Summary - Really Great 4.5

Barbershop: The Next Cut should be a Best Picture contender but won’t be. Not because it’s black, because it’s a comedy. Comedies get no respect from the Academy. Can I get a witness? Somebody?

While LOL funny, Barbershop 3 is not your ordinary comedy. Instead, it bridges several paradoxes.

• Intellectually honest, while being extremely arch
• Serious as a Saturday-night-special, while being piss-your-pants hilarious
• Occasionally sappy, while always keeping it real

Black lives matter, so black-on-black violence is naturally the central concern of the dozen or so 2016 African-Americans in Barbershop 2016. Police violence doesn’t enter the picture, not because it never happens, but because black-on-black violence happens so damn much more. That’s honesty. That’s #Truth.

Common speaks his Sharpton shit, but the reality around him – even in this arch comedy – belies his lament. Police violence isn’t what’s killing kids in Chicago. Community crime is, same as everywhere.

Speaking of truth, it’s natural that an intact nuclear family – complete with a father and mother, but most especially a father – would seek to pursue the best interests of their family. That’s entirely true, sane and good. The problem is that there are too few fathers in the hood, an epidemic condition the movie notes.

Director Malcolm D. Lee deserves award consideration, as does Kenya Barris & Tracy Oliver’s screenplay.

Their joint is star-fired, mostly by Cedric the Entertainer & Nicki Minaj, but also Ice Cube, Anthony Anderson, Eve, J.B. Smoove & Common. Cedric & le Minaj slay comedically and sexually, respectively.

Barbershop 2016 captures the zeitgeist of urban America better than anything any of the 2016 presidential contenders are peddling. The Academy may not consider that Best Picture material, but I certainly do.

Acting - Great 4.0

Main Guys

Ice Cube’s character is now the paterfamilias and sole proprietor of a community barbershop on the South Side of Chicago. Cube may have come Straight Outta Compton, but he’s become a legit Mr. Hollywood, with the Barbershop franchise a major feather in his cap. He’s learned to modulate his trademark anger, making him a simmering presence and legitimate moviestar.

Cedric the Entertainer slays as an elderly barber of uncertain hand but deadly wit. Cedric is consistently one of the funniest actors to appear in any movie ever. The guy is money funny, consistently & hilariously.

Common uses his trademark earnestness and cover-model looks as an upright husband & father sorely tempted by Nicki Minaj. Sorely tempted!

Other Guys

• J.B. Smoove is pleasantly over-the-top as a wheeler-dealer name of One Stop.
• Anthony Anderson fulfills a fill-in role as a catering entrepreneur.
• Lamorne Morris is slyly engaging as a non-macho barber.
• Tyga doesn’t have to stretch to play a local gangsta.
• Deon Cole plays a guy with a minimal-filter to great effect.
• Michael Rainey Jr. is appealing as Ice Cube’s teen son.
• Troy Garity – son of Jane Fonda & Roger Vadim – effectively plays a white guy in the hood.

Gals

• Regina Hall is lovely and engaging as Ice Cube’s wife and partner. She runs the beautyshop side.
• Eve is glamorous and convincing as stylist to the stars and wife of Common.
• Nicki Minaj steals the show as a sexpot with eyes for Eve’s man.
  • Nicki Minaj is the Marilyn Monroe for the hip hop generation.

Cameos

• Anthony Davis – better known as the Brow – makes an appealing cameo as himself, triggering some younger barbers to spontaneously hug him, so powerful is their bromance for this NBA star.
• Reggie Brown’s President Obama makes an entertaining cameo at the end.

Film - Really Great 4.5

Mostly a drawing-room comedy done to a T, including the battle-of-the-sexes by having the Beauty-shop share space with the Barbershop.

Edge - Sordid 2.7

The Obamas aren’t going to allow Barbershop 2016 to play on movie night at the White House. Hell no. The carnal speculation about the first black POTUS is not something any father would want to experience with his wife, let alone his daughters. Oh no they didn’t? Oh yes they did.

Sexxy, with Nicki Minaj husband-stealing from Eve, things are naturally very hot. Cedric the Entertainer is characteristically off the hook as a man who speculates on everyone's sex life. Cedric is an all-time great comedian who can also act.

Reality - Glib 1.3

Barbershop 2016 deserves major props for dealing forthrightly with the wave of violence that has fallen upon black neighborhoods like the South Side of Chicago. Want to know about the real thing? Heather Mac Donald’s City Journal piece of April 19 entitled Chicago’s Crime Explosion lays out the sorry story.

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