Well, hey all you cool cats and kittens.
I'm sorry. While I'm typing this, my wife has on Dancing With the Stars in the background and none other than Carole Baskin has just been introduced. You know Carole, she of "Tiger King antagonist who sure seems like she killed her husband" fame.
Let's get this thing back on course.
I'm back for a second week in a row, and this week's Thursday Movie Picks, hosted by Wanderer at Wandering Through the Shelves, is about The Band. What band? Ya know, the band. Let's see what bands we find.
Fear of a Black Hat
(1993)
The Band: N. W. H. (Niggaz Wit Hats)
This is an underseen and underrated hip-hop mockumentary. Of course, the name of the band chronicled plays heavily on that of another famous band. Some of the situations were inspired by them, as well. We get an unflinching, but still loving lampooning of the culture as it was in the early 1990s. Kudos to director, star, and writer Rusty Cundieff. When I say writer, I don't just mean he wrote the screenplay. He also wrote the lyrics for every song in the movie. Wow.
CB4
(1993)
The Band: CB4
CB4 is the higher profile cousin of Fear of a Black Hat. Released in the same year, it takes a more traditional route to comedy and does a straight up parody of the band that inspired it. Coincidentally, it's the same band. Also coincidentally, it also has lots of mockumentary elements. Another thing it has in common with Fear of a Black Hat: it's uproariously funny.
Straight Outta Compton
(2015)
The Band: N. W. A. (Niggaz Wit Attitudes)
Finally, twelve years after two movies used their meteoric rise as comedic fodder, the members of the actual group told their own story. It takes some of their most popular songs and brings them to life with all the angst and irreverence that made them one of the most revered and simultaneously hated acts of its era.
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