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Baadasssss!
Sony Pictures Classics

8.6 based on 33 reviews Read critic reviews How did we calculate this? based on 8 votes Read user comments Rate this movie

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MPAA RATING: R for pervasive language and some strong sexuality/nudity

Starring Mario Van Peebles, Joy Bryant, T.K. Carter, Terry Crews, Ossie Davis, David Alan Grier, Nia Long, and Paul Rodriguez

Mario Van Peebles directs an honest and revealing portrait of his pioneering father Melvin. (Sony Pictures Classics)

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Mario Van Peebles Dennis Haggerty Melvin Van Peebles (book Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song)
DIRECTED BY:	Mario Van Peebles
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: September 14, 2004  Video: September 14, 2004  Theatrical: May 28, 2004
RUNNING TIME:	108 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

What's fascinating is the way Mario, working from his father's autobiography and his own memories, has somehow used his first-hand experience without being cornered by it.

100

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Baadasssss is about feeling pain and frustration, about having a sense of purpose that overwhelms everything else, about great cost and great risk, the pain of isolation and the intoxicating effect of fighting against the odds.

91

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

The beauty of Baadasssss! is the way Mario Van Peebles salutes his father's truth by coaxing it into legend.

89

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Among the many things that Baadasssss! is, it is also a movie about moviemaking. In fact, the film should be a primer for anyone about to make an independent film.

88

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The technical side of Baadasssss! far surpasses that of "Sweetback," and re-created scenes from the 1971 film look much better in the son's hands than they did in the father's.

88

Chicago Tribune Allison Benedikt

Overall, Baadasssss! succeeds marvelously at evoking the passion and frantic energy behind "Sweetback" and putting it all in the context of its politically charged era.

88

Premiere Aaron Hillis

The mood never droops, however, saved by Mario’s well-studied ability to channel his father, a performance as delicately nuanced and polished as the film is frenetic and raw.

88

Boston Globe Ty Burr

A much better movie than the one it honors.

83

Portland Oregonian Marc Mohan

Compelling both as a chronicle of guerrilla filmmaking and as a son's movie about his father, it presents a clear-eyed, warts-and-all view of artistic obsession.

80

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

Does a terrific job of capturing the outlaw energy of the original production.

80

Village Voice J. Hoberman

Accurate enough as history to provide a potent reminder that black independent cinema did not end with Oscar Micheaux or begin with Spike Lee.

80

The New Yorker David Denby

Mario Van Peebles creates what can only be called a lucid fantasia; the movie quickly reaches a pitch of manic activity and stays there. It’s an exhausting, and exhaustingly pleasurable, entertainment. [31 May 2004, p. 88]

80

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

A vibrant, funny, fully realized slice of oft-overlooked cultural, show-business, and black history. It's better than the film whose genesis it chronicles, though inherently doomed to be nowhere near as important.

75

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

The film is technically raw, but the sight of Van Peebles playing his father at a defining moment in movie history exerts a potent fascination.

75

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Baadasssss! is the portrait of a visionary with a blind spot, a man starved for kindness who can no longer recognize the responsibility to be kind, even to his kids. But it's a portrait of a visionary nonetheless.

75

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

This colorful time capsule of a movie was directed by Van Peebles's son, who appeared in "Sweetback" as a child and doesn't minimize the difficulties his father's underfinanced dream entailed for his hard-pressed family and friends.

75

USA Today Mike Clark

This movie is more wistful and winking, though it's obvious Mario is still working out emotional baggage with his tyrannically driven old man.

75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Mario Van Peebles, bearing an uncanny resemblance to his father, illuminates the soul of a man driven by a belief in himself and a love for his community.

75

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Both an homage to his dad and a backstage story rich in Hollywood lore.

75

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

Both public tribute and private therapy session, Baadasssss! should have been a self-conscious disaster. By confronting his past with wit and style, Van Peebles has instead created a meta-cool history lesson and homage.

75

New York Post Lou Lumenick

The most exhilarating film about indie moviemaking on a shoestring since "Ed Wood," even if its subject -- the director's dad, ultra-macho filmmaking pioneer Melvin Van Peebles -- couldn't be more different than the notoriously inept Wood.

75

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Sobering and wildly entertaining.

70

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

Its mix of personal reminiscence (Mario made his screen debut playing Sweetback as a boy) and cultural history is fascinating. This engages in a fair amount of mythmaking itself, but its lesson in self-empowerment is both vivid and sincere.

70

The New York Times Dave Kehr

Mario Van Peebles, of course, inhabits a very different world from that of his father: a world that his father, in some small way, helped to create. It is his awareness of this paradox, of the progressive import of his father's film and of the repressive import of his father's personality, that informs this modest but interesting work.

70

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

In its spirit and execution, Baadasssss! lives up to its forebear.

70

Dallas Observer Robert Wilonsky

As frantic and frenzied as its source material.

70

The Hollywood Reporter Marilyn Moss

One of the best looks at a period in American film to be seen in a long, long while. BaadAsssss Cinema has meat on its bones and analysis in its soul.

70

LA Weekly Hazel-Dawn Dumpert

The genuinely fascinating story is one of revolutionary intention and unrelenting grit, but while Mario is a competent enough filmmaker, he has neither the urgency nor, frankly, the chops to make his own movie fire up.

63

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Baadasssss! is best taken as an examination of filmmaking itself.

