I went to Chris Rock’s “Top Five” ready to see a great movie. It’s gotten incredible reviews, and most critics said it was Rock’s breakout, the film that finally translated his terrific standup persona to the big screen. I was more than ready for that film, but this isn’t really it. Despite a handful of standout scenes (the movie’s own top five), this turned out to be one of the most surprising disappointments of the year. And I think the blame for that lies squarely on Rock’s shoulders, both as a writer and as a director and especially as an actor…
The movie follows a fading comic actor who’s ready to be taken seriously. It follows him for a few hours on a very busy Friday, the opening day for his new dud (a Haitian slave revolt picture no one seems interested in) and also the day of his bachelor party for a wedding to a vapid reality star (Gabrielle Union, for once using her limitations as a strength). We see him do press appearances, hang out with his buddies, and especially get involved with a journalist who’s been sent to interview him (the always radiant Rosario Dawson).
What Works: The idea of having Rock play a former stand-up struggling to realize his big screen dreams is literally tailor-made for him (he wrote and directed the movie). For a while the movie hooks you with the promise of being a less existential “Birdman.” And the movie’s plot is loose enough that it really just allows Rock a series of opportunities to riff on things and hang out with other comedians.
It’s no coincidence that every great scene in the movie is either Rock hanging out with other comedians (the apartment ensemble scene that’s been featured so heavily in the trailer…yet takes up less than 5 minutes in the movie, and a strip club scene where some very well known comics “make it rain”) or a flat-out terrific extended flashback with Cedric the Entertainer’s sleazy Houston “promoter”…
What Doesn’t: …That nearly ruins the movie because it’s so good, we’re a little disappointed that that wasn’t the movie we were watching instead. Rock-the-writer’s insistence on long flashbacks that keep breaking up the present day action makes it so the movie never truly exists in the present tense. And a lot of the flashbacks are unnecessary, like a prison scene that should have just been part of the flow instead of a flashback, and a bizarre psychosexual humiliation for Dawson’s boyfriend…who, of course, is white and a smug jerk and dumped quickly after we meet him so she can get with Rock. It’s the kind of movie where I knew that would happen (and how he would presented) the second she mentioned a boyfriend, even though it’s about an hour before we actually meet him or knew what he looked like.
The movie doesn’t really work because it keeps feeling like a series of interesting diversions tied to a main plot that isn’t really interesting, and Rock-the-director doesn’t prove a crack comedic pacer, there’s not one scene in this movie that doesn’t go on a minute too long, or a joke that isn’t extended until it’s not as funny.
But the main problem remains Rock-the-actor. Most of the great stand-ups have found a way to translate their stage energy into a compelling on-screen presence from Eddie Murphy to Richard Pryor to Robin Williams, but Rock has never really been relatable as a human being. I didn’t believe he wanted to be president in “Head of State,” or wanted to have sex with Kerry Washington in “I Think I Love My Wife” or wanted…well, whatever it is his character wants in “Top Five.” [It’s unclear if he really wants to be taken seriously in slave revolt dramas or if he’s actually hiding in serious movies because he can’t be funny while sober.] Chris Rock isn’t capable of seeming driven by lust or ambition or romance, he just seems like a comic who really wants to get up on that stage and kill. It’s no coincidence that the most focused and alive he is in this movie is the 2 minutes he gets to be up on that stand-up stage. That brings him more joy than kissing Gabrielle Union or Rosario—who can generate heat with anyone from Will Smith to Kevin James, but seems to have met her match in Rock—ever could.
What I Would Have Done Differently: I’d make a movie where Rock is a literal space alien (sent to Earth to record observations about humanity’s relationship with race) who discovers stand-up comedy and that’s his sole reason for living, because that would probably be the most believable performance of his life.
I’m kidding…maybe? But it might be interesting to see what Rock the director and actor can do with a leading man who’s not him, the same way Woody Allen’s best (contemporary) movies no longer have him in them.