Warren Beatty's ambitious but fatally uneven black comedy, about a disillusioned senator who suddenly finds himself speaking (and sometimes rapping) the unvarnished truth to his awestruck constituents, is the most politically audacious and subversive Hollywood movie in what must be a decade or more--how Beatty managed to secure studio financing for this lunatic project is beyond me. It's also, unfortunately, a complete mess, lurching from one outrageous set piece to another without ever achieving the giddy narrative inevitability of such carefully structured satires as The President's Analyst or Network. As the gags fly and one-liners ricochet, Bulworth careers zanily from luncheon to network TV debate to South Central, but nothing ever builds or escalates or implodes--the frantic, frenzied surface belies a creative stasis at the film's core. Worse, the terrific, gutsy material, like Senator Bulworth's many decorum-busting public appearances and his hilariously arrhythmic "rapping," is undercut by facile crap--such as Halle Berry's fawning-sycophant-or-is-she? And the picture's unceasing depiction of black people as somehow more "genuine" than white folks borders on condescending. Great idea; good intentions; mediocre script. A real shame. Optional. (M. D'Angelo)
Bulworth
(Fox, 108 min., R, avail. Mar. 16) Vol. 14, Issue 2
Bulworth
Star Ratings
As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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