Baadasssss!

Mario Van Peebles directs and stars in this fascinating docudrama focusing on his father Melvin Van Peebles' attempts to film 1971's "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song." Forced to work outside of the Hollywood system that feared his views on African-American culture, the director experienced tremendous sacrifices and hardships while trying to bring his vision to fruition. With Joy Bryant, T.K. Carter, Ossie Davis, Nia Long. AKA: "Gettin' the Man's Foot Outta Your Baadasssss!," "How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass." 108 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital 5.1; Subtitles: French, Portuguese, Spanish; audio commentary by Van Peebles; featurettes.

Baadasssss! is actor-writer-director Mario Van Peebles's best film since 1991's New Jack City; more accurately, it is a mature and often dazzling work beyond previous expectations of Van Peebles' skills as a filmmaker. Certainly he was inspired by the autobiographical subject: The making of his father's 1971, independently produced Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, in which young Mario made his acting debut amidst a frantic, high-pressure operation that paid off when African American audiences embraced the film. Playing his ownhard-nosed dad, Melvin Van Peebles, the younger talent explores--honestly, but not ruthlessly--Melvin's rocky relationship with an ever-disappointed Mario (played by Holes' Khleo Thomas), but he also portrays the elder man as a stubborn idealist against a backdrop of Hollywood cynicism about black entertainment. The film is a whirlwind of action and innovative scenes recreating personal history but without the insistent discursiveness of memory. With Nia Long, Ossie Davis, and Saul Rubinek. --Tom Keogh