'Spotlight' Sheds Heavenly Light On Boston Archdiocese's Great Abuse Tragedy

SPOTLIGHT
Director: Thomas McCarthy
Genre: Drama
Starring: Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Brian d'Arcy James, John Slattery, Liev Schreiber, Stanley Tucci
Distributed by: Open Road Films
Release Date: November 6, 2015 (limited)/November 20, 2015 (wide)
My Rating: 9.5/10

"When you're a kid from a poor family and a priest pays attention to you, you feel special. How do you say 'no' to God, right?" This is just one of the many lines that encapsulates the victim's perspectives in a large-scale abuse scandal like the one dealt with in Spotlight. I sincerely hope this film wins, or at least is nominated, for several Oscars and other film awards because it absolutely deserves them. (I must admit bias, as I am an avid fan of investigative journalism dramas based on real events, like All The President's Men, Shattered Glass, and Kill The Messenger.) Writer/Director Tom McCarthy's (The Station Agent, The Visitor) drama, based on real events, centers on the Boston Globe's eponymous team of investigative journalists who, piece by piece, garnered evidence on a series of cases of priests from the Archdiocese of Boston who were molesting little children, particularly boys.

Set in 2001, the film begins with the arrival of Jewish editor-in-chief Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), who takes over after leaving The New York Times, which incidentally bought the Globe a few years prior. After receiving a tip on a story about a priest named Geoghan who supposedly molested a young boy in his parish years ago, the Spotlight Team, led by Walter 'Robby' Robinson (Michael Keaton) begins a full investigation into how many other identical or similar cases there were within the Archdiocese of the city they grew up in. Their quickly research leads them to initially believe 13 priests committed these foul sexual crimes. However, multiple phone interviews with an ex-priest and psychotherapist named Richard Sipe (Richard Jenkins), who treated the priests who were discovered and subsequently sent to a psychiatric hospital, reveal there may have been up to 90 accused clergymen within the city of Boston alone, which roughly matches a national statistic that estimates six percent of priests are pedophiles.

The team manages to confirm 87 priests' names, and after multiple interviews with victims, lawyers, and even members of the Church, the Boston Globe pursues a lawsuit against the religious institution and its leader, Cardinal Bernard Law (Len Cariou).

The film is beautifully shot, and boasts a meticulously written script that alternates speed and pacing in a way that helps to maintain the audience's attention. The score is also very eerie and helps set the tone for a suspenseful storyline. The scenes that involved cross-cutting between different victims' interviews with the Spotlight Team (and, as one can imagine, with characters finishing each other's lines) were some of my favorite. The confessions of the victims are beyond shocking and utterly heartbreaking, especially knowing that they were ignored for so long, (20-plus years in some cases) even if part of the reason for that was that these boys were ashamed to speak out. One of the victims, Phil Saviano (Neal Huff), who states the aforementioned quote, also angrily asks the team of reporters why they ignored a box filled with evidence of abuse he had sent the Globe five years prior.

A lawyer named Mitchell Garabedian (Stanley Tucci) whom Spotlight reporter Michael Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo) constantly perturbs for information, claims that this case is particularly difficult because "the Church controls everything." One of the lawyers who defended the accused priests, Jim Sullivan (Jamey Sheridan), angrily explains when confronted that he was simply "doing his job." Finally, one of the attorneys who defended the victims, Eric MacLeish (Billy Crudup), also becomes defensive and refuses to remotely divulge any piece of information or take any responsibility, saying these types of cases are generally hopeless. So how much true progress and justice can really come when so many turn a blind eye and few seem willing to admit the truth or take the blame?

The performances from the all-star cast are outstanding and reflect their respective characters' perseverance and determination to uncover the truth and not let this story go unheard, despite another major event rocking the country at one point of the more-than-a-year-long investigation: 9/11. The most prominent performances for me were those of Mr. Keaton, Mr. Ruffalo, and Rachel McAdams, who plays the only female reporter on the Spotlight Team, Sacha Pfeiffer. Funny enough, Ms. McAdams' character is also the only one in the entire film who is shown directly interviewing an accused priest, who clearly seems mentally ill.

Aside from the shots of Boston's landmarks which unsurprisingly made me immensely miss my college city, the shots of the city, particularly during the wintertime, are perfect for such a dark tale.
Truth be told, I couldn't help but feel slightly ashamed as a Catholic after watching this film. I remember hearing of a few real-life cases of child molestation by clergymen in high school and in college, but I never truly realized the size and scope of this scandal until watching this film. To learn that, although justice was served in many cases, many others remain unfinished, is even more horrifying. The end credits reveal the cities both in the US and in the rest of the world where such scandals have erupted, and believe me when I saw your jaw will drop when you see just how many cities are on this list.

