Black and White (2000)

Summary

A plotless indie flick about the unlikely web of relationships among black and white New Yorkers.

Director

James Toback

Downey Factor

Fairly low, it's an ensemble cast.

Character

Terry Donnager, flaming queen whose wife conveniently ignores the fact he shamelessly flirts with every man in sight

Looks

Short brown hair, wild clothing.

Performance

The most stereotypically gay performance he has ever given, and yet he steals the spotlight every moment he's on camera

Love & Sex

Brooke Shields is his in-denial wife, Jared Leto is the most significant object of his affection

Dies, Gay or Villain

No. Yes. No.

Cast

Ben Stiller, Method Man, Brooke Shields, Mike Tyson, Jared Leto, Elijah Wood, Bijou Phillips, Allan Houston, Claudia Schiffer, Joe Pantoliano

Connection

Claudia Schiffer Friends and Lovers.

Brooke Shields and Mike Tyson in The Outsider.

Ben Stiller in That's Adequate and Tropic Thunder.

James Toback's Two Girls and a Guy, The Pick-Up Artist and in The Outsider.

Joe Pantoliano in U.S. Marshals.

RDJ Says

[James Toback] said that I should be someone who's directing a documentary. I said, "Maybe I'm in the periphery of the world." He goes, "Maybe you're married." I said, "Maybe I'm gay too." ... Brooke and I chose our names—Terry and Sam—because they were androgynous, just like our marriage She got the more masculine name, because she wears the pants in the family ... I figured I've played a send-up version of the heterosexual James Toback in The Pick-Up Artist and Two Girls and a Guy. Why don't I now play the gay-hausfrau version of Toback? ... I make Elton John look like a bullfighter ... James Toback was like, "Just go tell him." And I was like, "What? Just go tell him that I had a super-gay dream about him, and I was wondering if he'd hold me?" And Mike was like off in the corner deciding what Versace shirt to wear for the scene. He's like, "Yeah, we're going to improvise. Yeah, just don't have him saying any weirdo gay stuff." And when I said it, he was like, "You can't talk to me like that, man, I'm on parole man, I'm on parole." And I said, "Will you hold me?" He said, "If I hit you, I'll pull my punch." But Mike Tyson pulling his punch is like a donkey trying, I don't know, to bite an apple out of your mouth or something ... A stage slap from Mike Tyson is like a shovel whack from a normally fortified male.

Time & Place

Present day (2000), New York.

Availability

Released in theaters 5 April 2000. On DVD in Region 1, 2 and 4.

Foreign Titles

Brazil: Preto e Branco (Black and White)
Croatia: Crno i Bijelo (Black and White)
Hungary: Fekete-fehér (Black and White)
Poland: Czarne i Biale (Black and White)

Rotten Tomatoes

39% Fresh | 79 Reviews

Critical View

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: [James Toback] plugged actors into situations, told them where they had to go and let them improvise. This leads to an electrifying scene where Downey makes a sexual advance on Mike Tyson.

Wesley Morris, The San Francisco Chronicle: The tag line for Black and White asks: "What happens when you mix it up?" You should answer, "Ideological disaster!" ... Toback is an actor's director only insofar as he carves out spaces for improvisation. But Downey, who's been blazingly self-aware in two previous outings with Toback, is the [only] actor who knows what to do within them.

The Guardian: [Downey] has the best and funniest moment in the whole film. Terry goes up to Mike Tyson at a party ... and mincingly tells him that he dreamt about him last night ... Toback says this scene was improvised. If so, Robert Downey Jr has balls of titanium.

Does It Hold Up

It would be too tedious to list all the ways that this movie would be considered "problematic" by today's standards. It was trash back then, it's "problematic" trash now.

2 Reasons to See It

1. His scene with Mike Tyson.
2. The scene where he breaks it off with his wife.

Overall

Robert Downey Jr. shines every second he's on camera. Every other moment (the majority) of the film is much less bearable.

If You Like It

You might also like Two Girls and a Guy (1998), A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints (2006), rich white college boys who think they can rap

Photos

Video