Top Five (2014)
Top Five may be funniest movie of the year, built on set pieces of comedy and supported by uproarious improv from its considerably large cast. But it is also a deeply personal film, so personal that at times it feels almost confessional. Top Five is Chris Rock's 8 1/2, and rarely is an artist this vulnerable on screen.
Rock's Andre Allen is not a direct manifestation of his persona, but there are patent similarities. Once a renowned stand-up comedian known also for his turn as Hammy the Bear (the titular character of a ridiculous buddy cop franchise), Andre has since turned to more solemn filmmaking. In the whirlwind of promoting his latest film, Uprize (a self-serious Django for the Haitian Revolution), Andre meets up with Chelsea Brown (Rosario Dawson), a reporter for Time magazine who's interested in more than the standard and superficial interview routine. And it's in her determined journalistic integrity that Rock germinates his core themes of truth and honesty.
The whole film comes as a series of vignettes from a day in the life—with Chelsea forever trailing Andre (and occasionally leading) with Flip Video in hand. There are a few flashbacks, but these too are primarily brief and evocative, as fleeting as the memories themselves. In almost real time, we see Andre crawl through an endless string of press junkets, hang out with his family, and reluctantly prepare for his forthcoming wedding with reality TV star Erica Long (Gabrielle Union), and through it all exists this latent contemplation of celebrity (a theme that emerges with blatant lampooning late in the film when Erica confesses, “I have nothing else...I don’t have talents...you have to choose me...this is how I get famous.”). There's a little contrivance here (one gets the sense that Rock and friends sat around scripting random scenes of comedy, and for much of the film, they do so on camera), but it all holds together despite the risk of falling apart (the film builds to an inevitable ending that hinges on a decision, but Rock skillfully pulls it off without betraying character).
Of course, Top Five is so side-splittingly hilarious that one could care less about contrivance. The film bowls you over with so much laughter that by the time it's over, you almost forget how it began. That is, until you recall the flirtatious chemistry Rock and Dawson share throughout, so often emerging through this sparring verbal vitality as they walk down a NYC sidewalk in tracking two-shot. The film was proudly shot in the city, and when Rock cuts to scenes of his fiancee in Los Angeles, it only reminds us of the heart one finds in the Big Apple.
One can also find a heart beating beneath the surface of Top Five. The film has a pulse, and it clearly belongs to its charismatic creator. Rock’s voice shines through the picture not only because of his tight direction and effervescent editing, but also because the material itself seems so personal. Lines like, “oh, it’s only funny when you say mean shit” feel like they’re hitting close to home, even if Andre’s alcoholic past doesn’t have much in common with the upstanding family man’s. “Rigorous honesty” is the line Andre and Chelsea keep repeating, but it’s also the key to the autocritical genius of Rock’s remarkable creation.
4/4