Black and White (I) (1999)

A group of white high school teens become involved with Harlem's black hip-hop crowd.

Director:

James Toback

Writer:

James Toback

Stars:

Scott Caan, Allan Houston, Claudia Schiffer

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Scott Caan	...	Scotty
Robert Downey Jr.	...	Terry Donager
Stacy Edwards	...	Sheila King
Allan Houston	...	Dean Carter
Gaby Hoffmann	...	Raven
Kidada Jones	...	Jesse
Jared Leto	...	Casey
Marla Maples	...	Muffy
Joe Pantoliano	...	Bill King
Bijou Phillips	...	Charlie
Oliver 'Power' Grant	...	Rich Bower (as Power)
Raekwon	...	Cigar
Claudia Schiffer	...	Greta
William Lee Scott	...	Will King
Brooke Shields	...	Sam Donager

Storyline

Set in New York City, Black and White features several losely related stories centering on a pair of documentary filmmakers, Sam and her husband Terry, in following a group of caucasian teens, Raven, Charlie, Will, Marty, Wren and others who try to fit in with Harlem's black hip-hop crowd who include gangster rapper Rich Bower and his music partner Cigar in landing a recording gig, as well as college basketball player Dean who is conflicted on taking a fall on a game for shady gambler Mark Clear who has hidden agenda for Dean and Rich.

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Plot Keywords:

hip hop | new york city | gangster | sex | basketball player | 

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Taglines:

What if they mixed it up?

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Music

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong sexuality, graphic language, some violence and drug use

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

5 April 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Aspro kai mavro

Filming Locations:

Columbia University - Broadway & 116th Street, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$10,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$2,212,535 (USA) (7 April 2000)

Gross:

$5,241,315 (USA) (28 April 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bigel / Mailer Films, Palm Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

98 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Brooke Shields had her nose pierced for the nose ring she wears in the film.

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Goofs

Dean is described repeatedly as a "star point guard." Actually, like the actor (a star basketball player in real life), Dean is a shooting guard who sometimes also plays small forward.

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Quotes

Terry Donager: I'm Terry Donager.
Casey: Hi, I'm Casey.

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Connections

Featured in Keeping It Real: James Toback in Black and White (2000)

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Soundtracks

"Hip Hop"
Performed by Raekwon
Contains a sample from "Love That Will Not Die"
Written & Performed by Johnny 'Guitar' Watson

User Reviews

THEY SHOULD PAY YOU TO SIT THROUGH IT....

I rented this title because I saw Elijah Wood was casted in it, my favorite actor. Make a notation that I use the word "title" rather than movie because it isn't deserving enough to be called that.

From the very beginning to the very end it was nothing but a major disappointment. I had no idea that Wood would even be in a movie so bad. I never even knew a movie that he was in could be bad! He had very little lines, and was the only decent character in it.

As for the film... IT HAD ABSOLUTELY NO PLOT!! None at all. There was no major internal conflict, or external for that matter.(Well at least that the movie was based on, just small disagreements). Everyone in this film played a static character, making no change within the movie. It starts off with white kids wishing they were black, and ends the same way. Many small plot strands were thrown together to make a meaningless, unsubstantial, stupid film. It was thought out like something a 5 year old could do, that is, a 5 year old with a terribly sick mind. Even if there was a plot there was too much swearing and cheap sex (which pertained to nothing at all in the movie) to even get a message across. I would rate this movie a perfect 1 on a scale from 1-10. And I think many would agree.

These white kids were not "hip-hop culture", they were a bunch of winey teenage posers who couldn't see how good they had it, middle class suburbs, so they stooped down a level where they had their own fantasy world of being black and from the ghetto, which they weren't either.

As for the "rappers" in the movie, their parts were thrown in for nothing. They did nothing accept waste time on the screen. Maybe (that's a BIG maybe) if as much thought went into emphasizing the the white kids (whom I thought it was about) the movie could have been semidesent.

The last 2 minutes of the film were the worst. It ended with an unpredictible twist that in no way pertained to anything that was seen during the other 97.