The Evolution of Bert

Director Jeffrey C. Wray  

 

THE EVOLUTION OF BERT     B+         
USA  (77 mi)  2014  d:  Jeffrey C. Wray  

While indie films are rare, Black indie films are even rarer, where the two that come to mind are Danny Green’s Mr. Sophistication (2012), about an attempted comeback of an edgy black comedian, which premiered at the Chicago Film Festival in 2012 and then was never released, and Barry Jenkins’ extremely popular relationship movie, Medicine for Melancholy (2008), an award winner that played the festival circuit, but was never released on more than seven screens in any given week in the entire country, and was usually only shown on three screens or less.  Many of the more popular “black” indie films are actually directed by white directors, like Craig Brewer’s HUSTLE & FLOW (2005) and BLACK SNAKE MOAN (2007), Lance Hammer’s BALLAST (2008), even perennial indie filmmaker John Sayles took a stab with HONEYDRIPPER (2007), all set in black neighborhoods using primarily black casts.  While the title leaves something to be desired, making it sound like a quirky Walter Mitty style movie about a nerdy character, or a reference to Sesame Street, but instead it’s a funny stream-of-conscious exposé on being black in America, a well-acted film that wears its intelligence on its sleeve, featuring a terrific cast of non-professionals, blending fantasy and fiction, using a jazzy musical score by Kris Johnson, making this a thoroughly enjoyable experience.  Perhaps what’s most unusual about this film is that it was shot 15 years ago when the director was a professor at Ohio University in 1998, shot sporadically over several months, and then just sat on the shelf while family, children, or other jobs took precedence.  While now he’s an Associate Professor of Film Studies/Creative Writing at Michigan State University, it took a grant award to allow the team to shoot the epilogue nearly ten years later, where the post production aspects of the film were only finalized just this year.  So it’s like a time warp taking us back in time, yet loses none of its initial thrust, which is a satiric coming-of-age film, the development of a social consciousness, and a comment on what it means to be black in America.     

Randall Stokes is a refreshing discovery as Bert, your typically intelligent, good-looking, and thoroughly confused black college student who is completing his final semester at school as a history major, but is no clearer about how he intends to spend his future, where his parents are ready for him to enter the job market.  We realize the extent of his difficulties in a hilarious dream sequence where he envisions his future in multiple possibilities, including a black Republican, a token corporate Negro doing the soft shoe, a man following his dreams, and another more emblematic representative of the working man.  The first in his family to graduate college, Bert’s problem is how to define himself, to find what distinguishes him from the rest of the students, as he seems to be a very personable guy with an optimistic streak, hangs with his best friend Nate the DJ (Nate DeWitt), while romancing Nita (Nakeshia Knight), his friendly, attractive, poetry spouting girlfriend for the past two years.  Because he’s so close to the finish line, he starts questioning this relationship, imagining what his life would be like with other women.  Nate immediately tells him not to give up on a good thing, suggesting other girls that respect him as part of a healthy couple wouldn’t give him the time of day if he was single, as a good part of their allegiance is to Nita, where respecting him is part of respecting her.  Easily the most revelatory character is played by the director himself in dreadlocks, playing Duke, a perennial student who’s been through it all and tries to school Bert about what to expect.  His advice about the future is so uncannily accurate that he comes across as a bit of a mystic, always wearing shades, usually found with a smile on his face.  When asked why he never takes off his shades, he gives three reasons:  his eyes are sensitive to light, he refuses to give the white man the pleasure of that smiling face with understanding eyes, where despite the violent racial past, whites still expect the black man to make them feel more “comfortable,” so shades freak white people out, and lastly, he’s just plain cool.  They meet in a quiet moment when Bert is listening to the music of Walter Jackson on his headphones, Walter Jackson It's all over - YouTube (2:57), where Duke is curious what he’s listening too, claiming they both love “old-school” music. 

Losing much of the stereotypes and cliché’s that generally denigrate blacks and lessen their potential cultural impact, music is such an essential ingredient in the film, told in a freeform, essay-like experimental style that integrates black history with contemporary affairs, girlfriend issues, and anxiety about the future, where jazz music, hip hop, R & B, along with poetry readings further emphasize self-expression.  Randall Sisco is a street musician who appears throughout the film, where he acts as a kind of Greek chorus, offering blunt comments on what he observes, while there is also an unusually soulful version of “Caifornia Dreamin” reminiscent of Bobby Womack, Bobby Womack California Dreamin (1968 cover) - YouTube (3:19).  Using a handheld camera by Joe “Jody” Williams throughout, the 16 mm film has a spontaneous feel, where the pace is fast and loose and highly observant, covering a remarkable amount of territory, where the film aesthetic becomes a way of exploring the black experience, enhanced by the authenticity of such well-written, well-developed characters, even those in secondary roles, where the director leads them into inspired monologues, often expressed through long takes, with occasional jump cuts to offer jarring images that express a new experience or idea, becoming a meditation on black identity.  Whether then or now, students are well aware of stereotypes, how black men in particular are pigeonholed into acceptable, non-threatening career choices, where they are forced to follow existing rules and guidelines rather than use their imaginations to invent their own.  Some of the more inspired scenes reveal angered female indignation at the way black men typically mistreat them, where Bert is no different, though he probably realizes afterwards that he deserves a swift kick in the head.  Witty and poignant, the film offers a candid discussion on the black reality, using genuine characters and inspired musical choices, but it’s the poetry that elevates this film to another level, offering several samples from Nita as well as Bert’s final “Resurrection essay,” creating theatrical moments in time that deserve to be treasured and held in posterity.       