60

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

The movie is at its best when it's most straightforward. Flights of fancy like the child angel perched on Melvin's ceiling or his conversations with the black-clad Sweetback, who appears to undermine his confidence at crucial junctures, seem forced and pointless.

60

Film Threat Staff (Not credited)

A heartfelt and incredibly resonant ode to his father's achievement, Mario's film relives the blood, sweat, and tears that went into the making of Melvin's pioneering effort.

40

Empire Patrick Peters

This plays very much like a standard biopic, lacking the dangerous spirit of the movie that inspired it.

30

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

While the younger Van Peebles certainly looks the part, Baadasssss! never feels like anything more than kids playing dress-up.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Chad S. gave it a7:
"Badasssss!" uses an ongoing oral history as told by the actors, but it's doubtful anybody would have minded if the filmmaker borrowed "American Splendor['s]" technique of using actual documentary footage within the film's narrative. Better yet, tell the story sans running commentary. In spite of this distraction, "Badassss!" tells an important truth about independent film; that it wasn't John Sayles who followed in the immediate footsteps of John Cassavettes. "Sweetback's Badassss Song" preceeded "The Return of the Secaucus Seven" by nine years. Ironically, however, this movie will probably age better than the revolutionary film that inspired it. No disrespect. The same thing would happen if somebody made a film about Lizzie Borden("Born in Flames").

Dan S. gave it a 9:
This film is a very honest, funny, badass look at a part of film history I had no idea of. In that way, this movie is a huge amount like Ed Wood, in that I'm sure if you know and love the subject of the movie, you will enjoy it that much more (being a a hardcore Ed Woodian, I was laughing to the point of tears through that movie while everyone else was just shaking their head). Because of this, not all of this movie was as reasonant to me, and some of it felt a little "inside", as I maybe had to have known a little more about Sweet Sweetback and Melvin Van Peebles. It is not always clearly depicted, for instance, if Melvin was truly making the movie to be revolutionary, or if he was just a rather obsessed guy trying to find a way into the movie industry while seemingly forgetting about his kids and family. This matters little, as the movie is very entertaining, with lots of things that show why real life is often more crazy than anything made up (the secretary putting a loaded gun in the prop box by accident, for example). Mario just drips cool throughout the whole movie, and is one of the best performances of the year. The ending is very touching and joyful, and make sure to stay for some of the real people depicted in the film in the credits. Now the only problem for me is trying to find a copy of Sweet Sweetback's Baadassss Song!

Spongeee gave it a 10:
This movie was totally badasss!!! It was excellent on all levels, from story, techs, acting, music, message, etc. Watch it!

Vince H. gave it an 8:
It seems that Van Peebles really tried hard to make this as accessible and mainstream a "indie" film as possible. Really funny at times, but mostly enthralling & captivating as we watch Van Peebles and his extraodinary attempts to make his film a reality. Just as insightful a chronicle of a filmmaker's obsession as Chris Smith's "American Movie", this is a definite must-see. I am very surprised as well that all the studios in Hollywood (the indies too) passed on this film. It has the possibillity to crossover in the regular market.

Paul W. gave it a 9:
With beening a huge Blaxploitation fan I really looked forward to seeing this film and it did not let me down at all. The film did start a little slow but you can only get caught up in the story of man who faced so many barriers to getting HIS film made from film companies and even getting staff to help him film it. A wonderful film if you want to see how you can achieve any thing in life if you believe in it.

Mark B. gave it an 8:
Like father, like son: Director/co-writer/star Mario Van Peebles has made a weirder-than-fiction, warts-and-all account of how his dad, Melvin Van Peebles, scraped together the legendary 1971 classic of Black cinema, Sweet Sweetback's Baaadasssss Song that deserves to reach at least the same level of cult status that the original did. Engrossing and often very, very funny, Baaadasssss! is at times reminiscent of Tim Burton's delightful Ed Wood, the obvious difference being that Mario is saluting a filmmaker making a GOOD movie on a goose-egg budget. Like Ed Wood, Baaadassss! excels in its depiction of a fringe filmmaking community; it enjoys and revels in each cast and crew member's individual quirks and foibles but also celebrates them coming together as a family under fire. (I know I shouldn't have, but at least once I was also reminded of those old Mickey Rooney-Judy Garland "Hey, my uncle's got a barn! Let's put on a show!" musicals, which is probably not an association that Mario or Melvin had in mind.) Given how corrosive Sweetback's criticism of the White community was in its day, and how many White moviegoers and critics were offended by it, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised at how fairminded Mario is toward his film's Caucasian characters: the producers and Hollywood types (Vincent Schiavelli, Sal Rubinek) who question the logic of some of Melvin's decisions are shown to make some valid and legitimate points, and Melvin's hippie business partner (Rainn Wilson) is probably the nicest, sweetest character in the whole film. Mario lets these actors steal every scene they're in, but he has nothing to feel insecure about: playing his sometimes destructively stubborn, principled-but-unprincipled father, the younger Van Peebles delivers one of the two or three best acting performances of this movie year (and looks so good smoking a cigar that he could set antismoking efforts back to BEFORE 1971!) Sadly, this played in an arthouse in my city for only a week, and I wish they'd shown it just a little earlier in the year: despite the fact that Mario still obviously harbors some mixed feelings about Sweetback's production (and the role he played in it at age 13), I can't think of a more loving Father's Day gift than the one that Mario has given Melvin.

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