Sicker than
your average

Notorious is a drawn-out, conventional
biopic of Biggie Smalls that gets by on the
charm of its performances

BIGGER THAN LIFE: Jamal Woolard (R)

by MARK SLUTSKY

Amazing that it’s been nearly a dozen years since Christopher Wallace, aka Biggie Smalls, aka the Notorious B.I.G., was murdered at the astonishingly young age of 24. It’s also amazing that it’s taken this long for a biopic to be made, considering the cinematic, now-legendary events of Biggie’s life—not to mention the cottage industry his too-short career has become.

Notorious, directed by George Tillman, Jr., is a fairly conventional biopic of the star. He’s played by two different performers—kid Biggie is portrayed by Christopher Jordan Wallace, the late rapper’s son, while Jamal Woolard, who raps under the name Gravy and was previously best known for getting shot in the bum outside of New York’s Hot 97 and proceeding to go on air and do an interview with Funkmaster Flex, is the grown-up rapper.

Notorious hits all the major points in B.I.G.’s life: growing up raised by a single mother (Angela Bassett), his youthful foray into drug dealing, a prison stint, a friendship with Sean “Puffy” Combs (Derek Luke) and romance with future stars Lil’ Kim (Naturi Naughton) and Faith Evans (Antonique Smith). And as his friendship with Tupac Shakur (Anthony Mackie) disintegrates, it goes into the East Coast/West Coast rivalry that defined mid-’90s rap and that seemed inexorably intertwined with both their deaths—although the movie stays clear of any hypothesizing regarding the two unsolved murders.

Woolard makes for a charismatic Biggie, and he’s got the gravelly flow pretty much down, and the whole cast, really, is convincing. But you’ve got to wonder what the point is of telling the story of a man who did it so well himself, and first. Sure, a scene where his mom tells him she has cancer followed by one of an agitated Biggie freaking out in his car is fine, but “Shit, my momma’s got cancer in her breast/Don’t ask me why I’m motherfuckin’ stressed” kind of says it all, doesn’t it?

Though the movie gets by on the charm of its cast and the soundtrack, by about halfway through the over-two-hour running time, it starts to drag. For a better, more intimate portrait of his life, you might as well put on Ready to Die—though true fans will probably be entertained by this.

NOTORIOUS OPENS THIS
FRIDAY, JAN. 16