Fear of a Black Hat
Comedies
•
1h 28m
Leaving February 1
Directed by Rusty Cundieff | 88 mins | 1993
Overshadowed somewhat at the time of its release by another gangsta rap mockumentary send-up of the same year, the Chris Rock vehicle "CB4," Cundieff’s shoestring-budget feature debut gets just as many laughs at a fraction of the price, following sociologist Nina Blackburn (Kasi Lemmons) as she discovers, for her graduate thesis, the world of hardcore hip-hop outfit N.W.H. (a burlesqued N.W.A.), a trio with a gift for assigning socially relevant meanings to their vulgar and misogynistic lyrics and a penchant for losing their white managers (like Spinal Tap drummers) under bizarre circumstances. Come for the rat-a-tat one-liners (“We anti-violent. Anyone says different, I’ll bust a cap in their ass”), stay for such classic tunes as “Fuck the Security Guards” and P.M. Dawn parody “I’m Just a Human.”
Up Next in Comedies
-
La Chinoise
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard | 96 mins | 1967
Jean-Pierre Léaud, Juliet Berto, and Anne Wiazemsky co-star in Godard’s rouge-tinted, slogan-splattered political comedy concerning five innocents passing their summer vacation in a shared apartment by discoursing on Mao, performing agitprop theater, a... -
The Angels' Share
Directed by Ken Loach | 101 mins | 2012
Hewing closer to the spunky, good-hearted comedy of "The Full Monty" (1997) than one might expect from the director of "Kes" (1967), "The Angels’ Share" is a quaffable blend of Ken Loach’s trademark social critique and an offbeat crime caper. Together with ... -
The Aviator's Wife
Directed by Éric Rohmer | 106 mins | 1981
The inaugural film of Éric Rohmer’s “Comedies and Proverbs” cycle, The Aviator’s Wife is a fleecy farce of romantic overanalysis that finds the director exploring the possibilities of handheld camerawork in following a narrative expression of the...