Au centre: Antwane .A. Patton

Tout comme pour MARIE ANTOINETTE  j'ai beaucoup apprécié le mélange des genres et des époques sur le plan musical.En l'occurence dans IDLEWILD Jazz et Hip hop...hop hop

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La critique de James Berardinelli

For today's audiences, for whom the 1980s are ancient history, how is it possible to generate interest in a Prohibition-era period piece set in the town of Idlewild, Georgia? First-time director Bryan Barber has what he hopes is the answer: gather a cast of dynamic performers and develop a soundtrack that relies not upon blues and jazz standards of the day, but on hip-hop music (not unlike the approach used by Baz Luhrmann in Moulin Rouge). Unfortunately, while Barber has assembled some of these pieces, he has ignored a critical one. His script is a shaky affair - not really the kind of material that provides a solid foundation. It is riddled with clichés and includes a number of jarring transitions. Despite the best efforts of Barber the director, he never quite overcomes the shortcomings of Barber the writer.

Idlewild doesn't neatly fall into the "musical" category, because there are only about five production numbers consuming maybe 15 minutes of screen time (and three of them appear on stage at the club), but there's enough singing and dancing to generate some up-tempo energy. There are times when the movie looks like it was produced for MTV, so it should come as no surprise to learn that Barber's previous day job was making videos for Outkast (the hip-hop duo consisting of André "3000"

There's no denying the talent involved in Idlewild. Benjamin and to a lesser degree Patton, despite not having lengthy acting resumes, acquit themselves admirably and rarely seem out of their depth amidst a sea of more experienced performers. Paula Patton is stunning as Angel, especially during her breakout musical number. The likes of Ben Vereen, Ving Rhames, Cicely Tyson, Patti LaBelle, Macy Gray, and Bill Nunn make appearances. (Although one has to wonder why Barber doesn't give LaBelle an opportunity to sing or Vereen a chance to sing and/or dance. If you have talent like that, why not use it to its maximum advantage?)

Meanwhile, Terrence Howard relishes the chance to play a one-dimensional villain.Outkast fans will presumably flock to theaters to see this movie, but one has to wonder whether there's wider appeal. The tone is schizophrenic, with the musical and fantasy elements not always meshing effectively with the harder-edged gangster components. In particular, the talking liquor flask and the animated musical notes are out-of-place. Idlewild is too serious, and ultimately too tragic, for magical realism to be at home. Despite its efforts to be fresh, Idlewild rarely escapes the orbit of familiarity. There's only so much the variances in style and tone can accomplish. In this case, they make the product diverting, but not special. There's nothing compelling about the characters or story, and that maroons Idlewild within the category of disposable entertainment.

Idlewild is a movie that tries to attain great musical heights, but fails as often as it succeeds.

Author: torsloke-2 from LA, CA
25 August 2006

Idlewild's greatest fault is that it is really uneven in tone. There were parts of it I really loved – the prologue scenes, and some of the musical numbers, and then parts that just seemed to go splat on the screen. The tone of the beginning, very witty and hell-bent-for-leather, was great and seemed to be a great frame for a story about two hustlers - it seemed reminiscent of the winking, headlong tone of "The Sting" - and if the movie could have maintained that tone it might have been a tour de force. But other parts of the film were morose and uninteresting. Which leads us, unfortunately, to Andre 3000.

I understand making 3000 the Luke Skywalker and Big Boi the Han Solo, but Boi's character of Rooster was so much more interesting a character that whenever he wasn't on the screen the movie just went flat. It just seems to be a bad idea to have a main character who seemingly has no desire to attain his dreams – he's kind of an anti-Joseph-Campbell hero – and the other characters have to shove Percival toward his dreams like corralling a steer to slaughter. His mortician father is supposed to be his obstacle to the life Percival is meant to live, but it seems apathy is a more likely stumbling block; Percival looks more uncomfortable on stage than he does dressing bodies in the funeral home, instead of coming alive when he performs, which seems to be what the character requires.