The fact that the judge assigned to the main case in which the Church was sued, Constance Sweeney, was a devout Irish Catholic woman, and that this woman ruled against the Church, is indisputably significant. Furthermore, nobody seemed interested in pursuing this story until a new editor who wasn't Catholic showed up and pushed for the investigation, because as one character states, "it takes an outsider," an opinion I happen to agree with. As for the accuracy and authenticity of the film's events, facts and statistics, the reporters from the Globe involved in the investigation were scrutinized by other journalists. The Spotlight Team members also published a book based on their findings entitled Betrayal: The Crisis of the Catholic Church. 

Of course, not all priests are pedophiles or criminals of another nature. Just like police officers, some are merciless (and perhaps mentally ill), but many others are also good people. I make this comparison due to the increasing number of cops who have been shooting or violently arresting unarmed black men across the country and are defacing our society's image of policeman. Both priests and cops are figures who are supposed to represent all that is good, yet who is ensuring that they don't abuse of their rights or authority? Sadly, there seems to be a long way to go in both of these issues, although I am confident that big changes will come, even if it is not in the most drastic of ways.          

Tom Hanks Shines As Key Facilitator In 'Bridge of Spies'

BRIDGE OF SPIES
Director: Steven Spielberg
Genre: Historical Drama
Starring: Tom Hanks, Mark Rylance, Amy Ryan, Alan Alda
Distributed by: Touchstone Pictures (North America), 20th Century Fox (International)
Release Date: October 16, 2015
My Rating: 7.5/10

Legendary filmmaker Steven Spielberg is back as both Director and Producer of yet another 20th-century war drama. Although this film does not take place during World War II like Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Flags of Our Fathers, or Letters from Iwo Jima, this film is set in 1957 during the height of the Cold War, which arose in large part due to the aftermath of the Second World War.

Two-time Academy-Award-winner Tom Hanks stars as Jim Donovan, an insurance lawyer from Brooklyn who is tasked with the highly controversial task of defending Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance), a Soviet spy, who is also a British Citizen, who has just been arrested in New York after FBI agents storm his apartment and find evidence of his illicit activities.

Many American officials and even civilians fear Abel may be a KGB spy, but work hard to ensure his trial is fair so as to avoid another reason for escalating tensions between the US and the Soviet Union.
As one might expect during that time, Donovan quickly becomes despised by the American public, and he and his family slowly become threatened. The lawyer remains persistent, and continues his attempts to convince the courts to give Abel 30 years imprisonment rather than a direct death sentence, but fails.

Meanwhile, a young pilot named Francis Gary Powers (Austin Stowell) is shot down from his U-2 spy plane over the Soviet Union, where he is captured, imprisoned, and tortured. Another young American, an economics graduate exchange student named Frederic Pryor who is working on his dissertation in East Germany, is also detained and held hostage shortly afterwards following a visit to his German girlfriend in East Berlin just as the Berlin Wall is being constructed. Thus, Donovan attempts to negotiate a 2-for-1 trade with the USSR: Abel for both Powers and Pryor. The USSR only agrees to return Powers, which prompts Donovan to fight till the bitter end until both him and Pryor are home safe.

Bridge of Spies is certainly a very well-shot war thriller, with both dreary, grey shades during the winter in present-day Russia and brightly-colored outfits that bring the 1950s completely to life (especially in the case of Donovan's wife and daughter, played by Amy Ryan and Bono's real-life daughter Eve Hewson). The tensions between the two major superpower nations are vividly depicted-despite the occasional comic relief in one-on-one conversation scenes-and the display of people illegally jumping over the Berlin Wall at night fresh off its construction, only to be shot by Soviet/East German police, are shocking.

Tom Hanks delivers his usual outstanding performance of a man who is nothing short of perseverant, albiet fierce opposition from his own compatriots. Support from a strong cast and a well-penned script from the Coen Brothers and Matt Charman help to round off a story that in the end truly does demonstrate how drastically differently both nations operated during this tumultuous Cold War. The fact that Donovan is ultimately granted the majority of the credit for the exchange, while Abel does not even remotely appear to be welcomed back to his homeland with open arms. Likewise, Powers is depicted as undergoing through much more violent interrogation sessions from the Soviets than Abel is by the Americans: bias? Probably. Donovan is revealed to have also played a large role in negotiating the exchange of prisoners during the Bay of Pigs Invasion just a few years later in 1962, which may be another reason why he is so revered in this film.

