anywhereisbetter

Bow Wow and the Crew.

When I woke up on Saturday morning, going to see a movie starring Bow Wow seemed about as likely as getting hit by the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile. The only thing I might have considered less likely than watching a Bow Wow movie‚ or coming mouth-to-bumper with a giant hot dog, for that matter‚ was watching a Bow Wow movie and actually enjoying it. But Saturday night, through a series of events having nothing to do with processed meats, one of these two scenarios was realized: I went to see Roll Bounce, and I loved it.

If you don’t know the synopsis already‚ I didn’t until about an hour before showtime‚ Roll Bounce is about a group of teenagers from the ghetto with dreams of winning the big roller disco competition at the fancy rink on the other side of town. Bow Wow, all-growns-up and no longer known as “Lil,” plays Xavier (X to his friends), the group’s best skater and de facto leader. Set in the late-70′s, the film features a soundtrack stuffed full of soul and funk classics, with the occasional Bee Gees song thrown in to whiten up the mood.

X is a good kid with a less-than-ideal life. His mother has recently died, and the family hasn’t quite learned how to adjust to life without her. For X, this means new responsibilities around the house‚ most notably in helping to raise his sister‚ and a strained relationship with his well intentioned but still-grieving father. And like any other kid in his early teens, X is making other new and awkward strides toward adulthood, too. He’s dealing with girls, building an identity for himself, and learning to take chances and deal with the potential of failure. To X, roller skating is a mechanism for these strides, as well as an outlet for frustration and passion.

But let’s get this straight‚ Roll Bounce ain’t The Ice Storm. While the movie does touch on a number of important and difficult issues such as racism, classism, adulthood, and financial hardship, the film makes no attempt to answer‚ or even really comment on‚ these issues. For X and his friends, the roller rink is a kind of training ground, a mini version of a larger, tougher world occasionally hinted at throughout the film. For the rest of us, the roller disco might not be the answer to a world filled with hardship, but it’s a place we can go for a temporary respite from it. After all, this is a movie about roller disco. The film’s swirling, funky roller dance sequences are the cinematic equivalent of an 80-mile-per-hour ride in a convertible with disco ball headlights, and laughing at Saturday Night Fever style and attitude may never get old. It stays light without too much fluff, and stops now and again to remind us that all this fun takes place in a world where people have problems bigger than respect on the rink.

Bow Wow’s role in Roll Bounce is not a particularly taxing one, and it is most likely for this reason that he is able to carry the film. He gets a lot of help from Chi McBride, playing his reticent and subtly aching father, and Wesley Jonathan’s presence as the roller disco legend Sweetness is simultaneously imposing and comical. But there is an undeniable charm about Bow Wow that extends beyond his limitations as an actor and helps tie the film together. I don’t know how it might translate to other roles, but they are certainly taken advantage of here.

So there you have it: I loved Roll Bounce. It just goes to show that anything really can happen. And I’ll tell you something‚ from now on, I’m going to keep a much closer eye out for runaway oversized snack food.