BLACK AND WHITE

US, 1999, 98 minutes, Colour.
Scott Caan, Robert Downey Jr, Stacey Edwards, Allan Houston, Gabby Hoffmann, Jared Leto, Joe Pantoliano, Bijou Phillips, Claudia Schiffer, William Lee Scott, Brooke Shields, Ben Stiller, Eddie Kaye Thomas, James Toback, Mike Tyson, Elijah Wood, Brett Rattner, Method Man.
Directed by James Toback.

James Toback is a writer-director who has made comparatively few films over a period of thirty years. His first directorial film was the Harvey Keitel, Fingers. It was something of a sour story of a drug-addicted man, his desire to be a pianist, his clashes, especially with women.

The film was remade to great effect as The Beat My Heart Skipped in 2005, with Romain Duris.

Other films by Toback include Exposed, For Love or Money, The Pick-Up? Artist, Two Girls and a Guy, Harvard Man, When Will I Be Loved.

Toback is something of a cult figure – and an acquired taste. His films tend to be in-your-face. The dialogue, the characters (often improvised by actors), are often marginal, focusing on drugs, sex, greed.

Black and White, as the title indicates, focuses on race relationships in New York City. A group of high school students, many of them with yuppy and influential backgrounds, want to become involved in rap and hip-hop. Power (Oliver ‘Power’ Grant) plays a black gangster who is taken up by white business people. This eventually leads to an undercover agent operating to expose the criminal and a commission by one of the high school students to kill the gangster.

The film was more interesting for its cast. Robert Downey Jr and Brooke Shields play a husband and wife team who are making a documentary (with ambiguous sexuality in their personalities). Ben Stiller plays an undercover agent. Some of the younger members of the cast play the high school students. Model Claude Schiffer appears as an ambitious young woman.

For acquired tastes only.

1.The work of James Toback, offbeat, not mainstream? The darker sides of human nature? Eccentric characters? Perennial themes: sex, drugs, money, violence?

2.The cast, strength, cast against type? Improvised performances? The effect? Dramatic – or not cohesive?

3.The portrait of New York City, the New York world? As perceived by documentary makers? The world of sport? Basketball? Games, managers? Fixing matches? Pressures on players? The role of the gangsters? The detectives and undercover action? The musical score?

4.The title, the race relations issues? Toback and his presentation of characters in black and white? The possibility of grey areas? Black and white psychologically? Morally?

5.The tough issues, the in-your-face style, the confrontative characters?

6.The focus on Rich Bower? Black, the hoodlum? His age, his experience? The world of gangsters? His wanting to get out? His ambitions? The world of rap? His interest in music?

7.The rap world, the music industry? The music of African Americans, language, expressions, feelings? The business background? White businessmen? The high school students – and their attempting to imitate the African Americans, dress, style, language? Issues of money? Rich as a star?

8.The portrait of the white characters, the sports fans, the rap fans? The high school students and their ethos? Charlie, in herself? Her response to rap? Her father and the world of bankers? Wealth? Will and his father being the district attorney? Wanting to emulate the blacks? Hanging around Rich? Ambitions, their worlds, being thwarted?

9.The documentary film-makers, their names (gender interchangeable): Terry, Sam? Robert Downey Jr and Brooke Shields? As a couple, their relationship, their sexuality, bisexuality? Their decision to focus on the high school students? Their style of film-making, in action?

10.Dean Carter, the basketball world, as a champion? His being approached to throw the match? The fixes? His friendship with Rich? Mark Clear and his pose as a gambler, the big stakes? The set-up? The irony of his being under cover? His motivation? To get at Rich? His character, work and ambitions?

11.Dean, his relationship with Greta? Greta and Rich? Greta with the information? The sexual encounter and telling Rich? The presence of Mike Tyson in a guest role? Audience response to Tyson, his background, the charges and his imprisonment? His attitude towards women? Terry and his coming on to him – improvised scene and Tyson’s reaction? The decision to kill Dean? Rich and the contract, Will and his availability? In the gym? Mark and his photographing him?

12.The role of the district attorney? Fixing justice? Wanting to conceal the facts and protect his son? The deal with Mark? The mutual benefit?

13.The Mike Tyson scene, Robert Downey Jr improvising, the effect?

14.The background of supporting characters, those associated with the basketball world, with the rap world, the high school students? Black and white? African Americans in the US? The past, whites emulating the blacks? The destruction of blacks by whites?