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Movie: Head Of State
Starring Chris Rock, Bernie Mac, Tamala Jones, James Rebhorn,
Dylan Brown, Robin Givens
Directed By Chris Rock; Written By Chris Rock and Ali Leroi
(Dreamworks)
Reviewed by Rusty Pipes
Chris Rock has made a delightfully acidic fable with Head Of State. The story is pretty simple. When their candidate is suddenly killed in a plane crash, a Major American Political Party decides it's lost the 2004 Presidential election already, so it invests in the 2008 election in a backwards way. They will create loyal minority voters by making a black Washington DC alderman their replacement candidate this time around. They are sure he will lose of course, but their choice, Mays Gilliam, turns out to be a black guy with a big, er, White Knight complex, who takes their assumptions and tosses them out the window. Forget the White Knight, it actually sounds more like Sheriff Bart winning over the good folks of Ridge Rock.
Chris adds a lot of urban attitude into his first directorial effort. It waters down some of the political points but obviously he's trying to radicalize a younger crowd. To his credit he doesn't let the story fall into a lot of mindless booty-chasing like your standard black comedy. Chris makes some poignant comments like how it isn't right when our schools still have worn out old books, but have bough shiny new metal detectors, but he really breathes fire when he does his set piece, the debate scene. You can see this is much more than just a comedy vehicle to him. It's all very smart and street-smart at the same time with a killer hip-hop soundtrack.
Bernie Mac does well as Gilliam's brother and brings with him a whole lot more attitude than Chris allows his hero. Robin Givens does hilarious work as the psycho ex-girlfriend and Tamala Jones is fetching as his new love interest. James Rebhorn does yeoman's work as the party boss who gets him into all this and Nick Searcy does a good almost-Bush as Gilliam's opponent, Lewis. His rallying cry, "God Bless America and NO ONE ELSE!" is almost too real in the current political atmosphere.
It's a movie that owes as much to Warren Beatty's Bulworth as it does Mel Brooks's Blazing Saddles. This is a proudly subversive farce at a time when our government is moving further away from democracy every day. Thank goodness we have Chris Rock in these dark times to give us some counterpoint to the steady diet of patriotic propaganda we're currently getting.
The Skinny:
Am I glad I saw the film: Absolutely, Chris Rock For President.
Would I go to see it again: I feel like buying the whole neighborhood tickets!(Also Starring Lynn Whitfield and Nick Searcy)
© 2003 - Rusty Pipes