The film is rather long, with a total running time of 2 hours and 21 minutes, and the negotiations do seem to drag on for the latter half of the story, and the ending is more anti-climactic than some may like, so although you might leave the theater disappointed in this regard just remember that you were warned.

I hope to see more of Mr. Spielberg's work in the coming years, whether it take the form of another war drama or a more sci-fi/adventure blockbuster that recalls old classics like the beloved Indiana Jones and Jurassic Park franchises.         

Saving Jason Bourne/Will Hunting/Prviate Ryan... In Outer Space? Count Me In!

THE MARTIAN
Director: Ridley Scott
Genre: Science Fiction, Drama
Starring: Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Kristen Wiig
Distributed by: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: October 2, 2015
My Rating: 9/10

In all sincerity, I've been disappointed by the last few string of intergalactic sci-fi flicks that have been thrust full throttle onto the big screen in recent years. Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity (2013) was decent, with a great cast and splendid visuals, but not completely satisfying and dubiously realistic (not to mention an unsatisfying, grandiose ending). Clearly, The Academy loved it, since it snagged seven out of ten Oscars, including Best Director and Best Visual Effects.

Christopher Nolan's uber-lengthy space-set blockbuster Interstellar (2014) left me even more vastly disheartened, despite its equally stunning panorama of futuristic landscapes and special effects and A-list cast. (Also, far too much crying)

However, acclaimed director Ridley Scott (Gladiator, Prometheus) engenders a brilliant thrill ride in The Martian, which is based on Andy Weir's 2011 novel of the same name. The film revolves around Mark Watney (Damon), an astronaut who becomes stranded on Planet Mars after a dust storm strikes, which leads his five fellow crew members (Jessica Chastain, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, Aksel Hennie) to abandon him and return to Earth.

Using his wide array of skills as a botanist and engineer, as well as his morbid sense of humor, Watney learns to adapt to the desolate environment on Mars. He records video logs of his survival progress, which he eventually manages to send to NASA after an initial struggle to establish communication with them. Both his crew and NASA's top executives, among them Head Director Teddy Sanders (Daniels), Media Relations Director Annie Montrose (Wiig), and Mars lead mission director/engineer Vincent Kapoor (Ejiofor), scramble to employ ever resource and strategy available, including the assistance of China's National Space Association, to rescue Watney and return him home safely.

Matt Damon (my favorite actor of all time) is outstanding as the optimistic and somewhat snarky Mark Watney. Recalling his roles in the Bourne trilogy, The Adjustment Bureau and many other movies, Mr. Damon immerses himself completely in the role of this multi-talented man who traverses hell and back to reach his final destination. The rest of the star-studded cast also form a magnificent ensemble, with A-list Oscar-nominees Jessica Chastain portraying Melissa Lewis, the valiant and determined Commander of Watney's crew and Chiwetel Ejiofor as the cautious and brilliant Mars mission leader Vince Kapoor. Jeff Daniels channels the same vigor and nonsense-intolerance of his character from his hit HBO series The Newsroom, anchor Will McAvoy, to bring NASA Head Teddy Sanders to life.

Although the visuals of the red-tinged wasteland that is supposed to be Mars are fantastic, the film is not solely defined by them. The score and soundtrack are equally entertaining, particularly the latter. I haven't seen every major/classic space-set sci-fi movie in the history of film, but I'm willing to bet Bill Gates levels of money that this is the only one to include a setlist of mega-corny 70s disco tunes and other classic oldies, from Gloria Gaynor, to Donna Summer, to Gloria Estefan. If the thought of Matt Damon rebuilding a space vehicle while ABBA's "Waterloo" plays in the background doesn't appeal to you, then you can't possibly be a very happy person. Unfortunately, Train's "Drops of Jupiter" doesn't make the cut. Maybe in the sequel.

The script remains substantially true to Weir's novel, with a few minor details omitted, including much of the profanity uttered by characters like Watney and Annie, presumably to justify a PG-13 rating and attract younger audiences. The doses of humor, including Watney's complaints of going seven days without any ketchup for his meals, and his claims of colonizing Mars by being the first human to grow potatoes, with a smug "in you face, Neil Armstrong," to tack it off, keep you as engaged in the story as much as the protagonist is determined to return home safely.

