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African-American Cinema DVDs

Poetic Justice

Sales Rank:10084
List Price: $14.94
Lowest New Price: $5.94
Lowest Used Price: $3.92
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Full Screen
Letterboxed
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Janet Jackson
Tupac Shakur
Regina King
Joe Torry
Tyra Ferrell

Director John Singleton (Boyz N the Hood, Rosewood) made an earnest effort in this, his second, film to say a great deal that is true and relevant about living and loving in a violent, difficult time in American history. Janet Jackson plays a beautician and poet who withdraws into herself after her boyfriend is murdered by gangsters. The late Tupac Shakur plays a postman who tries to get through to her, and the two travel on a course through urban America, connecting with family and community. Singleton has so much on his mind that the film comes out a terrible muddle, but there is a certain integrity peeking through the fog. Shakur makes a startlingly good impression in his film debut, and Jackson strips away her star veneer to play something like a real person--and entirely succeeds. Maya Angelou wrote the poems that pass as those penned by Jackson's character, and she also appears in the film. --Tom Keogh

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Dolemite Collection: Bigger & Badder (7pc) (Ws)

Sales Rank:12976
List Price: $69.95
Lowest New Price: $38.25
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MPAA Rating: Unrated

Format:

Color
Dolby
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

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Phat Girlz

Sales Rank:17639
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $6.78
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

AC-3
Color
Dolby
Dubbed
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Doug Ballard
Jack Noseworthy
Eric Roberts
Mo'nique
Jimmy Jean-Louis

Tart, talented, and plus-size, Jazmin (Mo'Nique, The Parkers) lives in a world that insults and rejects her because she's fat--or is the emotional abuse she heaps on herself the real problem? A department store employee with fashion designer dreams, Jazmin flounders until she wins a Palm Springs vacation and meets a handsome Nigerian doctor named Tunde who cherishes a full figure as a mark of beauty. But can Jazmin overcome her self-loathing and accept Tunde's love? This plot summary doesn't capture the freewheeling style of Phat Girlz, a low-budget feature that proves that slick production values can't compare with spunky rhythmic editing, rough and ready wit, and an honest heart. The movies takes some broad but accurate shots at American culture's crazed body fascism (though the unchivalrous might point out that the movie's male romantic objects all have a pretty studly physique). Mo'Nique throws herself into her part, capturing the mix of self-deprecating humor and bitter anger that many heavy women turn brutally on themselves. Phat Girlz may end up as a fairy tale, but along the way it delves into the sharp, dark edges that make a happy ending well-earned. --Bret Fetzer

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Wattstax (30th Anniversary Special Edition)

Sales Rank:12971
List Price: $19.98
Lowest New Price: $12.24
Lowest Used Price: $12.16
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
Special Edition
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

James Alexander
Rance Allen
Raymond Allen
The Bar-Kays
Andre Edwards

They called Wattstax the "black Woodstock," but there are many differences between that seminal hippie event and the 1972 concert documented in this 30th-anniversary special-edition reissue. Woodstock was all about peace, love, and music. Wattstax, held three years later in Los Angeles, had those elements as well; but as this 103-minute film reminds us, it was a more socio-politically charged event, with its emphasis on black pride and the simple opportunity for African Americans to assert that, in opening speaker Jesse Jackson's words, "I am somebody." There's also a good deal less music in this film than in the Woodstock movie. As the title suggests, a host of great Stax Records artists (including Rufus and Carla Thomas, the Bar-Kays, the Staple Singers, Albert King, and show closer Isaac Hayes) performed, but much of Wattstax doesn't even take place inside the L.A. Coliseum, where the concert was held, but rather in the churches and shops and on the streets of Watts itself (music fans would be better off checking out the Wattstax double CD). Wattstax, in fact, is much less a music movie than a chronicle of black life seven years after the Watts race riots, as well as what comedian Richard Pryor (who delivers several hilarious but scathing bits) calls "a soulful expression of the black experience." --Sam Graham

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Cop Land (Exclusive Director's Cut) (Miramax Collector's Edition)

Sales Rank:13226
List Price: $14.99
Lowest New Price: $4.78
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Anamorphic
Collector's Edition
Color
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Sylvester Stallone
Harvey Keitel
Ray Liotta
Robert De Niro
Peter Berg

After making a critically acclaimed debut with the low-budget independent drama Heavy, writer-director James Mangold took on this gritty crime drama, which was highly touted as Sylvester Stallone's long-awaited return to a serious dramatic role. With an illustrious cast of costars, including GoodFellas alumni Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, and Ray Liotta, Stallone plays Freddy Heflin, the ineffectual sheriff of a New Jersey suburb that a group of corrupt New York cops have turned into their own off-duty criminal empire. Deaf in one ear and desperate to prove his worth, the sheriff takes on the cops with standoffish assistance from an Internal Affairs cop (De Niro), resulting in an explosive climactic showdown. The stellar cast can't be beat, and Stallone is quite good as the overweight cop whose pride is on the line. Mangold's script is wildly uneven, but the film still packs a white-knuckled punch. --Jeff Shannon

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House Party

Sales Rank:16732
List Price: $12.98
Lowest New Price: $5.11
Lowest Used Price: $4.43
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Full Screen
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Paul Anthony
B-Fine
Verda Bridges
Tisha Campbell
Barry Diamond

