Blackening Film History: Friday The Great American Comedy Classic.
/
I remember it like it was yesterday or maybe a good month ago. The details around it aren't so clear except for one phenomenally inept lapse in judgement and taste. I went to see a double feature of two movies I hadn't seen (now in their second run because we at that time could rarely afford to see a movie in its initial run as a family of nine). The theater was small, cramped, and dingy. The kind where you can smell the breath of the last patron in your seat still hanging in the air because there is no ventilation. The double feature was Sylvester Stallone's “Judge Dredd”, and “Friday”. Understand that by this time Friday was already a cultural phenomenon where it mattered...amongst black people. Whether at work, play, or school you couldn’t go anywhere with out someone quoting a line,with or without context. Amongst black folk at the time, Friday was the kind of movie that would’ve caused a tectonic shift on Black Twitter had it existed. In every and all sense of the word, Friday was an event movie for us, one you had to see it, or be banished to the realm of the obsolete, of the woefully out of the loop, an ignorant 411 leper. But there was me blissful in my ignorance, hardened in my tastes, saying to myself without saying to myself.. “It didn’t matter”. My feeling was “Friday” might turn out alright, but Judge Dredd though!” it was disgraceful, borderline unforgivable, one of my most regrettable moments of poor judgement, and I am not proud of this. I have no clue what white people were doing thinking , or saying about Friday at the time. All my education about their collective input on Friday comes in retrospect, and I still care very little for it- I’ll come back to this later. Amongst the non movie-goer and movie-goer alike in my community Friday only a few months into its birth into the American cinematic lexicon was already knee deep into its journey to ubiquitousness . Then and now the film was in many ways incomparable, while in others it shares distinguishing traits with a great deal of other classic American comedies. Thing is though, I wanted to see Judge Dredd more. Yes I said it, let that sink in for a moment.. I’ll wait , because it's still hasn't sunk in for me yet. I not only wanted to see Judge f***ing Dredd more than Friday, I sincerely thought it would be the better movie….
This the inside of my brain every time I think back to the fact that I would’ve rather watched “Judge Dredd”, than anything really, much less “Friday.”
I remember so acutely the feeling in the pit of my stomach as trailers went on that I wanted this appetizer of Friday to be over as soon as possible so I could get the main course Dredd. A wonky, ridiculous, uneven, over-the-top, if not fun comic book movie about a criminally bad cop in a “distant” future where the police functioned as branches of government . A few minutes later I would legit forget there was a double feature at all. From "You half dead motherf***er" to "And you know this man" Friday was not only quakingly funny, but smart, well directed, and ingeniously played by almost all of its actors. It was a welcome interruption to the trend of hood dramas that portrayed the agonizing and tragic aspects of living in the inner city, the importance of which cannot be overstated not only because of the way it reupholstered, and reconstructed tropes about growing up in the hood, but for its impact on the future of comedy in Hollywood. The 1995 comedy came out on the heels of an explosion of films about the hood, and the scourge of the crack cocaine drug epidemic. From one of my favorite films “New Jack City” to Boyz in the Hood”, “South Central” and “Menace to Society”, these films announced the coming of several important black filmmakers, actors, and actresses, provided scathing and insightful political commentary, and served the important task of informing a country blinded to the violence, suffering, and activism by blacks without aide of whites going on in the hoods of America. Nevertheless these films also had the unintended impact of dehumanizing the more unsavory aspects and role players in our neighborhoods, and reducing them to archetypes of evil. These tropes and characters helped assure racist foreign white eyes (that had no context) of our animalistic nature. Whites (misinterpreting either obliviously or intentionally) were encouraged and emboldened to interfere the only way they seemed to understand, (state sanctioned violence) and those whites who found sympathy would condescendingly paternalize that sympathy, which could be seen in a cinematic call and response that created movies like “Dangerous Minds”. Friday was different, crude, endearing and refreshing, and according to many of the major players involved in its making , this was by design. While previous films had turned crack heads into mortifying zombies, hated, sometimes feared, living in the crevices of the neighborhood on the outskirts of the humanity bereft of any will to eat, converse, connect, Friday gave us “Eazel”, who jokes, hustles, “works” and who is ultimately apart of the patchwork of personality that is any neighborhood. Rather than make him a stain on the neighborhood, the focus on Eazel was in fact on his personality, not his addiction, and other than maybe Bubbles (Andre Royo) from the Wire it is the most humanized