Henry Saw: Two Documentaries focusing on beloved figures of the early 1990s...

American: The Bill Hicks Story and Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest


American: The Bill Hicks Story:

A fairly standard talking heads doc that recounts the life and death of one of the most respected comedians of all time. Through interviews with his friends, family, and a few of his fellow performers, we are told of Hicks' youth in Houston, Texas, his first forays into comedy when he was still in high school, his rise to fame in the United Kingdom, and then his tragic death due to cancer.

The strongest thing that American has going for it are the clips of Hicks doing his standup. While his story is interesting, and in some ways inspiring, what made him an icon was his material and not the narrative of his life. What's different about Bill Hicks is that he was not exactly laugh out loud hilarious. His comedy was just very sharp, and thought provoking, and in many ways he was more like a social critic than a comedian with standard "bits".

So even though American is just a few steps above what you might expect from a special on the Biography channel, it's subject is compelling enough to make it worth your time. So check out this film, especially if you are not familiar with Bill Hicks and his still relevant brand of humor.

Grade: C+




Beats Rhymes & Life: The Travels of A Tribe Called Quest:

When I learned that Michael Rapaport, an actor who has appeared in such films as Bamboozled, Deep Blue Sea, and The 6th Day, was directing this look at the founding and disintegration of one of my friend Ben's favorite rap groups...I did not have high hopes. Fair or not, I have always assumed that Mr. Rapaport was just as stupid as the characters he tends to play. Well, Beats Rhymes & Life is not exactly the best made or most focused documentary I've ever seen, in fact it really doesn't have a central definable narrative, but Rapaport's failure as a filmmaker ended up not hurting the film a great deal. That's because the men who made up A Tribe Called Quest (Q-Tip, Phife Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Jarobi White) are all fascinating in different ways.

Whether it is watching Q-Tip demonstrate how he came up with the sound mixing for my favorite A Tribe Called Quest song "Can I Kick It", or how Phife Dawg failed to deal with his diabetes, or how calm and reasonable Ali Shaheed Muhammad is throughout, or just what a sweet dude Jarobi White is...the members of the group are what make this film so eminently watchable.

As someone who is not that knowledgeable about the history of rap I found the film to be both enlightening and frustrating. While I learned a great deal about how all these rappers came up together in the New York era, and changed the face of hip-hop, I also thought that Rapaport failed to put into context what made A Tribe Called Quest different from what had come before. I also thought he strangely ignored how the world of rap changed during the early-to-mid nineties and how that effected the group's popularity.

Whatever the shortcomings of the film-making I still found Beats Rhymes & Life to be a consistently engaging movie. While it was not the most academic examination of the group, it did give you a strong sense of their personality and their music. If you have any interest in A Tribe Called Quest, or even if you are a devoted connoisseur of their records, I think you will find a great deal to like about Beats Rhymes & Life. It's not exactly a very good movie...but it is certainly an entertaining one.

Grade: B