All of these elements contribute to making The Martian a spectacular film that any viewers who remotely enjoy astronaut flicks will remember from beginning to end. Some scientists have claimed that the storyline is very unrealistic in certain respects, while Mr. Damon referred to it as 'science faction.' A few film buffs have described the film as a cross between Apollo 13 and Cast Away, although I believe that the film is meant to be much more. Should Mr. Scott decide to helm yet another upcoming sci-fi film with a similar cast and similar themes, I will be sure to look out for it. In the meantime, go see this film to find out if the the talented Mr. Watney does indeed survive.            

Welcome to Juarez: City of Drugs, Bones, and Sicarios

SICARIO
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Genre: Crime Drama/Thriller
Starring: Benicio del Toro, Josh Brolin, Emily Blunt, Victor Garber
Distributed by: Lionsgate
Release Date: September 18, 2015 (Limited), October 2 (Wide)
My Rating: 9.5/10

From French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies, Prisoners) comes a bloody, gut-wrenching crime thriller that surely makes the list of my favorite films of this year, and which will hopefully become an Oscar contender.

The title of the film derives from the Spanish word for 'hitman,' a term frequently used in Mexico to describe any type of hired assassin. The film opens up with an explanation of the original meaning of the word Sicario, which dates back to the times of the Ancient Romans, and referred to the zealots of Jerusalem who would give the hunting game to the Romans who had invaded their land. The story centers around Kate Macer (Blunt), an idealistic FBI Special Weapons and Tactics Team agent who is tasked with assisting CIA agent and DOJ adviser Matt Graver (Brolin) and his dubious partner Alejandro (del Toro), who was previously stationed in Colombia, with a mission. This mission consists in bringing down a drug cartel leader named Manuel Diaz, who leads them in turn to an even bigger drug lord named Fausto Alarcon. As the investigation across the U.S.-Mexican border escalates, Kate begins to question the morality of the means being employed, and suspects there may be a double-agent in their midst.

The film is brilliantly shot and laden with gruesome images from the very beginning. I would not be surprised if I learned that some of the photos of decimated and mutilated bodies were completely real. Although the film is rather slow at the start, (after the opening action scene) the magnitude of the mission escalates, as well as the tension between the US government officials, and the body count rises rapidly in the second half of the film. Coupled with an eerie and heart-pounding score by Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson, (Prisoners, The Theory of Everything) low-key lighting, and first-person-shooter-video-game-esque green lights as seen through special high-tech CIA goggles as the squad travels through tunnels in Mexico searching for the drug lords, Sicario truly makes for a macabre, contemporary thriller.

Emily Blunt delivers a commanding performance as a brave, badass, take-no-nonsense government agent   despite her supremely feminine appearance. Her emotions take a constant turn from suspicion, to terror, to pure anger as she cruises back-and-forth across the border donning nothing but a plain dark tshirt, pants, boots, a bullet-proof vest, and a simple handgun, as well as the occasional cigarette to relax the nerves (or to fit in better with the men?). Josh Brolin is brilliant as the obligatory sarcastic knucklehead team leader whose morals seem questionable from the get-go.

Benicio del Toro is phenomenal as a frightening, yet cool-under-dire-situations man who has suffered personal loss and is just as tenacious as Miss Blunt's character to seek justice, albeit for a different problem and by different tactics. Mr. del Toro, a native Puerto Rican, seamlessly alternates between English and Spanish, and squints his small eyes as he issues threats in a gruff tone. One of the many aspects of the film that undoubtedly made chills run down my spine was hearing del Toro deliver some of his lines before beating or killing a stuck-up yet not-so-smart drug-pusher. The coldest one: "Ahora vas a saber lo que es conocer a Dios en tierra Yanqui." ("Now you will know what it's like to meet God in Yankee territory").

The film ends on a horrifying note, shedding nothing close to a ray of hopeful light with regards to the increasingly precarious cross-border war on drugs. The plot twist towards the end of the film demonstrates that there are clearly more than simply two sides to this issue. Who knows when the dispute will finally end, but one thing is certain after seeing Sicario: in Juarez, Mexico, anything goes, and only those with the nerve to take risks and play dirty will survive.  