version of a homeless addict we’ve seen, and representative of the reality of who these people were to us, in our hoods. In the other films drug dealers were ruthless, and only ruthless. Servants to nihilism, hawks of capitalism, they could care less about their own lives so even less for yours. In the pursuit of money, they were almost entirely lacking of any empathy. They were America’s worst nightmare in Menace to Society, willing to shoot a rising football star with no affiliations over an exchange of words in Boyz in the Hood, or use a small child as a shield in a failed attempt on their life in New Jack City. In Friday “Big Worm” was these things for sure but also a big personality, farcical even. Learning into the need for such folk to be seen and heard, Worm wore his hair relaxed, with rollers, and drove around in a 60 something dreamscicle orange Chevy Impala, and an ice cream truck on daytons. He is a ruthless business man, but he is also a character. He wants smokey to “apply himself,” “doesn’t want to have fuck smokey up” but he will…
The point being Friday didn’t defend or upend the earned negativity around gang violence or drug dealers, or crack addiction, but it did provide a fuller picture of the black and brown neighborhood, and the role these people play in it. The good and the bad times. The individual, and the community, the dark, and the light hearted. Its authenticity is inextricable from both its success, as well as any of its strengths and weaknesses. Black people understood it all too well. White folk (sometimes imprecisely alluded to as the “mainstream”) I don’t think still quite get Friday. There is no point of reference for them, and if you have no point of reference , no historical or familial context for the brilliance of these characters, the purposeful lack of focus so aptly depicted in what it feels like to just want to get to high, and free your mind in the inner city, you run the risk of mistaking them for some brechtian accumulation of caricatures with no real connection as did Gene Siskel in this small review of Friday…
“For all of the shouting, mugging and rap music, a surprisingly dull comic yarn about a young man (Ice Cube) trying to survive in the ‘hood. Colorful characters abound, but nothing ties them together. I knew the picture was in trouble when its first gag involved an old lady spewing obscenities. ”
Yet Siskel’s words reveal something more problematic about the expectations of black filmmakers, black people, and suffering. Friday is and was not merely a stoner comedy although that is most definitely part of its charm, but it was also not about “surviving in the hood”. Most importantly, why is/was there no space for a movie about black people taking a day off from “surviving”, from preaching, and self important messages to be great? Why can’t/couldn’t we be as “Dazed and Confused” as whites on film? Friday didn’t and doesn’t have to be some meditation on black frustrations in the hood, it was a thoroughly entertaining “day in the life” film featuring top notch characters, (not to be confused with caricatures) a legendary comedic debut, (Chris Tucker) sure direction from a first timer, and brilliant humor. The humor or as my comedic acting teacher called it “The Funny” (Like in the bathroom scene with John Witherspoon’s “Pops” and Ice Cube) is not merely found in the toilet, it was found in the familiar and singularly recognizable way black parents of a certain generation have no respect for boundaries, doors, or space. Embarrassment and time are luxuries for rich people with jobs, and no children. The very specific way many of our parents saw their off-spring (no matter how grown) as children, and as owing them a debt in this world…”I smelt your shit for Twenty Two years, you can smell mines for five minutes”. The joke or gag Siskel references is not simply that an “old lady is spewing obscenities” it is the hypocrisy of the church, and its members, and the sass, seniority and verve of older black women in the community. Beyond the authenticity of its father figures, or matriarchs, and even bullies, Friday is incredibly well put together, and succinct in what by all accounts was a gargantuan undertaking by a first time feature filmmaker. F. Gary Gray managed to reign this plethora of personalities into one film in a way that never felt like it let any actor get too carried away, and take the movie away with them. It is a comedy that through fantastic editing had a crystal clear idea of what it wanted to be and confidently expressed itself as intentionally irreverent, and it was many of Gray’s directorial flourishes that enhanced, and cultivated the viewing experience, and subsequently the indelibility of Friday…
This bottom up view of Smokey’s face after witnessing Redd get knocked out is integral to what makes “You got knocked the fuck out!” so memorable. The joke as a conjured memory itself is seen from an impossible point of view considering the storyteller is Smokey himself, because it is meant for us, as told to us, and upon recollection the punchline is always accompanied by Gary’s distinct manipulation of Tuckers face.
Gray’s choice to speed the scene up as Smokey trips out on PCP laced weed in post is another simple but perceptive instinct that gives insight to what is funny, but also what gives the audience an empathetic sense of what the character is going through.
