Once more, with not much feeling, the biopic formula infects a
celebrity’s life. Notorious reduces the career and death of
Biggie Smalls. The year 1997 wasn’t so long ago that it’s forgotten,
even if it isn’t often considered. But Notorious has no feel for
the 1990s. This distinctive point in rap history (when east side/west
side conflict became a news item) is told without sense of time and
place. The scenes in Brooklyn have no separate flavour from the scenes
in LA.
On occasion, director George Tillman Jr. tries giving the Notorious
B.I.G.’s thirst for success the rush of Ready to Die track
“Gimme the Loot.” But there’s a difference between a rapper dramatizing
social experience on record with morally removed flair, and a filmmaker
treating someone else’s life with the same detachment.
Except for hard-earned scenes between Biggie and his mother, played
with powerful resolve by Angela Bassett, the movie adheres to cliche.
It never brings Biggie’s dreams and demons to life by going dark
enough. Too often, the script burns legitimacy by using song lyrics and
titles as regular lines of dialogue. The moment where Lil’ Kim calls
him “Big Poppa” finds its equal when Biggie states “Mo money, mo
problems,” tying the philosophy to his posthumous hit.
Notorious rarely seeks an artistic pulse beyond a Behind
the Music rundown of facts.
This article appears in Jan 22-28, 2009.