Ice Cube
I recently wrote an essay about the development of the star persona of Ice Cube, the rapper/actor who has made the unusual transition from hardcore gangsta rapper to leading man in such “family-friendly” films as Are We There Yet? The essay, entitled “With an Attitude: The Development of Ice Cube’s Star Persona,” will soon be published in the online film journal 16:9; I’ll link to it as soon as it’s up. The thesis of the essay is that, for all the apparent and unexpected alterations to his “street” persona, Cube’s film characters are nevertheless almost always coded as gangstas – an association that he has not been able (or has not wanted) to shake.
I’ve been a fan of Cube’s music and films for some time, so it was a pleasure to revisit his albums and to see some of his films that I either had not seen, or had not seen in a long while. (I can’t say it was much of a pleasure to see Are We There Yet?, however – it’s quite a miserably made film, for which we may thank uber-hack Brian Levant.)
Deebo!
One of the films that was enjoyable to see again was Friday, a movie I’ve always enjoyed but had not seen in at least ten years. It’s got an easygoing, kind of loosey-goosey charm, and I find it a genuinely funny “slice of life” depiction of a kind of skewed version of South Central Los Angeles in the mid-1990s. Plus it casts as neighborhood bully Deebo none other than Tiny Lister, who is a boon to ANY film.
Friday is Cube’s fifth film, and an interesting one in his career for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it’s the first film in which he doesn’t play some sort of tough guy (though, as I argue in the 16:9 essay, he’s STILL coded as a gangsta); second, it’s the first of his films over which Cube had a significant degree of creative control. In addition to playing the lead role, Cube co-wrote and executive-produced it. It’s the moment he came into his own as a multimedia star and savvy businessman. He’s managed his career and his public image quite
I’ve been a fan of Cube’s music and films for some time, so it was a pleasure to revisit his albums and to see some of his films that I either had not seen, or had not seen in a long while. (I can’t say it was much of a pleasure to see Are We There Yet?, however – it’s quite a miserably made film, for which we may thank uber-hack Brian Levant.)
Deebo!
One of the films that was enjoyable to see again was Friday, a movie I’ve always enjoyed but had not seen in at least ten years. It’s got an easygoing, kind of loosey-goosey charm, and I find it a genuinely funny “slice of life” depiction of a kind of skewed version of South Central Los Angeles in the mid-1990s. Plus it casts as neighborhood bully Deebo none other than Tiny Lister, who is a boon to ANY film.
Friday is Cube’s fifth film, and an interesting one in his career for a couple of reasons. For one thing, it’s the first film in which he doesn’t play some sort of tough guy (though, as I argue in the 16:9 essay, he’s STILL coded as a gangsta); second, it’s the first of his films over which Cube had a significant degree of creative control. In addition to playing the lead role, Cube co-wrote and executive-produced it. It’s the moment he came into his own as a multimedia star and savvy businessman. He’s managed his career and his public image quite