The approaching of the character Deebo, from the bottom nothing but his feet on the bike bears some resemblance to the sharks fin in Jaws, and with accompanying music is a wonderful bit of parody intentional or not on the Jaws theme as well as the “Imperial march”
Additionally, Gray, Kimberly Hardin, and casting Legend Jaki Brown (in a very particular and acute bit of genius born of necessity, knowledge, and perception) brought together one of the greatest casts in history. I say that with no hyperbole. You’d be hard pressed to name one cast member who isn’t at the very least a perfect fit, if not in the throws of an astoundingly instinctive, intelligent comedic performance, especially the women. It is almost spiritual to watch Anna Marie Horseford embody both a very general and specific kind of black mother. Loving, warm, no nonsense, and direct without being combative. That smooth transition from “She oughta be ashamed of herself looking like that” to Hey Girl!” The ability to communicate what one feels without necessarily communicating what one feels was not only the work of a natural actor, but one who drawed as deeply from from the well of ancestry and tradition of black motherhood, as Denzel did black suffering in his single tear scene in “ Glory. When you hear Horseford yell “Okay” from across the street. It’s the truth in the look she gives in concert with the way the word “okay” trails and shrills itself into befuddled sarcasm, and inaffection that spews comedy gold from about 1:26 to 1:40 mins in…
Of maybe all the great performances in Friday, Angela Means work maybe the most noteworthy. Her interpretation of another character in the arms of addiction, who is yet still a full human being, features the most transferable traits, intelligence, and instincts from the world of comedy to drama. The fact is that Felica has become an icon of comedic cinema, and her entry into the slang lexicon of american pop culture is a representation of that by way of extension from the character Means so finely molded. The “Felicia” Means created, connected to the “Bye” in the popular phrase is inextricable from the terms pejorative nature. It conjures both its mean spirited punch, and its relevance from the memorable nature of the character Means created. Means instincts as an actor are on full display, it's in Felicia's walk - wide, and sloppy, lacking in any grace whatsoever. A subversive walk, it is not meant for the male gaze, and Felicia doesn’t care. Means chosen gait and stride is both psychological, and physical in its intention, it implies not only her lack of desire to perform for men, but also that Felicia has no respect for space....
This quote from the actress solidifies both Means’s talent, and intention..
“During the scene where Craig says “Bye, Felisha,” Gary was going to break down the set and do a reverse shot of me. I was supposed to walk up to the porch where Chris and Cube were and face the camera when I spoke to them, like everyone else did. I was like, no. If Felisha is going to invade people’s space, then she is going to invade people’s space. She’s oblivious to personal space and boundaries. I told Gary, “Why don’t we just save a whole hour and let Felisha’s ass just sit down in between them?” Neither Cube or Chris knew I was going to sit down, and when I did Chris wasn’t even acting, he was like, “DAMN!” He was pissed at me. [Laughs.] It made the scene better, and broke up the monotony of everyone coming to the porch. Her sitting down was a moment that we found together. Not that it was that big a deal, but it did save like a good hour, and it created that scene, the three sitting on the porch like that.”
There is also a clear eyed sincerity in Means creation of Angela that sets it apart from the darty eyed contemptibility of Halle Berry’s “Vivian” in Spike Lee’s “Jungle Fever”. Felicia earnestly sees nothing abnormal about her frequent requests despite their absurdity. In every scene she asks for something more ridiculous than the last, and the cluelessness as to the size and uncouth of her requests is so deeply genuine it becomes part of her charm and as well as her repulsion. Means like all great comedians doesn’t play Felicia for jokes, she plays her for truth even when the set up itself is ridiculous or over the top, and especially when it’s not true…
Paula Jai Parker’s Joi is equally memorable, and equally representative of Jai's dedication to her character. In contrast to Means, Parker went for the large and overt. Both Joi and Felicia take up considerable amounts of space, but whereas the jewel of Mean’s performance is in the subtle details, Parker’s Joi is a great deal more over the top with intention. Partly owing to the traditions of camp, Joi is meant to be not only grandiose , but exaggerated, and hails from the imaginative spectrum of creation as well as the inspired…
“I’d lived in Washington D.C. when I was going to college and I had seen girls that reminded me of Joi. The blonde dookie braids became popular and, Lord, those nails. I did the nails, I created those and put those on. I don’t know where I got that from. I was just young and inspired.”