Over the past few weeks, Chris Rock has done a scorched earth publicity campaign to promote his new film Top Five. The result of that campaign has been a series of funny, smart, and ballsy interviews (and one personal essay), proving that Chris Rock is just about the sharpest guy in the biz, especially when addressing matters of race. However, the conventional wisdom about Rock has been this: Brilliant in person, not so much in his films.
Top Five doesn’t quite kill that perception, but it’s a quantum leap above his other work as a writer/director (Head of State and I Think I Love My Wife). He plays Andre Allen, a comedian turned giant film star (thanks to the “Hammy” franchise, where he plays a crime-fighting, wise-cracking bear), who is now trying to turn his attention to more serious fare. But this is more than just a bout of self-importance: He’s a recovering addict, who harbors the creeping fear that he can’t be funny unless he’s loaded.
Top Five takes place over the course of one pivotal day in Andre’s life. His new film, about a Haitian slave revolt, is opening in theaters to dismal reviews and poor audience attendance. And he’s about to marry his publicity hungry, reality TV star girlfriend (Gabrielle Union), who’s basically a Real Housewife mixed with a Kardashian.
Rosario Dawson plays Chelsea Brown, The New York Times reporter trailing Andre all day for a feature. It’s meant to be an interview, but feels a helluva lot more like a date (or maybe I’ve just been doing interviews wrong), with the two of them riffing about politics and pop culture and sparring and flirting and getting to know each other.
Andre takes Chelsea back to to his old neighborhood in Brooklyn, where she meets his boisterous and profane friends and family, played by some great, game comedians like Tracey Morgan, Jay Pharaoh, and Leslie Jones. The joke here is that they all think they’re funnier than Andre—and they’re probably right. This is also where the “top five” of the title comes into play—namely, identifying your top five hip-hop artists. (Not totally sure why this is the title of the film: it hints at an exploration of Andre’s guilt over leaving his neighborhood and culture behind that is never actually explored.) Chelsea clicks with and genuinely seems to enjoy Andre’s family, unlike Union’s Erica, who wouldn’t be caught dead in that part of town.
I’ve lamented the fact that Rosario Dawson isn’t a bigger star numerous times and if Top Five doesn’t do the trick, I don’t know what will. She is charming and relatable in this part, with that quick, megawatt smile that rivals Julia Roberts’s, and her chemistry with Rock is undeniable. (Top Five happens to be Rock’s most mature work an actor, too). Rock’s script and direction is also ingenious, utilizing flashbacks, quick takes, and a nonlinear structure to keep things humming.
But I would be remiss not to mention my dismay over the fact that Rock, brilliant as he is, can’t quite seem to shed that “easy laughs from the comedy club” mentality. There’s a rather sickening flashback involving Cedric the Entertainer and two objectified women; plus a gross, homophobic joke featuring a tampon and hot sauce; and the inevitable gratuitous scene in a strip clip. I always know a film is sexist when I’m embarrassed for one of the actresses involved, and that was how I felt for poor Whoopie Goldberg—part of an all-star trio of cameos—forced to endure Adam Sandler and Jerry Seinfeld riffing on cheating on their wives: “Even if she finds a live vagina in your pocket, deny it!”
So no. I can’t give Top Five my highest praise, but I can recommend it highly all the same. It’s nimble, hilarious, even a little sexy. And so tantalizingly close to being that perfect Chris Rock film we’ve all been dreaming of.