'The Man from U.N.C.L.E' Stands for 'Uneventful, Non-Creative, Lackluster Experience'

Director: Guy Ritchie

Genre: Action

Starring: Henry Cavill, Armie Hammer, Alicia Vikander, Hugh Grant

Distributed by: Warner Bros. Pictures

Release Date: August 14, 2015

My Rating: 6/10 

I am a fan of spy films and action-packed films in general, that much is definitely true. Some espionage thrillers keep you constantly vigilant for clues, both glaring and subtle, for Chekhov's guns that will contribute to escalating plot twists and turns. Many of these conventional twists have, admittedly, been exhausted to the point where stereotypes have become affixed to the true, 'unexpected' villain's identity: the perpetually mocked-and-abused nerdy and/or quiet right-hand-man, the beautiful and charmingly cute woman who turns out to be a seductress, you name it. 

Director Guy Ritchie's new spy film, based on the 1960s TV show of the same name, pits CIA Agent Napoleon Solo (Cavill, Man of Steel) against Soviet KGB operative Ilya Kuryakin (Hammer, The Social Network, The Lone Ranger) after Solo travels to East Berlin in 1963, at the height of the Cold War, to extract Gaby Teller (Vikander, Ex Machina), the daughter of a notorious purported Nazi scientist-turned CIA informant after the end of World War II. However, Solo and Kuryakin are quickly forced by their respective employers to collaborate in order to defeat a common, much greater threat: an Italian shipping company owned by a couple named Alexander and Victoria Vinciguerra (a woman who appears to attempt at reincarnating a young Sophia Loren or something), who has enlisted Gaby's Uncle Rudi in order to develop a nuclear weapon. 

The script is rife with awkwardly funny lines and gaffes, (many surrounding the tense relationship between the two agents, and which in no way steer clear from stereotypes depicting Soviet-era Russians as uptight at best and ruthless at worst) just enough for this film to be considered a comedy, perhaps the same way both Avengers filmed proved to be funny. The latter, however, appeared to accomplish this more seamlessly. Perhaps the characters in this franchise seemed more likable to me.

The fight scenes and car-chase sequences that comprised the action were certainly entertaining, and accompanied by a superb score. However, the cliches undoubtedly abounded: the villain's last name means 'war-victor' in Italian, for crying out loud. As for the performances: Mr. Cavill's acting seems overly forced and cartoonish, Mr. Hammer is brilliant as the aforementioned stiff Kuryakin, with his I-don't-take-crap-from-anybody mentality, and Miss Vikander is simply adorable. 

I was not expecting to see a spy comedy, but if that is indeed what I signed up for last Sunday, then I would have wished to see something more akin to Get Smart (2008), a film also based on a 1960s TV show exploring, among other themes, the Manichean dynamic of the US-Soviet relationship during the Cold War. This film actually made me laugh hysterically.  

Jason Segel Electrifies 'The End of the Tour'

Director: James Ponsoldt
Genre: Drama
Starring: Jason Segel, Jesse Eisenberg, Joan Cusack
Distributed by: A24 Films
Release Date: July 31, 2015
My Rating: 9/10

What do you get when you mix genius, eccentricity, awkwardness, and unadulterated wit? Authenticity. That's what Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg bring to this simple yet incredibly revelatory retelling of the last five days of the book tour for Infinite Jest, acclaimed author David Foster Wallace's masterpiece, upon its release in 1996.

After becoming dazzled by just the opening paragraph, Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky (Eisenberg) begs his editor (Ron Livingston) to grant him the opportunity to interview Wallace, a writer Lipsky believes "only comes around once or twice in a lifetime." Throughout this extended interview, Lipsky delves into the strange and brilliant mind of (then) 34-year-old Wallace, a Harvard graduate.

In his first major dramatic role, Jason Segel is nothing short of electrifying. He sheds his mantle of adopting well-known, doofy, well-meaning, and oddly relatable (if anything because of their shortcomings) characters like Marshall Eriksen from How I Met Your Mother or Peter from Forgetting Sarah Marshall and immerses himself into the body of an eccentric and humble novelist and English professor whose caution and skepticism are matched only by his brutal yet unobtrusive sincerity. As David Wallace, Segel explains the story underlying his bandana and his two dogs-Wallace's two greatest hyperactive, attention-seeking companion's-but in a manner that does not border on superfluous justification.