Mr. Sophistication

MR. SOPHISTICATION    B+                      

USA  (97 mi)  2012  d:  Danny Green

The Chicago premiere of MR. SOPHISTICATION took place at the Chicago Film Festival and was something of a coming home party, largely attended by family and friends, where Danny Green, whose career has largely been as a second unit or assistant director, wrote and directed this film with Harry Lennix in mind, and stood by the door afterwards thanking everyone who attended the film.  This is an intelligent and beautifully written role, where the real guts of the film takes place onstage where Lennix plays stand-up comedian Ron Waters, whose gritty, sharply observant commentary about the world is startlingly hilarious, mostly speaking confessionally about himself in the style of Lenny Bruce and Richard Pryor, where he’s a guy whose life is fucked up in many ways but once he’s onstage, he can’t help but be honest with his audience.  Chicago’s introduction to local actor Harry Lennix was starring in the original 1988 Pegasus Players’ staging of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, the first Chicago production of an August Wilson play, a role he revived 9 years later at the Goodman Theatre in 1997, winning a Joseph Jefferson Award as the best actor of the year both times.  Having seen him in the latter production, he was positively stellar in the role, reportedly one of August Wilson’s favorite actors, playing a particularly difficult part with painfully explosive moments, one of which climaxes the play. Normally a soft-spoken guy showing a quiet reserve, Lennix literally transforms himself onstage.  Goodman’s director Chuck Smith commented on the character he played “Levee is as far from the real Harry as you can probably get.  Levee's an atheist, he's streetwise and he's hot-tempered.  Harry's the opposite.  I don't see any of the real Harry on stage when he's playing Levee.  He's also the most pleasant person to work with in the theater.”  Lennix grew up in Chicago's South Shore neighborhood and was an altar boy, attending Quigley South Preparatory Seminary, deciding at a young age that he wanted to become a Dominican Priest and the first black Pope before eventually discovering theater at Northwestern University, where his original theatrical role was only two years after graduation. 

What’s different about this film is the lack of two dimensional caricatures and stereotypes, bringing a mature and sophisticated intelligence to the material, writing fully realized characters that are uncomfortable with themselves even as they are apparently successful in life.  The film opens in Chicago where Waters performs to an enthusiastic audience, literally bringing the house down in a club owned by his wife Kim, Tatum O’Neal.  Despite their success, each is absorbed in their own careers, where he’s the entertainer while she handles the business end, but they don’t seem to have time for each other, where after 10 years of marriage there’s an unspoken emotional disconnection where real intimacy has been compromised by a routine of getting along.  Robert Patrick is literally transformed from the badass alien from TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY (1991) to a hip Hollywood manager, Sterling French, a guy with influence and connections in the business who offers Waters a second chance at the LA comedy circuit, as he apparently screwed up his career earlier, one of the headliners of the 90’s until he began walking out on live performances due to erratic drug related behavior (like whatever happened to Sly Stone in the late 60’s and early 70’s?).  Kim has suspicions about a return to Hollywood where temptations run amuck, as their current run of success was a long time coming, but Waters is a driven artist who needs the stage and is ready for a renewed opportunity.  When he arrives in LA, he’s treated like a star, given first class accommodations and a white convertible, where opening night is a complete success, as his progressively edgy material has such a blatantly realistic feel, with silhouetted closeups on his face where cinematographer Keith L. Smith beautifully captures the smoke-filled intimacy of the claustrophobic nightclubs.  Rather forwardly, a beautiful young 24-year old quickly introduces herself and latches onto him immediately, Rosa (Paloma Guzmán), where they are still together weeks later.  

One of the more interesting scenes is between girlfriends, Kim and her best friend, Monique Gabriela Curnen, which reveals the backstory of her husband’s calamitous descent.  Nursing him off narcotics took years, for which he is heavily indebted to her, trusting in her and believing they are for real as a couple even as they undergo continual adversity.  Rosa, on the other hand, is a pleasure machine working in a dress store on Rodeo Drive, where she wants to build a life around Waters, making him feel like a king.  Now honestly, who wouldn’t be tempted?  The script, however, delves into the depths of his indecision, flattered by the adoring attention which strokes his ego, but also aware of what he has with an independent minded woman his own age.  When Kim hears about the other woman, she flies to LA, where for better or for worse, she’ll either save her marriage or end it.  It doesn’t work out the way you might expect, as there’s no dramatically confrontational scene, instead it slowly plays out in Waters’ head, where he gets a little antsy for both women every once in awhile and literally has to work it out in his blisteringly honest onstage routines, which are the heart and soul of the film, and are simply brilliant.  Tatum O’Neal is surprisingly good here, showing an ease with the Hollywood glamour world, where she’s been through it all before and is not phased by the showbiz artificiality, showing she’s quite capable of holding her own in the high pressure Hollywood scene.  Her composure is really one of the keys to the film, as it helps define Waters as a man, where there’s an unspoken comfort zone between them that helps alleviate the natural tension of what he does for a living, which is extremely high pressure.  Nonetheless, Lennix is every bit a star, commanding our attention throughout, where he’s literally dazzling onstage, as his delivery is so effortless, where the secret to the success of this film is the relaxed, underlying believability of the characters, where the complexity of their lives is what comes alive onscreen.