GhettoPhysics
Radical Fringe Flick Breaks World Down to Pimp and Hos
GhettoPhysics: Will the Real Pimps and Hos Please Stand Up!
Rated R for profanity and sexual references.
Running time: 94 Minutes
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Films
Film Review by
Kam Williams
Very Good (3 stars)
Are you a pimp or a ho? You’re either one or the other according to E.
Raymond Brown, the writer, director and star of GhettoPhysics. Part
documentary, part illustrative melodrama, the purpose of this cynical flick
is to drive home the point that all human relationships are based on
exploitation, and that you’re always either pimpin’ or getting pimped. And
Mr. Brown makes it clear that it’s far better to be a pimp than a ho because
contrary to the suggestion made by the Oscar-winning song from the film
Hustle & Flow, it’s a lot harder out there for a ho than for a pimp.
This picture’s lexicon is laced with common street language employed in the
‘hood, but that is by design in order to break down some more complicated
economic relationships into layman’s terms. Thus, although the adventure
starts off with actual pimps and hos discussing the nature of their dirty
business, the production eventually gets around to making its case that hw
they interact is par for the course. This lesson is imparted with the help
of well known academic and political pundits such as former Congresswoman
Cynthia McKinney, Princeton Professor
Cornel West, and whistleblower John
Perkins, author of "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man."
The thrust of this incendiary expose’ is that "Capitalism is the biggest
pimp game" around, judging by how "President Bush was Dick Cheney’s bitch"
who invaded Iraq at the direction of the Vice President, a war profiteer
determined to filled the coffers of his former firm Halliburton. Frankly,
although director Brown’s thought-provoking thesis is initially intriguing,
this critic eventually found his dog-eat-dog deconstruction of the planet to
be frankly a little depressing,
Writer & director E. Raymond Brown (right)
Professor West stood out in my estimation for sounding a rare note of
optimism in the midst of a seemingly ubiquitous, omni-permeating symphony of
despair when he stated that the need is to "transform the gangsta
orientation to a more compassionate and decent one." His thinking contrasted
sharply with the conventional wisdom generally propagated here that, "You
get played and pimped if you’re naive."
The movie’s most sobering moment arrives via a quote from the late visionary
Bucky Fuller in a dire warning that "We’re at the point where we’re about to
find out whether humanity was a successful experiment of nature or just a
dead end." Is everybody really a pimp or a ho, or are there other choices
available to those of us who detest both alternatives?