Notorious

NOTORIOUS—The Biggie Smalls portrayed in George Tillman, Jr.'s picture is at turns charming, brilliant and utterly loathsome. Smalls, aka Notorious B.I.G., aka Christopher Wallace (played by newcomer Jamal Woolard), is a womanizing former crack-dealer who spends the film's 100 minutes trying to come of age, even as he becomes hip-hop's biggest star. It's a realistic-enough sounding portrayal of an obese rapper who rose from street corner drug peddling to superstardom to an early martyrdom at the hands of still-unknown shooters. Elsewhere, musical biopic traps abound—the turbulent loves, the friends who always come through, and the tormented mother who never lost hope. Even so, Woolard so deftly shows us all sides of B.I.G. that we appreciate Biggie Smalls not as a hero or a villain, but as a man. Rated R. —BR

Independent Weekly