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Black and White | 1999 | R | - 8.4.10

This comedy/drama explores the fascination white upper-class teens have with the urban hip-hop lifestyle. With Scott Caan, Robert Downey Jr., Stacy Edwards, Allan Houston, Gaby Hoffmann, Kidada Jones, Jared Leto, Marla Maples, Kim Matulova, Joe Pantoliano, Bijou Phillips, Power, Raekwon, Claudia Schiffer, William Lee Scott, Brooke Shields, Ben Stiller, Eddie Kaye Thomas, Mike Tyson, Elijah Wood, Sticky Fingaz and Method Man. [1:38]

SEX/NUDITY 8 - Lots of sexual innuendo (sometimes explicit and including some references to fellatio, cunnilingus and homosexuality) and a couple of passionate kisses. We see several shots of a ménage à trois taking place in a park (one man watches and a few young kids stumble onto the scene): we see two girls kissing, a girl touching another's bare breast in close-up and a man fondling a girl's thong-clad buttocks with his other hand underneath the other girl's skirt. We see the side of a girl's bare breast and some of her panties as she undresses and kisses a man; in a later scene a woman walks in on them while they're presumably having intercourse (we only see his bare torso and her legs). We see the side of a nude man (no explicit nudity is seen) lying in bed between to nude women (their backsides are visible). We see a few women in cleavage- and midriff-revealing shirts.

VIOLENCE/GORE 4 - A person is shot (we don't see the impact but see blood on the back of the victim's shirt). A man slaps and chokes another man (he was trying to "pick up" the other); also, another slap and a shove. A man pounds a table, a woman throws her bag at a car and a man falls during a basketball game and limps off the court. A little threatening with guns. We hear a man urinate and see him standing in front of a toilet.

LANGUAGE 10 - Some of the profanity is heard in the soundtrack music, but most is spoken. At least 210 F-words, lots of anatomical references and slang terms, lots and lots of scatological references, several mild obscenities, several insults and lots of racial epithets (they're mostly used between friends in a non-derogatory way).

DISCUSSION TOPICS - Hip-hop lifestyles, emulating another culture's lifestyle, differences between cultures, blackmail, murder, experimentation, rebellion, marijuana use.

MESSAGE - People use and exploit each other for their own benefit. Pretending to be what you're not can be fun and exciting, but it can also lead to dangerous repercussions. Be true to yourself.

CAVEATS

Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.

We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.

Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.


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