Glenn here. I get the sense that I am not meant to have much of an opinion on The Best Man Holiday. I suspect that even to the filmmakers it was meant to do little more than make audiences feel good (as well as a little sad – oh gawd, the tears!!) and make money while not rocking the boat. And yet I come to this 14-years-later sequel to Malcolm D. Lee’s original The Best Man (1999) and find it one of the year’s most fascinating films in terms of the evolution of black cinema and filmmaking in general.
Oh sure, it’s a perfectly adequate movie. It’s certainly never truly great. There’s quite a bit of stuff here that makes no sense (two deus ex machinas in the span of ten minutes is a bit much), and I’m dubious about some of its politics in regards to female sexuality. It’s also too long. On that same day I had watched What’s Love Got To Do With It? for the next Team Experience poll and that one, a biopic about the life of Tina freakin’ Turner, was shorter than The Best Man Holiday! Nevertheless, by the end credits I had laughed, I had cried, and I felt like I’d revisited old friends that left me with a smile on my face. Even if as a gay, white, Australian, Hollywood probably doesn't think I should have any interest in it. [more]
And yet it’s not the quality of The Best Man Holiday that fascinates but the rather unique position it holds as emblematic of 14 years of change in the cinema form as well as representations of black people on screen. When The Best Man was released in 1999 it was filmed in 35mm that leant it a warm, cinematic appeal. The sequel, however, comes as the shift has well and truly been made to digital that lends it a high-gloss, TV-like quality. The Best Man opened in 1,346 cinemas in October 1999 and grossed $9mil on its way to $34.1mil. The Best Man Holiday opened in 2,024 cinemas and grossed $30.1mil in one weekend alone. The sequel made more on its opening day than the original did over its entire opening weekend. These are figures that box office commentators were “shocked!” and “surprised!” by, but I suspect those people never saw the trailer play in front of an actual audience. Do they not have any African Americans in their Twitter feed at least? This movie was destined to be huge!
The best men then and now
Even more interesting, is how the film is indicative of changes specifically in black cinema. Seemingly no longer having to fight for screens, distributor funds and niche audience appeal, The Best Man Holiday is a fine culmination of years of development that now sees films like Think Like a Man, 42, Lee Daniels’ The Butler, Tyler Perry’s productions and, hell, even Obsessed open on large numbers of screens to big box office. They are genuine, bonafide money makers with ancillary guarantees (being a Christmas movie certainly helps The Best Man Holiday) that frequently cost much less to make than other studio fare, which probably says a lot about the studio’s underestimation of the bankability of certain actors of color. Black mainstream films have been around for a long time, but even the best ones during the 1990s surge, had a ceiling. Set it Off, one of the best action flicks of the decade, didn’t even make $40 million!
Furthermore, The Best Man Holiday is an interesting look at the way black people are represented onscreen. No longer resigned simply to slave narratives, ghetto stereotypes and urban middle-lower class settings, a film such as The Best Man Holiday can now feature an ensemble of characters that are all rather well off – whether as a star footballer, a “Real Housewife of Westchester”, a TV executive – and who don’t have to confront racism or adversity like so many other films with primarily black casts. Rather it deals with topics like friendship, money, sex, death and religion without losing its identity as a crowd-pleaser. As star Terrence Howard described, “[the film shows] how much we need each other within our community”, and that is, I think, a very important voice to hear in film. Unlike queer cinema, which has more or less seceded to the arthouse, there's plenty of room to move in terms of scale for black cinema. Big glossy hits like The Best Man Holiday and Think Like a Man, mid-range successes like Love and Basketball, and independent works like Pariah and Middle of Nowhere? That's exciting variety even if Baggage Claim looks terrible beyond words.
I am not a scholar on black cinema, but I’ve always had an interest in it since there's so much to be learned from films made by and for minorities. The way they see themselves is infinitely fascinating. It’s probably why I continue to devote so much energy to gay and Australian cinema despite a never-ending roll call of people wanting to tell me 'it’s dead' and 'nobody cares'. It’s that reason why Lee Daniels is one of my favourite working directors, and why I constantly wish the likes of Spike Lee, F. Gary Gray and Jon Singleton would have major comebacks. They’re important voices that have told unique, wonderful, exciting, exhilarating, powerful stories in the past.
But back to The Best Man Holiday…
Look, it’s not Soul Food, still the holy grail of this (very broad, admittedly) genre. But, then again, nor is it trying to be Soul Food, which was authentic and real and, yes, soulful in a way that is hard to replicate outside of the 1990s. It’s closer in theme to Waiting to Exhale, which was also about old friends getting back together albeit a female-centric group. If the original The Best Man was a smooth, R&B jam then The Best Man Holiday is a slick hip-hop beat. It’s bigger and flashier. I missed the scrappiness of the original, the kind that can only come from people making a movie nobody really expects to hit it big. I wish the sequel didn’t look like it was filmed inbetween seasons of The Bachelor, but it’s a tearjerker that got my tears with relative ease and it will never not be amazing to see a dance routine set to New Edition’s “Can You Stand the Rain”.
And to end on a purely superficial note: surely this is one of the sexiest casts of 2013, right? Look at these people! I hope Morris Chestnut’s personal trainer got a hefty pay cheque.
Did you see The Best Man Holiday? It's not the sort of films we might typically discuss, but I'd love to hear from anybody that did. And what about its place in cinema? Am I over-reacting?