Man...
I think I liked this, but the need to be constantly “woke”, whether ironically or righteously, made it fukking corny. The moments where it wasn’t self aware about its own whiteness were the best parts, but it would go 3 minutes and it’d be good, then someone would either say some “woke”, hipster or call out the idea of being “problematic” and it sucked the fun right out of it.
Adam’s girlfriend was the worst. The absolute worst. Even in the college scene where she tried to call out audience expectations of her character and her perspective she was still the worst. I think this woulda had more goodwill with me if they dropped her 15-20 minutes in.
It felt like it was simultaneously revering and calling out battle rap, but not from an honest critical standpoint but from an elevated perspective and looking down it’s nose. Kinda like “it’s cute what they’ve managed to do with words and poetry but these nikkas still have so far to go”.
The only character whose "wokeness" actually made sense and felt balanced was the rapper Ben Grym's wife. Her perspective was ultimately about a separation of Art Form and Artist, understanding and respecting a culture for its merits while not putting it down due to its faults. And she only had one scene. In another version of this movie a two-sided conversation with her would have probably turned Adam around before he went full villain mode, but maybe that's not what they wanted to do.
If the writer (and Adam) wasn’t so worried about possibly being perceived as racist and just let it play out as a story it would have been good. Remove the thesis angle (keep the college) and kill the girlfriend (and her perspective that permeates every inch of the movie) and you actually have a pretty good piece.
This was potentially a B+, and at times it was, but overall I’d give it a C- 60% good, 40% cheese.
EDIT:
"You said this wasn't me, I'm not this person, I'm not like those guys". I never use this smilie, but
This movie had a thesis as part of its setup, but if the movie itself had a thesis its:
"Rap, rappers and rapping is a "degenerate" art-form and culture that is best left to "degenerates" lest it ruin the lives of smart white people who should know better."
throughout
