Country: USA
Movie Review: Since this kind of comedies are not my cup of tea, I got surprised how entertained I was while watching “Top Five”, a satirical look into the public/private life of a celebrity and the gossips around him, set up in a fast n’ furious pace. Chris Rock wrote, directed, and starred as Andre Allen, a former stand-up celebrity, now on film, who tries to clean his image associated with alcohol consumption and problems with the law. Allen is engaged to TV celebrity Erica Long (Gabrielle Union) but will become even more confused about this matter after meeting Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson), a reporter interested in writing an honest story about him. Not feeling funny anymore, and frustrated with the harsh reviews of his latest film “Uprize”, Allen will expose his life and family to the sympathetic Chelsea who opens her heart after finding out that her boyfriend is gay, and ends up confessing she also has been sober for four years. Making use of an array of political and racial jokes, Chris Rock created a contagious feel-good movie, replete of sexually daring scenes, and dialogues that tend to be spicy. In my eyes it was funnier than “Dear White People”, which was unable to get the same vivacity, and more interesting than “Beyond the Lights”, even considering that the dramatic side here could have been better crafted. Evincing energizing shots of the streets of New York City, the provocative “Top Five” is not perfect, not even completely original, but at least it deals with polemics in a beneficial/hilarious way.