I liked the music for the most part, but 3000 is the major failing here as well. His persona (it's hard to say that either he or Boi are acting since their characters hew so closely to the personas they have created for OutKast) is such the brooding artist that when the movie needs a shot of "I've finally made it!" razz ma tazz, he's not up to the task and the ending comes away like a lead balloon. I thought that for the most part they did a rather clever job blending the 30's music with the OutKast brand of the hippity hop, and my only complaint here is that Barber directed the music scenes like music videos and so the actors are obviously lip-synching, where a live performance captured for the film might have been exhilarating, here it comes off with the rote polished quality of any hip hop video with the actors seeming to walk through their performances rather than actually performing. The anachronistic quality of the songs isn't as jarring as I thought it might be, it's just the presentation of the music that takes you out of the time and place.

Otherwise, it's shot really well. There are some innovative visual effects that help guide the story, and the dances are staged with such vigor and bawdy realism that they have the gutbucket charm of the early "race" musicals.The period look of the film is gorgeous; there's a whole lot of production value here - the sets and costumes notorious clotheshorses 3000 and Boi sport made me drool a little, and the ensemble cast is fantastic. It's Depression-Era Black South, but this particular vision seems to be a time and place little explored in cinema. With the exception of a touching scene late in the film in which Rooster, wayward after his long-suffering wife finally leaves him, encounters a religious woman literally at the end of the road, gives her some money and receives a Bible in return, the majority of the movie takes place among the black bourgeoisie and race or class is never an issue. Unfortunately, that touching scene is just an excuse to set up an unbelievably cliché and predictable scene later on when the Bible does what most cinematic Holy Books end up doing).

Overall, the plot is cliché at times and predictable more often than that, and gives the sense of a first-time writer/director finding his way, and there are some scenes that just don't make sense – without spoilering, there's a glaring flaw that happens in the crucial first act that's both sloppy and stylistically cliché storytelling.The biggest travesty, though is something that didn't hit me until I was on the way home. Ben Vereen is cast as 3000's mortician father, the supposed restraining influence. Toward the end of the movie they have a confrontation, which eventually leads to a reconciliation – I can't possibly be giving anything away by saying that, or you've never seen a movie before. But on the way home it struck me - how do you have Ben Vereen in this movie and not write it into the script to have Ben Vereen

DANCING?!? He's BEN VEREEN for crying out loud! Anyone who directs a musical and doesn't see the necessity of having the most talented cast member perform should have their DGA card revoked. All right, I got a little polemical there, but it seems a grievous oversight to overlook one of the film's greatest resources especially when you're supposed to be honoring the past, and this oversight is somehow indicative of the whole project (and now that I look at it, Patti LaBelle never sang in her cameo as the real Angel Davenport, either. Crispity Crunchity! All right, call the DGA, I'm serious, now.).Idlewild is a movie that attempts some rather ambitious things; it's just a shame it achieved so few.

music/dancing - brilliant. plot - not so great.

Author: Elyzabeth Joy (lyzard74@yahoo.com) from United States
26 August 2006

Biographie
 
Natif de Chicago, Terrence Howard trouve sa vocation d'artiste en passant beaucoup de temps avec sa grand-mère : la comédienne de théâtre Minnie Gentry. À 15 ans, il apparaît pour la première fois à la télévision dans la célèbre série Cosby Show, puis rapidement dans des séries policières comme New York Police Blues ou New York District (1990), et dans de nombreux téléfilms notamment dans King Of The World dans lequel il interpréte le jeune Cassius Clay, ou encore dans The Jackson Five : An American Dream.
 
Terrence Howard apparaît pour la première fois au cinéma dans Who's the man ? de Ted Demme en 1993, mais il ne s'attaque véritablement au grand écran que deux ans plus tard en jouant dans Professeur Holland (1995) avec Richard Dreyfuss. Il enchaîne alors des films aussi divers que Dead presidents (1995) avec Chris Tucker, Angel Eyes (2001) avec Jennifer Lopez, Big Mamma (2000) face à Martin Lawrence, Mission évasion (2001) avec Bruce Willis ou encore Biker Boyz (2003) avec Laurence Fishburne.
 
