Mario makes great job in this movie, surely it must be one of his best movies so far. I haven't seen the rest of them, so I don't know. This is a true story of making the first "Nigga" movie, which to my opinion is still the greatest one of them, and one of the bravest and most interesting movies of all time. "Sweetback" alone makes Melvin one of the greatest (I haven't seen his other works yet). The portrayal of the movie world is really funny, and also I'm sure it's a quite realistic picture today also. The funding and everything: They never want to take too much risks. It's not about racism towards minorities, it's about fear of anything new or innovative. It's one of the best and most realistic and honest portrayals of artist's life and "creation" process, I can remember seeing only one of this level before; that was Ed Harris' "Pollock". And Melvin is really no god or saint here: He's a human being, although a very talented one, and he just "does what he has to do", brings home the bread. And he can also be a total a-hole. This film has some funny and interesting characters and scenes, that makes it possible to view it maybe even second time in the future. It's also a personal "trip" to Mario. The story is based on both Melvin's (=his book) accounts and surely also in Mario's own memories from his childhood. The films minuses are technical: It looks and sounds quite clinical and boring, I mean it's too professionally made. There has also been made some compromises in the script, maybe to "make it more accessible to big audiences". The irony of course is, that the original "Sweetback" proved, that an independent film made with no budget and no compromises can become a BIG time hit for big audiences. Anyways it tells entertainingly a story of an important event and of some events in an important man's life. Recommended.
Review of Baadasssss!
