As busy I get from time to time, I find that I can't see every movie under the sun, leaving my friends and colleagues to fill in the blanks for me. As poetically as I think I wax about movies on this website as a wannabe critic, there are other experts out there. Sometimes, it inspires me to see the movie too and get back to being my circle's go-to movie guy. Sometimes, they save me $9 and you 800+ words of blathering. In a new review series, I'm opening my site to friend submissions for guest movie reviews.
TODAY’S CRITIC: Lafronda Stumn
Lafronda Stumn is a student at Madisonville Community College and intends to graduate with an Associate's degree in Associate of the Arts. She plans on earning a Bachelors Degree in Motion Picture Studies and English at Wright State University. Her favorite Directors are Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Spike Lee, and her favorite actors are Al Pacino, Denzel Washington, Meryl Streep, and Halle Berry. Lafronda contacted this page looking for a place to get published and I enjoy giving people that very kind of opportunity. This is her 28th guest review for Every Movie Has a Lesson. Welcome as always, Lafronda!
HER REVIEW: Hoodlum
Hoodlum is a period piece about the Black renaissance of the yearly 1930s where music by black performers dominated clubs such as the cotton club, but also a lot of black acts were mitigated to performing in white club patrons. Blacks could not see these black acts, but they can perform on demand for white audiences. The real crux of the film though, is the Irish, Italian and Black gangsters that control the streets of Harlem and the crooked cops and politicians who were just as corrupt as the gangsters. In this history, money at all costs and power rules not just Harlem but the whole state of New York as well.
The film starts Laurence Fishburne as Bumpy Johnson, a Black guy that was released from prison. Bumpy gets a job working for his cousin Illinois Gordon (Chi McBride) doing menial jobs under Madame Queen (Cicely Tyson), Bumpy later befriends Queen who becomes her second-in-command working the numbers circuit.
Gambling and shooting are routine in his line of work. There are a couple of powerful gangsters under the names of Dutch Schultz (Tim Roth) and Lucky Luciano (Andy Garcia) who discuss Queen’s business and how they should deal with her being the only business that Schultz doesn’t own. Schultz wants to take over Queen’s numbers market. Luciano, however, wants to be reasonable and tells Schultz to leave her alone. Schultz is power and money hungry and there are several attempts at Queen and Bumpy life that prove unsuccessful. Queen is arrested by a crooked cop who wants the piece of action of Schultz.
In addition, reigning supreme is Bumpy as Queen is sent to jail. He becomes as power hungry and ruthless as Shultz. His relationships with his cousin Illinois, Queen, and his new girlfriend, a nurse named Francine (Vanessa Williams) question his true motive for power, control and taking over from Schultz as the most powerful man in Harlem through greed and violence. The rest of the movie is Bumpy costly sacrifices for prestige as a gangster.
Moreover, the gunplaying action sequences between Bumpy and Schultz battling it out through machine guns as Bumpy and Queen attempt to go to the opera. The action scenes regarding Bumpy’s mob ties are well executed. I like the relationship between Bumpy and his girlfriend Francine. Their first night of romance interrupted by Schultz’s gang trying to kill them is done with tight, well-timed execution that results in a surprising resolution of a tricky situation for Bumpy and Francine.
The production design by Gary Baugh and costumes by Richard Bruno are authentic and show great ambience of time and place. Fishburne is good as Bumpy, although there are some scenes I would like for him to show emotion. In particular, his scenes with Illinois and Francine. Clarence Williams III is great as Schultz's assistant who sells his soul to white authority and to being told what to do without questions where Schultz's loyalty limits him at a distance. A great example is the scene where Schultz tells him to remove his pastrami sandwich away from the crooked police chief who it racist towards black people.
Lastly, director Bill Duke does a good job with the many shootouts in the streets of Harlem and the human relationship between Black people during the time of the Great Depression. Many black males felt that crime was the only way to make an excellent income in an era there too limited opportunities in success amid racism that crippled the U.S. Hate and ignorance rules with a steady fist and Bumpy’s character wrestles with the dilemma of pleasing his boss, his family, and his great love with sacrifice in order to gain the financial security as the most powerful man in New York. The film presents the pros and cons of Bumpy’s dilemma with the convincing allure of sadness and loneliness.
RATING: ***
CONCLUSION
Thank you again, Lafronda! You are welcome anytime. Friends, if you see a movie that I don't see and want to be featured on my website, hit up my website's Facebook page and you can be my next GUEST CRITIC!
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