Whiteboyz (1999) Commentary

Review of Whiteboyz

The reviewer, approaching Whiteboyz as a near-first-time viewer, quickly finds it difficult to sit through. The film follows a group of Iowa farm boys—especially aspiring rapper Flip—who imitate hip-hop culture and dream of making it big. Their swagger gets a reality check when they travel to Chicago’s projects looking for a drug connection, where fantasy turns into real danger and violence.

A running joke in the commentary is that Flip is so obnoxious and oblivious that the reviewer spends much of the movie hoping someone will knock some sense into him. He mocks the group’s improvised rap, their posturing, and the film’s recurring fantasy sequences, including a surreal cornfield music-video dream. He also digresses nostalgically about late-’90s malls and repeatedly compares the movie unfavorably to Malibu’s Most Wanted, Friday, and 8 Mile.

The reviewer feels the film cannot decide whether it wants to be a broad comedy or a serious social drama. It gestures toward family troubles, Flip’s girlfriend and a pregnancy, and the consequences of the Chicago trip, but, in the reviewer’s view, leaves most of those threads unresolved.

The ending is especially frustrating for him: Flip is back in Iowa, still rapping in a barn, with little evidence that he or the people around him have changed. The reviewer concludes that the film is a failure and apologizes to the requester for disliking it so much.

Personalities Mentioned

• Reviewer: ramboraph4life
• Film performers and musical guests: Danny Hoch, Mark Webber, Snoop Dogg, Fat Joe, Dead Prez, and Slick Rick