Chris Rock’s Top Five is heartfelt and funny and a great time at the movies.
Here’s the setup: Rock’s character is a former comedian and comic actor whose attempts at dramatic film have fallen flat. Now, on the eve of the opening of his latest film (a misconceived epic about the Haitian Slave Revolt of 1791), he’s juggling a ‘New York Times’ interview, promotion duties for his film, and his upcoming celebrity wedding extravaganza. Oh, and he’s trying to stay sober.
The ‘New York Times’ reporter is Rosario Dawson, which robs the celebrity wedding storyline of much of its urgency, but that’s ok. This isn’t a film about dramatic tension: it’s a film about one day in a man’s life, a crossroads day in which nothing blows up and nobody gets shot, but in which everything changes.
Watching it, I found myself comparing Top Five to Birdman, another film about an actor in crisis. Both films feature a style of heightened dialogue in that everyone’s funny in the former and everyone’s overwrought in the latter. But there’s a key difference: Top Five’s characters feel like real people saying real things, even when they’re clearly speaking for comic effect. That naturalism draws us into the story, and it makes the jokes land. This film may have a serious premise, but it’s also very much a laugh – out - loud comedy written by a genius. It’s just wonderful.
No kidding: I laughed. I cried. I loved Top Five. I look forward to seeing it again.
Here’s the setup: Rock’s character is a former comedian and comic actor whose attempts at dramatic film have fallen flat. Now, on the eve of the opening of his latest film (a misconceived epic about the Haitian Slave Revolt of 1791), he’s juggling a ‘New York Times’ interview, promotion duties for his film, and his upcoming celebrity wedding extravaganza. Oh, and he’s trying to stay sober.
The ‘New York Times’ reporter is Rosario Dawson, which robs the celebrity wedding storyline of much of its urgency, but that’s ok. This isn’t a film about dramatic tension: it’s a film about one day in a man’s life, a crossroads day in which nothing blows up and nobody gets shot, but in which everything changes.Watching it, I found myself comparing Top Five to Birdman, another film about an actor in crisis. Both films feature a style of heightened dialogue in that everyone’s funny in the former and everyone’s overwrought in the latter. But there’s a key difference: Top Five’s characters feel like real people saying real things, even when they’re clearly speaking for comic effect. That naturalism draws us into the story, and it makes the jokes land. This film may have a serious premise, but it’s also very much a laugh – out - loud comedy written by a genius. It’s just wonderful.
No kidding: I laughed. I cried. I loved Top Five. I look forward to seeing it again.
