The Topdog Diaries

Oren Jacoby's documentary celebrates the work of Suzan-Lori Parks, a playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and teacher, who in 2002 became the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Drama (shortly after receiving a MacArthur “genius grant”). Structured around the complicated business of mounting the New York premiere of the play Topdog/Underdog (for which Parks won the Pulitzer), some of the most exciting moments in The Topdog Diaries are the excerpts from the off-Broadway performance of the two-character drama, with Don Cheadle (Hotel Rwanda) and Jeffrey Wright (Angels in America) delivering impassioned performances as bickering brothers. But The Topdog Diaries uses these scenes mainly as a springboard to examine Parks' career as a whole, looking back to her studies with James Baldwin at her alma mater Mount Holyoke, touching on her earlier works, allowing Parks ample opportunity to personally discuss her writing processes, and including observations about Parks's literary impact and influence from such figures as The New York Times' Ben Brantley and director George Wolfe. Closing with the transfer of Parks' play to Broadway (with rapper Mos Def replacing Cheadle), The Topdog Diaries is an engaging portrait of an important artist. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)