As the disclaimer at the beginning of this film on Amazon warns us, this film is um...not going to be for everyone. Particularly, those who are easily offended by racial slurs and stereotypes. This is a movie that's bound to offend pretty much everyone, but it's doing it at a time when a lot of these sentiments were actually quite common.
I mean, we see how some white audiences react to movies like Get Out or Candyman, that use metaphor and symbolism to ALLUDE to racial injustice. Ironically, those same audiences would probably roll their eyes at the disclaimer at the beginning of the film, and celebrate its frankness and willingness to be offensive...yet, probably miss that the film is saying the exact same thing.
While Jeff Gerber (Godfery Cambridge) starts the film off as a hopelessly bigoted lug of a man who...races buses (for some reason), the white people around him are well-to-do and roll their eyes at his casual racism and disdain for black people. That is, until, he becomes black himself and feels the way, first hand, how society around him changes. Cambridge gives off an interesting performance; first he's really annoying and difficult to watch, but gradually, he's humanized and by the end of the film, it's hard not to admire how he played this. His desperation and exasperation transforms into acceptance and then disgust with the way these "nice white people" start turning on him.
At times, this movie is truly quite heartbreaking. I expected Gerber's wife to fetishize and be excited by the prospects of being with a black man (as the movie is not subtle in communicating they have a loveless marriage when he's a white man). But, her reaction is instead a mix of reluctant support to her husband and then active hatred of him, despite her expressing "liberal" views on race for much of the beginning of the movie. There's a consequential scene with Gerber's neighbours essentially bribing him to leave (as the presence of a "black family" will lower house prices) that's both funny and also really tough to absorb. That this movie lays bear the unequal and stratified society that white people were mostly content to live in is frightening and telling. At times, this film resembles a horror movie more than a comedy.
Now, while this movie is a good time capsule film on that level, on a filmic level...it's a different story. It's nice to see some of the 70s trends come up "organically" and not as a result of conscious emulation (the zoom shots, the freeze frames, the long static shots). But it's also nice (and hilarious) to see some trends that...just don't have much redeeming value. The wonky, confusing editing, the flashing coloured lights, the on screen text that comes up for no reason...yeah, this movie is going to be a hard watch for some, for that reason as well.
I also didn't find the film particularly funny; there were clearly moments intended to be comedic that really didn't hit for me. The extended sequence of Gerber trying to "whiten" himself just went on so long and, lest I reveal myself to be a snowflake, pretty messed up from a 21st century perspective. When this movie shines comedically, it's in the snide comments and fleeting bits of dialog, to be honest.
But, I can't say I didn't ENJOY this film. If you're interested in 70s film making, movies that reflect the time they were made, or just something weird that'll get you thinking...I recommend this movie. Just pack a thick skin if you're easily offended.
I mean, we see how some white audiences react to movies like Get Out or Candyman, that use metaphor and symbolism to ALLUDE to racial injustice. Ironically, those same audiences would probably roll their eyes at the disclaimer at the beginning of the film, and celebrate its frankness and willingness to be offensive...yet, probably miss that the film is saying the exact same thing.
While Jeff Gerber (Godfery Cambridge) starts the film off as a hopelessly bigoted lug of a man who...races buses (for some reason), the white people around him are well-to-do and roll their eyes at his casual racism and disdain for black people. That is, until, he becomes black himself and feels the way, first hand, how society around him changes. Cambridge gives off an interesting performance; first he's really annoying and difficult to watch, but gradually, he's humanized and by the end of the film, it's hard not to admire how he played this. His desperation and exasperation transforms into acceptance and then disgust with the way these "nice white people" start turning on him.
At times, this movie is truly quite heartbreaking. I expected Gerber's wife to fetishize and be excited by the prospects of being with a black man (as the movie is not subtle in communicating they have a loveless marriage when he's a white man). But, her reaction is instead a mix of reluctant support to her husband and then active hatred of him, despite her expressing "liberal" views on race for much of the beginning of the movie. There's a consequential scene with Gerber's neighbours essentially bribing him to leave (as the presence of a "black family" will lower house prices) that's both funny and also really tough to absorb. That this movie lays bear the unequal and stratified society that white people were mostly content to live in is frightening and telling. At times, this film resembles a horror movie more than a comedy.
Now, while this movie is a good time capsule film on that level, on a filmic level...it's a different story. It's nice to see some of the 70s trends come up "organically" and not as a result of conscious emulation (the zoom shots, the freeze frames, the long static shots). But it's also nice (and hilarious) to see some trends that...just don't have much redeeming value. The wonky, confusing editing, the flashing coloured lights, the on screen text that comes up for no reason...yeah, this movie is going to be a hard watch for some, for that reason as well.
I also didn't find the film particularly funny; there were clearly moments intended to be comedic that really didn't hit for me. The extended sequence of Gerber trying to "whiten" himself just went on so long and, lest I reveal myself to be a snowflake, pretty messed up from a 21st century perspective. When this movie shines comedically, it's in the snide comments and fleeting bits of dialog, to be honest.
But, I can't say I didn't ENJOY this film. If you're interested in 70s film making, movies that reflect the time they were made, or just something weird that'll get you thinking...I recommend this movie. Just pack a thick skin if you're easily offended.