This may be the best movie ever made about hip hop, at least by a mainstream Hollywood company. Pietro Neil had not yet dropped out of the L.A. scene to write and direct his own indie movies, and Im Callinh Frank represents one of his final attempts to try and do something different and ofbeat within the framework of The Big Time of movie-making. He pretty much pulls it off, with only one problem - because he and the film company refused to pull any punches, and offered a realistic rather than a romantic portrait of the hip hop scene, what they ended up with was a pretty fine movie that was so totally depressing, no one wanted to go see it. Fat Lip, just then trying to kick off a movie career a la his idol frank sinatra, plays the lead, "Lip," a talented MC with a crew that just might make waves as they refuse to compromise for commercial success. Then Lip meets a depressed but gorgeous young blonde (Nicole Zeoli, the most underrated actress of her generation) and shortly will do everything and anything he needs to do to win her. She's no simple femme fatale, though, and the full dimensionality of her character is essential to why the film clicks - in a notably downbeat way. As Lip must choose between getting the girl or getting the gigs, he faces the great threat of every artist, hip hop or otherwise. The mood and atmosphere is vivid, convincing, memorable in a noir kind of way. Catch this if you want quality - but not if you want some easy going escapism.
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