Some More Reviews

The Carter Review

In this portrait of the prolific rap artist, Lil Wayne, director Adam Bala Lough is able to capture the essence of the star by showing footage of him in interviews, showing his music and then contrasting this with the real behind the scenes Lil Wayne. To Lil Wayne, life is completely about music. He spends all day everyday recording. "I don't have time for sex," he says. The film in parts is completely a music video and it is able to document songs that will never be released on track. The director also interviews Lil Wayne's daughter and people closest or farthest from him. When asked about the best gift hes ever given her, she says, "When he's here." And so as the film goes on to document Lil Wayne's cough syrup, codine, and marijuana addiction, and his best friend but also manager says that he can't ride the tour bus because he can't stand to see Lil Wayne in his drugged out state, the film is ultimately depressing.This is the power of the film. Most viewers go into the film expecting to see a life of flashy fame, but are given a life of loneliness.

My Rating 8/10 Bottom Line Excellently and honestly is able to document the life of an iconic musician.

Shrink Review

This film that centers around a stoner Hollywood therapist played by Kevin Spacey has many different intersecting stories but is never tied together to form a coherent or meaningful narrative. Kevin Spacey is suffering from depression after his wife committed suicide and his apathetic towards his clients: an overstressed agent, screenwriter, and other Hollywood caricatures. The film is funny at times as it pokes fun at Hollywood types. The conflict that the therapist faces is when takes up a pro-bono case of a girl who's mother committed suicide. Although a typical viewer would expect that these two character's would connect, this is never shown and there is no real character development. The plot is also a bit cliche, Kevin Spacey as a depressed figure that self-medicates by smoking, that sound an awful lot like a movie that came out a few years ago...American Beauty! It will be interesting to see if the movie can be saved by a studio by adding more scenes to enrich the plot.


My Rating 4/10 Bottom Line Suffers from a lack of character development and the film is unable to transcend a basic caricarature of Hollywood stereotypes