It's party time, but Kid (Christopher Reid) has been grounded by his strict but loving dad (Robin Harris). His best friend, Play (Christopher Martin), however, cooks up a scheme to sneak him out of the house so he can hook up with his honey at a buddy's house, where it's all going on. Rappers Kid 'N Play are engaging and funny--and entertaining rappers when they get the chance. The real find was comic Robin Harris, hilarious in his own right and solid in this role--but he died a short time later. Look for Martin Lawrence in one of his first film roles as well. --Marshall Fine

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Once Upon a Time...When We Were Colored

Sales Rank:13685
List Price: $14.98
Lowest New Price: $7.96
Lowest Used Price: $4.00
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Letterboxed
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Al Freeman Jr.
Phylicia Rashad
Leon
Paula Kelly
Salli Richardson

Tim Reid's wonderful film about life in the black neighborhood of Glen Allan, Mississippi, from the mid-'40s to the dawn of the civil rights movement, is thick with terrific, inspired actors and possessed of a mature, limpid visual style. The story is told from the point of view of a young boy raised by his stalwart grandfather and his kind aunt. But the collective tale of a community coming to terms with the risks it must take to fight racism and achieve political rights is equally important and compelling. Beautifully written (based on the autobiographical novel by Clifton Taubert), Reid's vision is rich in scenes of ritual and community that have rarely, if ever, been revealed on film. This is more than just a good movie; it's a watershed event in this nation's cultural history. --Tom Keogh

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Crooklyn

Sales Rank:8143
List Price: $19.98
Lowest New Price: $3.85
Lowest Used Price: $3.47
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
DVD-Video
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Vondie Curtis-Hall
N. Jeremi Duru
Frances Foster
Zelda Harris
David Patrick Kelly

Spike Lee's semiautobiographical, 1994 film about the good and bad times for a Brooklyn family in the '70s has passion and nostalgic good feeling, but it is also a mess of random reflections and arbitrary storytelling. The centerpiece of the movie is a little girl (Zelda Harris) who views the ups and downs of her parents' experiences (mom and dad are played by Delroy Lindo and Alfre Woodard), and who navigates the life of her neighborhood. Lee tosses in a lot of '70s detail (watching The Partridge Family) and other diversions (Harris's journey through suburbia), but he has no master sensibility controlling the flow of it all. The film is more wearying than anything, although bright spots include Lindo's fine performance as a talented man suffering from irrelevance. --Tom Keogh

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Mississippi Masala

Sales Rank:11809
List Price: $14.94
Lowest New Price: $4.46
Lowest Used Price: $4.30
MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Mohan Agashe
Sarita Choudhury
Ranjit Chowdhry
Willy Cobbs
Charles S. Dutton

Mira Nair, the Indian director, scored an international art-house hit with her feature debut, Salaam Bombay!, a tale of life in the streets of seething urban India. Her next film was a surprising turnabout: Mississippi Masala is a cultural study and a love story set in the rural American south. The love story comes courtesy of Denzel Washington, as a rug cleaner, and Sarita Choudhury (from Nair's Kama Sutra), as the daughter of Indian immigrants running a small-time motel; both give fresh, charming performances. But Nair is equally interested in capturing the feelings of an exile's life, and Roshan Seth, the fine actor who played Nehru in Gandhi, superbly catches the hope and sorrow of dislocation. Although the issues are serious, Nair maintains a breezy, naturalistic approach, and the various ingredients of this masala blend into a rich, flavorful stew. --Robert Horton

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Philadelphia (Widescreen Two-Disc Special Edition)

Sales Rank:16454
List Price: $19.94
Lowest New Price: $3.40
Lowest Used Price: $3.00
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)

Format:

Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
Dubbed
DVD-Video
Subtitled
Widescreen
NTSC

Director(s):

Actor(s):

Daniel Chapman
David Drake
Karen Finley
Charles Glenn
Tom Hanks

Philadelphia wasn't the first movie about AIDS (it followed such worthy independent films as Parting Glances and Longtime Companion), but it was the first Hollywood studio picture to take AIDS as its primary subject. In that sense, Philadelphia is a historically important film. As such, it's worth remembering that director Jonathan Demme (Melvin and Howard, Something Wild, The Silence of the Lambs) wasn't interested in preaching to the converted; he set out to make a film that would connect with a mainstream audience. And he succeeded. Philadelphia was not only a hit, it also won Oscars for Bruce Springsteen's haunting "The Streets of Philadelphia," and for Tom Hanks as the gay lawyer Andrew Beckett who is unjustly fired by his firm because he has AIDS. Denzel Washington is another lawyer (functioning as the mainstream-audience surrogate) who reluctantly takes Beckett's case and learns to overcome his misconceptions about the disease, about those who contract it, and about gay people in general. The combined warmth and humanism of Hanks and Demme were absolutely essential to making this picture a success. The cast also features Jason Robards, Antonio Banderas (as Beckett's lover), Joanne Woodward, and Robert Ridgely, and, of course, those Demme regulars Charles Napier, Tracey Walter, and Roger Corman. --Jim Emerson

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African-American Cinema DVDs

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