Movie Reviews: 'Notorious,' 'Waltz' cinematize history

After pointless remakes of such classics as "War of the Worlds" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still," when I saw the new film entitled "Notorious," my heart sank. Surely no one outside of Gus Van Sant - whose version of "Psycho" in 1998 was more homage than remake - would tackle a master of Alfred Hitchcock's pedigree or even think of remaking a film like "Notorious."

Luckily my fears were unfounded.

George Tillman Jr.'s film is a biopic about Christopher Wallace, a rapper known by the names of Biggie Smalls and The Notorious B.I.G. "Notorious" deals with Wallace's formative years, his rise to fame and fortune and (briefly) his death by a still unknown assailant on the streets of Las Vegas in 1997. There have been several documentaries about Biggie Smalls and Tupac Shakur (also murdered) that have focused heavily on the killings and the feud leading up to them. In "Notorious," the murder of Wallace supplies the climax to act three.

It should be noted that both Wallace's mother and his mentor/producer Sean "Puffy" Combs (aka Puff Daddy, P. Diddy) are listed as executive producers. That fact makes it understandable that some of the characters and events in "Notorious" (particularly Combs' role) are sugar-coated to a great degree.

The movie opens in Brooklyn with Wallace as a child. This character is played by Christopher Jordan Wallace, Wallace's son, who does a great job playing his dad as a grade school kid with dreams of stardom.

Christopher lives with his single mom, a schoolteacher who came to the U.S. from Jamaica, a caring mother who wants her boy to study hard and stay on the straight and narrow.

We see how young Chris gets involved with gangs and drugs and ultimately goes to jail.

In his teens he meets Combs, already an established rap star and producer who guides Wallace to ultimate stardom.

Along the way, Biggie picks up several artists that he will mentor (and be romantically involved with), most notably Li'l Kim and Faith Evans, whom he marries.

He also befriends Tupac Shakur, a megastar West Coast rapper, and when things go bad after Shakur is assaulted, the legendary East Coast/West Coast rap communities rivalry is born. This will ultimately lead to the deaths of both Shakur and The Notorious B.I.G.

Fans of the rap genre will already know (ad infinitum) the details of the murders but will enjoy the (admittedly slanted) history of Wallace and how he was transformed into Biggie Smalls/The Notorious B.I.G.

As far as these kinds of films go, I thought Eminem's "8 Mile" was a better movie, but "Notorious" is engaging. While it didn't top the overall box office in its first weekend, it ranked No. 1 in per-screen revenue. Love it or hate it, rap is a legitimate musical art form, here to stay, and the genre's fans are legion.

"Waltz with Bashir" is a hard film to describe. It's not the first animated documentary ("Chicago 10" and "Waking Life" are two others), but it's the most powerful.

Israeli director Ari Folman was a soldier in the 1982 war in Lebanon, and with this film, he's trying to make sense, even remember, some of the experiences that he - and others who tell their stories in the film - have repressed.

The use of animation makes sense. The subjects telling their stories are recounting dreams, nightmares and random passing thoughts that they have had in the ensuing war years.

The chilling climax concerns the massacre of some 3,000 Palestinian men, women and children at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, carried out by Phalangist followers of assassinated president Bashir Gemayel. Many Israeli soldiers, knowingly or inadvertently, aided and abetted the Phalangists. Folman and other soldiers he interviews feel he may have been complicit.

One soldier tells the unsettling tale of a member of his outfit who seemed to see the war as if he was merely watching a film unfold.

"Waltz with Bashir" is a powerful work and will not appeal to the casual moviegoer or someone expecting to see a cartoon.

The animation style is intense and realistic. The team of Bridgit Folman, David Polonsky and Yoni Goodman have obviously studied a lot of graphic novels and, while the artwork is not aesthetically similar, the tone of "Waltz with Bashir" is reminiscent of Art Spiegelman's Pulitzer Prize winning tome, "Maus."

While "Waltz with Bashir" hasn't played in Springfield as of this writing, Nicole Chilton of The Moxie Cinema says they will be showing it, hopefully in February.

Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield freelance writer and musician. He can be reached at info@wunderlesound.com.