The New Edition Biopic and The Fundamentals of the Box Test
*I’m happy Bobby and the rest of the producers had enough class to not have a Whitney actress in the movie. That would have been disrespectful in my opinion.*
One day in 83 while watching Video Music box with my brother, the “Candy Girl” video came on and my first thoughts were that these kids are only a couple of years older than us. It was like seeing your cousins on T.V.
A year later with my allowance money the first cassette I bought was the self-titled New Edition album.
The biopic pushed my mind back to an 8 year old boy’s first direct interpretation of sensibility harnessed, love discovered and the wonderment of youth through song. The Temps, Tops and Jacksons belonged to my parents’ generation and the kids of my peer group and a bit older were the beneficiaries of those times and memories perceived through the eyes of their youth, so it is only fitting to claim the boys from Boston as being linked to mine. They breathed the neighborhood air of “street chic” of the time (on T.V. anyway). Almost every girl I knew from cousins to classmates adored them; each had their favorite group member along with the magazine pin ups. They knew all the songs and practiced all of the dance steps.
Guys were no different, sure we practiced the dance moves because of the effect they had on the female of the species. I knew dudes trying to exude each band member’s persona to get the attention from the ladies. Truly funny stuff!
Being young and having what appeared to be your life and dreams for future relationships played out in song was a feeling of invincibility. The throngs of “the youth equation”, multiplied then fractionated to each block in the inner cities across the country could be viewed by the world. All hoods shared N.E., they were ours; they belonged to the ghetto youth!
The presentation was one thing but the music, that music was something altogether fascinating. While young groups of the past sang songs that emulated the adult world of love and loss or covers to prove their chops, N.E’s recipe for the masses was distributed on a line that nowadays is more than blurred. That line for youth artists has been all but obliterated! But I digress.
New Editions songs had kids dating, but the tunes always kept the innocents intact. And there it was the key, the purity of love songs, the fundamentals of the box test. CHECK YES IF YOU LIKE ME, CHECK NO IF YOU DON’T!
It gets no cleaner than that. No pressure to be something you were not for the responsibility of adult games always ends in adult problems. But to encapsulate and exploit the meanderings of young love and hold the attention of many is a true gift. For all of Maurice Stars actions (Agree or disagree) he had his finger on the pulse of the intersection of R & B, Modern Soul and the Hip-Hop aesthetic that these 5 young men were standing on. Yes anyone could have been chosen but something can be said about having the “it factor”.
They grew up with us; they became older teens as we did. And by the time you get to the concept hit churner “N.E. Heartbreak” in 88 (what essentially is their “White Album”) all bets were off. Who was stopping them? Bobby gone, no problem, enter Johnny Gill. But as I discovered (like many) that wasn’t supposed to be the swap (Ralph). The same issues that plagued many an artist more than touched them and their loved ones. Money, women, booze and drugs always seem to accompany the world of the “super star”. The question again is raised, who was stopping them?
To touch on that a bit, I remember hearing all of these stories as a kid and stacking them up to urban legend, to discover that all of it was true makes the bio even more potent. Transparency creates trust so no matter what we feel about the life style, we as music listeners benefited from the product given.
Wood Harris has proven again why he is one of the most underrated actors of the craft working today. The approach he uses to channel Brook Payne should be studied in a master class. The camera truly loves his talent and that fact is never lost on him. Each movement is like a cat, economically never wasting his surroundings for grandiose gestures. Though the eyes and voice never raise to express any indifference or qualm about each individual or problem brought to his doorstep, he senses it all and misses nothing. The space between he and the young actors were minimal, displaying how he was the only one granted entry into the hearts of the 5 then 6 young men outside of their mothers.
Chris Robinson has arrived with this work.
With each linger of the camera to capture reactions buried so deep to the point of explosive engagement is a testament of his maturity as a film maker (I would like to see what he would do with a bigger budget product again). For a Television produced film the cinematography was of the highest quality. Sure the editing was not great due to the extensive commercial breaks but I’m quite sure it plays flawlessly in the made for home viewing version (How it was meant to be enjoyed).
One of my favorite directed scenes was the recording of “Can You Stand The Rain”. It was a sure reach back and “tip of the cap” to the scene in 1998’s “The Temptations” bio pic, as the Temps laid down the vocals for “Just my Imagination” which can be argued that both are the same song in essence( I can’t believe that it’s been almost 20 years since that came on television). I believe this was done deliberately; we are given that optic to infuse memories of that older scene and to help us realize this was the Temps for this generation when N.E. stepped on the scene so to speak.
The young counterparts chosen for their roles were a spot on marriage of looks, voice, movement and charisma.
As I mentioned before transparency is key, trust and honesty is the ground work for any relationship. So what N.E. is asking of its fans is to open our memory and mind to their story with no additives or preservatives. They are also making no apologies for what we see, but they are pleading with us to understand. This can be no more obvious than the portrayal of Bobby Brown by Tyler Marcel Williams and Woody McClain. Through all of the antics what is painfully clear was Bobby was just a kid, a kid like the rest that never truly developed as a tamed soul for his spirit thrived on the ferocity of his ego and undeniable talent. But at his core was a scared little boy, one guarded more than most of his N.E. brethren. My biggest takeaway from Bobby was that he was no different from the rest of the group, and they he, the others just hid it well and Bobby was (and still is on some level) a force of nature. Not even Brooke Payne could contain him.
