Wonderful, darkly comic look at one of life's losers, Pierce Mundy, a young man, adrift in South Central in the early 80s, who has to choose between attending the funeral of his creepily abusive to women best friend and the marriage of his corporate lawyer brother to a banal yuppie. And in typical loser fashion Pierce ends up doing neither after ridiculously trying to do both.
In telling this poignantly mordant tale writer/director Charles Burnett demonstrates his ability to take serious stuff lightly, a tone which perfectly fits this character and material and is key to accomplishing the difficult task of actually making me care about this feckless schlub. Also helping in the sympathy department is the performance of Everett Silas as Pierce, an actor who apparently made Burnett's life miserable during the film's shooting but whose body language and speech perfectly embody a fellow who cannot get out of his own way. Also good is Jesse Holmes who plays Pierce's mother and is a fascinating combination of anger, bemusement and sorrow over how her son has turned out.
There are some imperfections. As befits a low budget, indy film the acting beyond Silas and Holmes is hit and miss and while some scenes are perfectly balanced between humor and menace, like the ones set in the dry cleaning establishment that the Mundys run, others, like the pre wedding dinner at the awful in laws , are stiff, caricatured and relentlessly unfunny. And the cinematography, also by Burnett, is serviceable, at best.
Bottom line: Not as good as "Killer Of Sheep" (a masterpiece) but definitely worth a look, especially if you're a fan of the 70s/80s UCLA black film makers, as I am. Give it an A minus.
In telling this poignantly mordant tale writer/director Charles Burnett demonstrates his ability to take serious stuff lightly, a tone which perfectly fits this character and material and is key to accomplishing the difficult task of actually making me care about this feckless schlub. Also helping in the sympathy department is the performance of Everett Silas as Pierce, an actor who apparently made Burnett's life miserable during the film's shooting but whose body language and speech perfectly embody a fellow who cannot get out of his own way. Also good is Jesse Holmes who plays Pierce's mother and is a fascinating combination of anger, bemusement and sorrow over how her son has turned out.
There are some imperfections. As befits a low budget, indy film the acting beyond Silas and Holmes is hit and miss and while some scenes are perfectly balanced between humor and menace, like the ones set in the dry cleaning establishment that the Mundys run, others, like the pre wedding dinner at the awful in laws , are stiff, caricatured and relentlessly unfunny. And the cinematography, also by Burnett, is serviceable, at best.
Bottom line: Not as good as "Killer Of Sheep" (a masterpiece) but definitely worth a look, especially if you're a fan of the 70s/80s UCLA black film makers, as I am. Give it an A minus.