Baadasssss! (2004)

Baadasssss!: 2004, dir. Mario Van Peebles. Seen on DVD (Jan. 14).
I cannot stop talking about Baadasssss! I have been urging everyone to rent it. I wish it had been nominated for some kind of award. I think it was one of the best overlooked movies in 2004.
Baadasssss! tells the story of Melvin Van Peebles trying to make a movie in 1972 in which black characters weren’t relegated to the horrible stereotypes common to Hollywood films. His movie, Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, featured a character who fought back when corrupt cops tried to beat him up, and who most importantly did not get caught or die at the end of the movie. Melvin Van Peebles scraped together money from all kinds of sources, used a porn-film non-union crew because he wanted a cast and crew with a racial mix that reflected the racial mix of America, practically went blind in one eye trying to shoot and edit the film the way he wanted it, and then had to find theaters that would actually show the finished product in public.

Baadasssss! is written by, directed by, and stars Mario Van Peebles, Melvin’s son. And a lot of Baadasssss! is devoted to exploring the relationship between Mario and Melvin at that time—Melvin had the pre-teen Mario act in a sexually explicit scene in Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song, and Mario later accompanied Melvin as he tried to sell his film to distributors and exhibitors. In addition, Baadasssss! was a low-budget independent film, just like the movie it is about, so there are many parallels apparent in the subtext.
This film covers a variety of themes: the creative process of writing and filmmaking (I love the sequence when Melvin starts to plot out the story of the film); the story of a man who is driven to make a statement in his way, and who won’t compromise; and family relationships, primarily between a father and son, but also encompassing other family members. All this, and the film also manages to capture the time period very well, too.
I admit that I always seem to love movies about moviemaking, whether or not they are based in any kind of reality, from Singin’ in the Rain to Barton Fink to Ed Wood. So naturally I was inclined to like Baadasssss! even though I have never seen Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song. (I have heard that like Ed Wood, the movie is better than its subject. I feel like I ought to see Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song but I have the feeling it would be somewhat of a letdown.)
Mario Van Peebles, playing his own dad, is extremely believable. But I was particularly impressed with the actor playing young Mario, Khleo Thomas. I looked him up and remembered that he had also impressed me playing Zero in Holes, another underrated film that you all should rent immediately. David Alan Grier provides great comic relief as a former porn-film producer. Ossie Davis has a brief role as Melvin’s dad. John Singleton has a cameo as a deejay. The only performance that seemed a bit off was that of T.K. Carter as Bill Cosby, because we have all seen Cosby so much and we know him so well that seeing an actor portraying him is weird and jarring.
Mario points out in the commentary that he was very lucky to get so many good actors in small roles for his film, actors such as Davis and Singleton who also directed influential films about African-Americans. And like his dad did, Mario makes his movie very much a family affair, with his kids in small roles.
To underscore Melvin’s task of creating a film that shattered the terrible stereotypes in Hollywood, Baadasssss! contains many brief excerpts from well-known movies that included these stereotypes. The movie also contains some small snippets of news footage to set the stage for the time in which the movie took place, to remind us of the civil rights movement and where it was at that particular time.
I particularly liked the technique of “interviewing” various characters in the film as the movie progressed, getting their opinions of what was going on at that point in the story. At the end of the movie, over the credits, the real-life people on whom the characters were based are also interviewed briefly, which was fun. The last person on screen, of course, is the real Melvin Van Peebles, enjoying his ubiquitous cigar.
Baadasssss! was shot on digital video, because of its budget constraints … but I never realized it until I heard Mario mention it on the commentary track. Maybe I would have noticed it in a theater, but it looked fine on DVD.
I would say that I wish I had seen Baadasssss! in a theater, but I am pleased that we rented Baadasssss! because I got to enjoy the commentary track. If you rent this movie, budget time to listen to the commentary track afterwards. It is definitely worthwhile.
Because the commentary track is Mario and Melvin Van Peebles, going back and forth about various details in the movie, comparing the two movies and their memories of various events in the film. Mario used footage from Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song in Baadasssss! (and apparently had to pay his dad for the rights to do so). The father and son talk about various people involved in the films without making us feel excluded or ignorant (which I notice often happens on commentary tracks—the filmmakers are so eager to chat with each other about whatever happened to So-and-So that they forget they are supposed to be talking for an audience).
I liked Baadasssss! more than I thought I would. I’m not sure if I want to buy the DVD right now, because I effectively saw the movie twice in a short time since I listened to the commentary track. But I definitely recommend renting it.
My only real complaint about both Baadasssss! and Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song is that it is a pain in the ass to remember how many vowels I should be sticking in the word “badass” so I can spell the titles accurately. As a reviewer, I wish that Van Peebles pere and fils had spelled the damn word correctly, because I spent a lot of time muttering “three a’s, five s’s” as I typed this review. (And then it turned out to be two a’s when I double-checked. Sheesh.)