Black and White (1999/I)

User Rating:

5.0/10   

Director:

James Toback

Writer (WGA):

James Toback (written by)

Release Date:

5 April 2000 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Music | Thriller

Tagline:

What happens when you mix it up?

Plot:

A group of white high school teens become involved with Harlem's black hip-hop crowd.

Plot Keywords:

Hip Hop | New York | Sex | Recording Studio | Gangster

Cast

Scott Caan	...	Scotty
Robert Downey Jr.	...	Terry Donager
Stacy Edwards	...	Sheila King
Allan Houston	...	Dean Carter
Gaby Hoffmann	...	Raven
Kidada Jones	...	Jesse
Jared Leto	...	Casey
Marla Maples	...	Muffy
Joe Pantoliano	...	Bill King
Bijou Phillips	...	Charlie
Oliver 'Power' Grant	...	Rich Bower (as Power)
Raekwon	...	Cigar
Claudia Schiffer	...	Greta
William Lee Scott	...	Will King
Brooke Shields	...	Sam Donager

MPAA:

Rated R for strong sexuality, graphic language, some violence and drug use.

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:18 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia) | Canada:R (Ontario) | Finland:K-16 | Singapore:(Banned) | South Korea:18 | Portugal:M/12 | Argentina:18 | Australia:MA | Chile:18 | France:U | Germany:16 | Ireland:18 | New Zealand:R16 | Spain:18 | UK:18 | USA:NC-17 | USA:R (certificate #36809) (cut) | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Columbia University - Broadway & 116th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Bigel / Mailer Films

Trivia:

Claudia Schiffer had to have her ears pierced specially for the large hoop earrings worn by her character in this movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: Dean is described repeatedly as a "star point guard." Actually, like the actor (a star basketball player in real life), Dean is a shooting guard who sometimes also plays small forward.

Quotes:

Terry Donager: I'm Terry Donager.
Casey: Hi, I'm Casey.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Xchange (2000)

Soundtrack:

Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F major

Not so real

Hip-hop is not just a style of music, for it comes associated with an attitude, an attitude that notoriously does not wholly reject the ghetto from which it springs. Whether the music, and culture, should thus be seen as the free expression of the dispossessed, or as one of the chains tying them down, is this a moot point (though it's worth noting that every revolution in popular music over the last half-century has been seen by respectable society as the end of the world). 'Black and White' is a celebrity-studded collection of small stories about characters living the hip-hop life, its focus on the interplay of the white community with this essentially black form of music. It's not badly executed, although it's hard to get very interested in any of the characters. One peculiarity, though, is how little hip-hop there actually is on the soundtrack, a strange vacuum at the heart of the film; also, we see little in the way of everyday life in the world from which the music emerged. The result is watchable, but there are no real insights, sociological or musical, to be had.