"Idlewild" is almost unbearable to watch. It's "The Color Purple" crossed with "Moulin Rouge" crossed with "Hoodlum" crossed with "Six Feet Under." In short, it's two hours too long and makes a mockery of the four previously mentioned works.
Quite attractive is the prospect of a film with an all black cast. "Idlewild" could have been a welcome addition to the short catalogue of contemporary Blaxploitation films but this movie was less "Blax" and more "Blaggh!" Stereotypes are thick throughout, which is not always a problem except that, in "Idlewild," they serve no purposedidactic, comedic or otherwise. Indeed it seems as if director Bryan Barber half believes the crude and bizarre temperaments of his main characters. Do any of these people have genuine depth? Efforts to give them any turned out shallow.
Andre 3000 plays a lonely piano player in 1930s Georgia who stumbles upon the love of his life in the shape of Paula Patton (fellow band-mate Big Boi's wife). He then hangdogs his way through the rest of the movie, while Patton does her best Shug Averyvery very badly. Big Boi (Antwan Patton) can't do much better either but not because he lacks talent. As Rooster, the popular juke joint performer, he infuses the dance numbers with his own trademark laid-back charm, but the most his character is allowed to do offstage is drink and fire a gun. How's that for a stereotype? Terrence Howard is also weighed down by the same old bad-guy act that strangled his creativity and hid his range for years. At some point, his character's brutality becomes ridiculously gratuitous.
In fact, gratuitousness could be the main theme in "Idlewild" or is it morbidity? All I know is that the next time I want to see someone serenading a corpse is never.
Copyright (c) 2006 by Lauren Simpson
Quite attractive is the prospect of a film with an all black cast. "Idlewild" could have been a welcome addition to the short catalogue of contemporary Blaxploitation films but this movie was less "Blax" and more "Blaggh!" Stereotypes are thick throughout, which is not always a problem except that, in "Idlewild," they serve no purposedidactic, comedic or otherwise. Indeed it seems as if director Bryan Barber half believes the crude and bizarre temperaments of his main characters. Do any of these people have genuine depth? Efforts to give them any turned out shallow.
Andre 3000 plays a lonely piano player in 1930s Georgia who stumbles upon the love of his life in the shape of Paula Patton (fellow band-mate Big Boi's wife). He then hangdogs his way through the rest of the movie, while Patton does her best Shug Averyvery very badly. Big Boi (Antwan Patton) can't do much better either but not because he lacks talent. As Rooster, the popular juke joint performer, he infuses the dance numbers with his own trademark laid-back charm, but the most his character is allowed to do offstage is drink and fire a gun. How's that for a stereotype? Terrence Howard is also weighed down by the same old bad-guy act that strangled his creativity and hid his range for years. At some point, his character's brutality becomes ridiculously gratuitous.
In fact, gratuitousness could be the main theme in "Idlewild" or is it morbidity? All I know is that the next time I want to see someone serenading a corpse is never.
Copyright (c) 2006 by Lauren Simpson