Bryshere Y. Gray and Donte Hoagland shared performance as N.E. / BBD tough guy and leader then later mogul Michael Bivins was spot on. Every time they spoke I just thought of Mike Bivins. I no longer saw the actors. They captured Bivins total soul; the man/child stayed making chess moves early on. His Knowing that things were amidst the whole time and met the challenge head on forcing him to take his career in his own hands was a testament to a nature that cannot be taught but you must be born with. But I suspect it was the inevitable evolution just sped up on steroids in Biv’s case. Mike was a young lion amongst lions, only to be alpha tested by fellow alpha male B. brown. Gray understands the give and take of acting, and is gracious in his delivery. He almost comes across as a dudes dude but all heart is at the center of this young man. Thus is why he was the best actor to portray Mike Bivins. Gray will be around for a very long time if he keeps his commitment to the art form up. A true talent has arrived for sure!
Luke James places us in the shoes of the awkward but power house voice of the one and only Johnny Gill. To understand the position he was placed in and to realize how he maneuvered through that situation and his own fame, the ups and downs is to pierce into the mind of a professional. Wise beyond his years (and because he was the “old man” of the group) we see that his love for singing and performing was what kept him a float with his brothers. If he did not have the love for his craft or them he could have and probably should have distanced himself a very long time ago. It takes a certain power within and great humility to know you are the best but still deal in a complex system all in the name of “The Show Must Go On” and friendship.
Who knew that Ronnie DeVoe (Keith Powers and Myles Truitt) had depth? To know his truth about the uncertainty of standing on your own two feet after being carried your whole professional life is the ultimate wake up call. One that he did not fail to answer when the time came to diversify his ability to make money and feed his family even under direct criticism from people who could only dream of accomplishing what he and the rest of the group did for so many years; along with the smiles and happiness they brought to countless lives is immeasurable! Yes even in that moment he could have and should have (Probably did) looked at the fact that he was a part of something special that changed the lives of his family and friends and granted them legions of fans. Yes he did that a no one could ever take that away.
The enigma, wrapped in a riddle, placed in a maze, the ultimate wild card of voices, the underrated Ricky Bell comes to life and nearly death as told through the eyes of Elijah Kelley and Caleb McLaughlin respectively. As with Ronnie DeVoe not much is known about him personally, the others had break out solo careers out front and or behind the scenes. Outside of N.E. and B.B.D. I only remember in high school that he sang the hook on a personal favorite of mine called “Baby Please don’t Cry” by The Red Barron and some years later tried his hand at a solo project. Other than that it was pretty much a quiet existence. We are given a glimpse into his personality as a precocious tween, his calm and seemingly level headed approach to stardom which came across as the “boy next door” archetype with a great voice but not standing out in one way or the other. But once the layers are peeled back the pressure of show business is not what ensnared him but quite the opposite in a very tumultuous fashion. For all of the group members the infamous “Home Again” tour was the death nail on the coffin of N.E. or so it appeared. For the first time in the series we see the look of confusion and pure horror of what the future held for his career. The bottom dropped out from under him sending Bell through the trap door of self-imposed calamity with the great revelation of his drug and alcohol abuse. This was more than likely always there but we are given the sense that this tour or the total implosion of it was the final threshold leading to his total dependency of narcotics.
The revelation of what the true drug of stardom can cause anyone to fall under was explained with acute balance and honesty by the older Bell (Elijah Kelley) which made the last 30 minutes of the story hold itself together as a complete, and intricate portrait of stardom, and the surviving of it once you find out that it is a thing within itself to survive with or without. Bells point of view was important; I dare say the most important of all in my opinion (We are not privy to the rest of the band member’s drug use outside of Bobby and Bell, but we could surmise that we should not be surprised if it ever was revealed if all or most were users at some point in their careers).
We now come to “the Voice” of N.E. Mr. Ralph Tresvant (Algee Smith and Jahi Di’Allo Winston). Both Smith and Winston make us care about the load he had to carry for all those years, knowing that he was chosen before the rest to become a potential solo star. We as the audience develop an understanding early on about his loyalty for his brothers. We care so much that we carry that burden with him throughout his journey as the only New Edition front man, even though a coup was arraigned to replace him with Gill by fellow group member Mike Bivins by the time “Heartbreak” was about to be recorded. The lessons learned by this is in life you only get one chance to strike oil and if by some chance opportunity is placed in front of you again to become “that dude”, would it really be the same as the first unknown adventure?
The reality that one man’s sacrifice does not always equate to understanding from the very ones you chose to sacrifice for. And as for Ralph T., he appeared to relive the same regret over and over again once the others decided to venture out for fortunes untold. A good friend once told me that:
“If you are a creator of a work you must strike first for the very true reality of your counterpart is planning the same ideas and not knowing you exist, and the only thing that will present itself is a work fulfilled but the deeper regret of not being the first will always haunt you”.
In Tresvant’s case that very notion became a reality from within his own N.E. family, first with Bobby, then Johnny, then somewhat with B.B. D. Even as the character is portrayed as a mature gentlemen years later, Algee Smith brilliantly emotes a twinge of the “what if” sickness written all over his face.
I posed the question before, what was really stopping them. I figure it really depends on what each of them wanted to accomplish. In many ways they haven’t as of yet come to that intersection of true choice. It’s like as if you can go your whole life believing that your purpose is to do what comes naturally then the inevitable happens, placing our own road blocks in our path. We come to realize the only thing stopping us is…us. Not mothers and father figures, we get older. Not managers and record labels, hire lawyers and read your contract, control the content you present to the fans. Love and obligation, be truthful and transparent, true love does not suffer the acts of the foolish for too long. Vice, knowing when you are at your weakest and not be too prideful to beg and plead for help.
New Edition has traveled a road spanning nearly 40 years and people still want more. Even if they never created a new song the ones they have are enough to reinvigorate the tragic state of R N B and hopefully inspire a new generation of “Popcorn Lovers” and “Heart-breakers”.