''Black and White'' is a 1999 American film directed by

James Toback James Toback (; born November 23, 1944) is an American film director and screenwriter. His screenplay for ''Bugsy'' won the 1991 Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for best screenplay of the year and was nominated for both the Academy Awa ...

and starring

Robert Downey Jr. Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965) is an American actor and producer. His career has been characterized by critical and popular success in his youth, followed by a period of substance abuse and legal troubles, before a resurgence of ...

Gaby Hoffmann Gabrielle Mary Antonia HoffmannStated on ''Finding Your Roots'', November 21, 2017 (born January 8, 1982) is an American actress. She initially found success as a child actress, appearing in ''Field of Dreams,'' ''Uncle Buck,'' and ''Sleeples ...

, Allan Houston, Jared Leto,

Scott Caan Scott Andrew Caan (born August 23, 1976) is an American actor, director, photographer, writer, and former rapper. He received his breakthrough role in '' Ocean’s Eleven'' as Turk Malloy who he played in the '' Ocean’s trilogy'' and starred ...

Claudia Schiffer Claudia Maria Schiffer (; born 25 August 1970) is a German model and actress based in the United Kingdom. She rose to fame in the 1990s as one of the world's most successful models, attaining supermodel status. In her early career, she was compa ...

, Brooke Shields, Bijou Phillips and members of the

Wu-Tang Clan Wu-Tang Clan is an American hip hop group formed in Staten Island, New York City, in 1992. Its original members include RZA, GZA, Ol' Dirty Bastard, Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Inspectah Deck, U-God, and Masta Killa. Close aff ...

(

Raekwon Corey Woods (born January 12, 1970), better known by his stage name Raekwon The Chef, or simply Raekwon (), is an American rapper. He rose to prominence as a founding member of the hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan, which achieved mainstream success ...

Method Man Clifford Smith, Jr. (born March 2, 1971), better known by his stage name Method Man, is an American rapper, songwriter, record producer, and actor. He is known as a member of the East Coast hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan. He is also half of ...

Ghostface Killah Dennis Coles (born May 9, 1970), better known by his stage name Ghostface Killah, is an American rapper and a member of the hip hop group Wu-Tang Clan. After the group achieved breakthrough success in the aftermath of ''Enter the Wu-Tang (36 C ...

, Oli "Power" Grant,

Masta Killa Jamel Irief (born Elgin Turner; August 18, 1969), better known by his stage name Masta Killa, is an American rapper and member of the Wu-Tang Clan. Though one of the lesser-known members of the group (he was featured on only one track on their 19 ...

, Bruce Lamar Mayfield "Chip Banks" and

Inspectah Deck Jason Richard Hunter (born July 6, 1970), better known by his stage name Inspectah Deck, is an American rapper, producer, and actor. He is a member of the groups Wu-Tang Clan and Czarface. He has acquired critical praise for his intricate ly ...

) and

Onyx Onyx primarily refers to the parallel banded variety of chalcedony, a silicate mineral. Agate and onyx are both varieties of layered chalcedony that differ only in the form of the bands: agate has curved bands and onyx has parallel bands. The ...

(

Fredro Starr Fred Lee Scruggs Jr. (born April 18, 1971), better known by his stage name Fredro Starr, is an American rapper and actor best known as a member of the hardcore rap group Onyx. Fredro Starr was discovered by the late hip hop star Jam Master Jay of ...

and Sticky Fingaz). The film also features

Ben Stiller Benjamin Edward Meara Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an American actor, comedian, and filmmaker. He is the son of the comedians and actors Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara. Stiller was a member of a group of comedic actors colloquially known ...

as a sleazy police detective, as well as Mike Tyson playing himself and

Michael B. Jordan Michael Bakari Jordan (; born February 9, 1987) is an American actor. He is known for his film roles as shooting victim Oscar Grant in the drama ''Fruitvale Station'' (2013), boxer Adonis Creed in ''Creed'' (2015), and Erik Killmonger in ''Bl ...

in his film debut. It had its first showing at the

Telluride Film Festival The Telluride Film Festival (TFF) is a film festival held annually in Telluride, Colorado during Labor Day weekend (the first Monday in September). The 49th edition took place on September 2 -6, 2022. History First held on 30 August 1974, t ...

on September 4, 1999, followed by a second screening at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a perman ...

on September 15, 1999. It had its theatrical release in the United States on April 5, 2000.

Plot

Rich Bower (Power) is a mover and shaker in the world of rap music (he's involved with a number of other licit and illicit business ventures as well), and his apartment is a favored meeting place for musicians, hangers-on, and hipsters who want to seem cool, including a gang of white kids who want to be on the inside of what they consider the coolest scene of the day. Sam (Shields), a filmmaker, is making a documentary about Rich and his circle, with the help of her husband Terry (Downey), a homosexual who doesn't feel at home in this milieu. Dean (Houston) is Rich's black friend since childhood and a skilled college basketball player. He is offered a deal by a bookmaker, Mark (Stiller) to throw a game for a price. Dean takes the money against his better judgment, and he soon realizes how much of a mistake he made when Mark turns out to be a cop hoping to dig up dirt on Rich. Rich in turn discovers that Dean might be forced to tell what he knows to stay out of jail, and he decides that Dean has to be killed; however, rather than murder his friend himself, Rich asks one of the white kids who hangs out with him, who seems especially eager to prove himself, to do it for him. The kid, however, is actually the son of the District Attorney.

Cast

as Terry Donager *

as Raven * Allan Houston as Dean Carter * Jared Leto as Casey *

as Scotty *

Stacy Edwards Stacy Edwards (born March 4, 1965) is an American actress. She appeared in a number of B movies before her breakthrough role in the 1997 black comedy film '' In the Company of Men'', for which she received Independent Spirit Award for Best Female ...

as Sheila King * Kidada Jones as Jesse *

Marla Maples Marla Ann Maples (born October 27, 1963) is an American actress, television personality, model, singer and presenter. She was the second wife of Donald Trump. They married in 1993, two months after the birth of their daughter Tiffany, and div ...

as Muffy *

Joe Pantoliano Joseph Peter Pantoliano (born September 12, 1951) is an American character actor who has appeared in over 150 films, television and stage productions. After his early roles in the television series '' M*A*S*H'' and the 1983 comedy '' Risky Bu ...

as Bill King * Bijou Phillips as Charlie * Oli "Power" Grant as Rich Bower *

as Cigar *

as Greta * William Lee Scott as Will King * Brooke Shields as Sam Donager *

as Detective Mark Clear * Eddie Kaye Thomas as Marty King * Frank Adonis as Frank *

Elijah Wood Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. He is best known for his portrayal of Frodo Baggins in the ''Lord of the Rings'' film trilogy (2001–2003) and '' The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey'' (2012). Woo ...

as Wren * Mike Tyson as himself * Jaime McAdams as James *

as Teen number 2

Production

Most of the script was improvised by the cast. All of Claudia Schiffer's lines were completely written. Because she had not had them done previously, Claudia Schiffer had to have her ears pierced especially for the large hoop earrings worn by her character. In addition to wearing fake dreadlocks, Brooke Shields also wore a nose ring for this film, for which she had her nose temporarily pierced.

Reception

Review aggregate

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports that 38% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 82 reviews; the critical consensus states, "The atmosphere is affecting, and the story, at times, is compelling, but with a lean script and limp direction, ''Black and White'' doesn't add up to much." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, which assigns an average rating out of 100 based on review s from film critics, the film has a rating score of 47%, aggregating 27 reviews. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars. In the United States, ''Black and White'' grossed $5,241,315 in its four-week release.

References

External links