Jesse Eisenberg is just as honest in his portrayal of Lipsky and shows his determination to extract the truth, even if it signifies triggering defensive responses from his subject. Eisenberg intersperses many of his lines with short, awkward chuckles that can only be attributed to Lipsky's nervousness and awe at being in the presence of Wallace, often times alone. The 90s are given a brief yet noticeable shout-out, from flannel shirts and big antenna-donning phones, to a four-person-group car-ride sing-a-long to a then-popular Alanis Morissette song. Wallace clearly tries to remain relatively removed from the world at large out of fear of becoming a celebrity of whom the public will hold unattainably high expectations, even though he eventually realizes that he can learn from others nearly as much as others learn from him. (Isn't it ironic? Don't you think? That's not the Alanis song, by the way)

I'm not entirely sure if David Wallace was more renown when he was alive or after his untimely demise by suicide, but one thing is certain: this film captures the essence of the man during one of the highest points of his career.

In 'Top Five,' Chris Rock Raises Spicy Questions

 Director: Chris Rock (also writer)
Genre: Comedy
Starring: Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson, Gabrielle Union, J.B. Smoove, Cedric the Entertainer
Distributed by: Paramount Pictures
Release Date: December 12, 2014
My Rating: 8.5/10

I truly appreciate it when a movie comes along that makes fun of its own cliches and eviscerates sociological and pop-culture stereotypes. That is exactly what comedian Chris Rock creates in this outrageous new take on a dilemma faced by a myriad of modern-day comedians and blockbuster franchise Hollywood stars alike.

Veteran comedian Andre Allen (Rock) has been adored by millions for both his stand-up routines and his portrayal of Hammy the Bear, an action-comedy trilogy centered on a policeman who dons a bear costume. (Yes, you read that correctly) Mr. Rock does not even attempt to subdue what seems to be his opinion that contemporary comedies have become characterized by doltish premises. However, Andre has grown weary of being associated exclusively as Hammy every time he walks the streets of his home in New York City, and attempts to venture into more dramatic territory by starring in a historical film entitled 'Uprize' about the Haitian Revolution against the European conquerers. Much like Michael Keaton's character in Birdman, Rock's Andre Allen struggles to make the transition into 'more meaningful' cinema and in the process of gradually jettisoning his franchise-film persona, is lambasted by sarcastic critics including one in particular, James Nielsen from the New York Times.

As the premier of 'Uprize' approaches, along with Andre's nuptials to a beautiful reality TV-star named Erica Long (Union), New York Times profile writer Chelsea Brown (Dawson) interviews the comedy star in an attempt to learn more about his origin story, including his past scandals involving alcoholism.

The script is rife with raunchy humor, with doses of explicit nudity and a crop of cameos, some of which will markedly change your perception of other well-known comedians (cough cough, Jerry Seinfeld) who play unfiltered, uncensored versions of themselves. Mr. Rock also repeatedly points toward the nonsensical and galling ways in which the media strives to unilaterally determine what is considered 'funny and appropriate.' One scene in which Andre is asked to announce himself on a morning radio show says it all: he is asked by the host to repeat the same line in at least three or four different tones until it's 'really funny,' which leads to a clearly-exasperated Andre to end up delivering the line in a sarcastic tone and replacing many of the words with expletives, to which the host replies: 'Ok, let's just keep the first take.'

Much like Mr. Rock's real-life stand-up persona, Andre Allen has very little filter, is sardonic and goes straight for the jugular, expressing confusion and pointing about the absurdity of sociological double-standards that still pervade the world today. When asked on another radio talk show about whether he is concerned that a white audience will be outraged by his character's massacre of white slave-owners, Allen nonchalantly responds that George Bush veritably killed millions of brown people and nobody said anything, while he 'fake-kills' whites in his movie and that there shouldn't be a problem with that either. The superficiality of reality TV stars and the public's obsession with their programs is also touched upon, as Gabrielle Union's Erica is depicted as a glamorous, mink-scarf-donning modern-day Marilyn Monroe of sorts, except without, as she herself states, any talents.

Rosario Dawson also honestly and fiercely plays off Rock's character with her own surprisingly sharp and witty retorts. One of the aspects of this comedy I most appreciated and that set it aside from others of its kind was its scarce churning of one-liners that induces a chuckle for one minute and is quickly forgotten the next as the plot moves onto another scenario. Instead, Top Five raises thought-provoking questions in a manner that is far from preachy. The name of the film stems from a list several characters, including Andre's relatives, create of their five favorite hip-hop artists, with a sixth thrown into the mix, because apparently, there is a whole sea of worthy rappers. Although it is clear that Andre Allen's ultimate goal is to be remembered by the public as more than just a dawdling cop in a bear costume and to someday make that 'top five' list for actors, the fact that he does not explicitly state this desire (and neither does anyone else) is a relief.