Idlewild

Outkast's uneven making-it movie

By CHRIS WANGLER | August 30, 2006

2.5 Stars

Georgia, Prohibition era. Soft-spoken Percival (André Benjamin/André 3000) is a mortician who likes to write songs. His childhood buddy Rooster (Antwan A. Patton/Big Boi) is a philandering ne’er-do-well who’s electric on stage. Their dreams of making it big play out in a hoppin’ speakeasy that’s shaken up by the murder of its chatty manager (Faizon Love) and the arrival of a mysterious singer (newcomer Paula Patton). A long time in the making, Idlewild is an over-familiar tale of life in the ghetto elaborately disguised as a slick period piece. Outkast’s music, like the rest of the film, is respectful of the past but most uneven. Andre 3000 is no crooner, and Big Boi’s first rap number suffers from shoddy editing — hard to believe given writer/director Bryan Barber’s chops as the duo’s award-winning music-video director. His overcooked debut is exactly what you’d expect when people who have already made it make a movie about making it.

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Idlewild's official Web site: http://www.idlewildmovie.net

Related: No success like failure, Who's Your Caddy?, Forward into the past!, More

Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Hip-Hop and Rap, Music, More

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