouble.
It shows his skill at rap lyrics, his growing popularity, concerts, fans, his becoming (literally at the end) too big for his boots. He has tantrums, is promiscuous and neglectful of his daughter.
He is caught up in the East Coast/West Coast contrived row with Tupac Shakur who is also shot to death. Smalls is later wounded but takes a change of musical pace and finds some remorse and peace, as well as a violent death.
The trappings are different and the film has been produced by Sean Combs (who comes out of it smelling like roses) but it is the same story as so many others. Jamal Woolard does a solid impersonation of B.I.G. And, that's it.
1.The niche audience for this film? American? Rap fans? A universal appeal or not?
2.Audience knowledge of Biggie Smalls, of Tupac Shakur, of Sean Combs?
3.The rap music, the origins in the 1980s, Brooklyn streets, the lyrics, the stories, the language? Drugs, violence, sex? Families? The growth of rap? Records, concerts? Popularity? The growth on the east coast? Chris Wallace and his friends? Mark and looking after him, Sean Combs and his business skills, Damion ‘D-Roc’ Butler and their doing the drugs together, deliveries, the issue of going to prison? The support that Chris Wallace received? The role of Tupac Shakur?
4.The framework of his death? The voice-over and his telling his life, the events, self-judgment?
5.The perspective on his mother, looking after him alone, the visit from the father and her ousting him, his nickname and his not liking it, Chris at a young age? Friends, at school, the taunts because he was fat? The father giving him a hundred dollars? His being something of a loner, his mother keeping to herself? Her integrity and hopes?
6.The teenage Chris, on the streets, with D- Roc, the various types in the drug world, dealing, his hiding the drugs under the bed, his mother finding them and her reprimands? The police chase?
7.Continuing to deal, the drugs chase, the arrest of D- Roc and himself, their discussion about who should go to jail, D-Roc? and his wanting to support Chris as a rap artist? His getting out of jail, discovering God, continuing to give Biggie Smalls his support?
8.Chris, Mark and management, his mother’s concern, Sean Combs, the lyrics and Chris’s talent, the performance, the fans, a tough world?
9.Chris and his girlfriend, her pregnancy, the birth of the child, his love for his daughter yet neglecting her? Later? Faith, her singing, the connection between them? The liaison, their fights, his charm and reconciling people? The photo and Tupac?
10.The success, the records, the group, the record of the Big Mac? Tupac and his success? The tours and the concerts? The building up of the east-west clash? Issues of money, the media, the producers? Tupac, the building, the shooting?
11.Chris becoming Biggie Smalls? The notorious B.I.G? Believing his own publicity? His sexual relationships, arrogance, his tantrums, neglect of his family? His mother’s cancer and its effect on him?
12.Going to Los Angeles, the success, bonding, the media questions about Tupac? Las Vegas and Tupac Shakur’s death? Chris under suspicion?
13.Los Angeles, the party, the phone calls, his being shot, hospital, limping?
14.His death, the violence of the rap world, competition between the coasts, the money deals and the producers? His funeral, the crowds, playing his song, his mother being present, the comment on his maturity – and his death at age twenty-four?
15.The popularity of rap and the contribution of these musicians and singers to its development?