En 2004, il est remarqué pour sa prestation dans le drame Collision de Paul Haggis, avec Sandra Bullock et Don Cheadle, qui reçoit le prix du Meilleur ensemble d'acteurs aux Screen Actors Guild Awards 2006. Il rencontra durant cette période sa femme Zeina, avec qui il eut deux enfants.Musicien et parolier reconnu, Terrence Howard est également cité au Screen Actors Guild Award pour le rôle de Gossie McKee dans Ray en 2005, puis à l'Oscar du Meilleur acteur en 2006 pour son rôle remarqué dans le drame Hustle & flow de Craig Brewer. La même année, il partage l'affiche du téléfilm Their eyes were watching avec Halle Berry, et côtoie Mark Wahlberg dans Quatre frères avant de se retrouver aux côtés du rappeur 50 Cent dans Réussir ou mourir.
 
En 2008, il fait partie du casting d'Iron Man de Jon Favreau, interprétant le rôle du Colonel Rhodes. Il n'apparaitra pourtant pas dans la suite, Don Cheadle héritant du rôle.

Filmographie de Terence Howard

comme acteur
1992 : The Jacksons: (The Jacksons: An American Dream) (TV) : Jackie Jackson
1993 : Who's the Man? : Customer
1993 : Tall Hopes (série TV) : Chester Harris (age 16)
1995 : Professeur Holland (Mr. Holland's Opus) : Louis Russ
1995 : The O.J. Simpson Story (TV) : Young A.C
1995 : Lotto Land : Warren
1995 : Les Billets verts (Dead Presidents) : Cowboy
1995 : Shadow-Ops (TV) : Rio
1996 : Sparks (série TV) : Greg Sparks
1996 : L'Équipe du collège (Sunset Park) : Spaceman
1996 : Johns : Jimmy the Warlock
1997 : Double Frappe (Double Tap) : Ulysses
1998 : Butter : Dexter Banks
1998 : Spark : Byron
1998 : The Players Club : K.C.
1998 : Mama Flora's Family (TV) : Lincoln
1999 : Valerie Flake : Hitchhiker
1999 : Un coup d'enfer (Best Laid Plans) : Jimmy
1999 : The Best Man : Quentin
2000 : King of the World (TV) : Cassius Clay
2000 : Big Mama (Big Momma's House) : Lester Vesco
2000 : Love Beat the Hell Outta Me : Chris
2001 : Investigating Sex : Lorenz
2001 : Boycott (TV) : Ralph Abernathy
2001 : Angel Eyes : Robby
2001 : Glitter : Timothy Walker
2002 : Mission évasion (Hart's War) : Lt. Lincoln A. Scott
2002 : Ashanti : Foolish (Clip musical) : The boyfriend
2003 : Biker Boyz : Chu Chu
2003 : Love Chronicles : T-Roy
2002 : Street Time (série TV) : Lucius Mosley (2003)
2004 : Collision (Crash) : Cameron
2004 : Ray**** : Gossie McKee
2005 : The Salon : Patrick
2005 : Hustle & Flow : Djay
2005 : Lackawanna Blues (TV) : Bill Crosby
2005 : Their Eyes Were Watching God (TV) : Amos Hicks
2005 : Quatre frères (Four Brothers) : Lt. Green
2005 : Animal (vidéo) : Darius Allen
2005 : Réussir ou mourir (Get Rich or Die Tryin') : Bama
2006 : 37th NAACP Image Awards (TV)
2006 : Idlewild Gangsters Club (Idlewild)** : Trumpy
2007 : The Hunting Party : Duck
2007 : A Vif (The Brave One) : Detective Mercer
2007 : Awake : le docteur Jack Harper
2008 : August Rush : Richard Jeffries
2008 : Iron Man*** : Col. James Rhodes
2009 : Fighting** : Harvey Boarden
2010-2011 : Los Angeles, police judiciaire (TV) : Substitut du procureur Jonah "Joe" Dekker

à venir : Son of No One de Dito Montiel
2012 : Red Tails : Col. A.J. Bullard
2012 : The Company You Keep de Robert Redford
2013 : Dead Man Down de Niels Arden Oplev : Alphonse Hoyt
2013 : The Butler de Lee Daniels : Howard
2013 : Ten de David Ayer : « Sugar »

comme producteur
2000 : Love Beat the Hell Outta Me

Nominations
2006 : Oscar du meilleur acteur - Hustle & Flow