lcliffor@bbncca.ARPA (Laura Frank Clifford) (12/29/83)
I went to see Wild Style expecting to see a "documentary" (attached to a mindless plot) on New York's graffiti artists, rappers, and rap dancers. After all, this movies is advertised as having been a big hit in New York. I was sorely disappointed. Although this film contains many very talented street people (and Grandmaster Flash), they're presented out of their element. Graffiti artists are trying to act out a silly plot when we should be seeing a lot more of their subway art (which is terrific). There's far too much footage of rapper's performing (after all, rap isn't very visual) and far too little footage of the dancers that accompany rap (truly fantastic - a couple of them make Michael Jackson seem stuffy!). All in all, this film seemed long at 1 1/2 hours.