Doc Watch: Man Men, Part I

Catching up in the queue on some hangers-on:

ART & COPY (2009) (B) - This solid, somewhat snobbish valentine to the advertising business, putting a shiny gloss on the industry's greatest hits.

Doug Pray ("Hype!," "Surfwise") goes a bit overboard with the artsy shots, and he overdoes the statistics that randomly flash on the screen. But he is faithful to the history of advertising. He celebrates the touchstones -- the Kennedy-era Volkswagen ads ("Think Small," "Lemon"), the memorable Mac campaign ("1984," "Think Different"), the Samsonite gorilla; "I Love New York." And the catchphrases: "Where's the beef?"; "I want my MTV!"; "Got milk?"; "Just do it."

We hear from some of the legends -- George Lois, Mary Wells. Lois created memorable Esquire covers, including Muhammad Ali shot through with arrows; Wells painted Braniff's airplanes and outfitted its sexy stewardesses. Hal Riney reveals how he recruited Paul Williams to write "We Only Just Begun" for a soft-focus, nostalgic bank commercial before it became a hit for the Carpenters.

It all zips by in an hour and a half, and Pray does an expert job of presenting the influential minds that molded and manipulated consumers for half a century.

RUBBLE KINGS (2010) (B-minus) - Clocking in under 70 minutes but barreling along at hyper speed, this tribute to the South Bronx gangs of New York in the 1970s celebrates the street kids who paved the way for hip-hop's explosion in the '80s.

Newcomer Shan Nicholson raids the archives, finding a huge trove of archival footage that re-creates the classic depressing mean streets of the era, diving deep into the trash, graffiti and abandoned buildings that defined the city. It's a stark reminder of the depths to which America's great city had sunk at the time.

Nicholson's hook shows up only in the second half of the film. These punks were second-rate mobsters acting out tired, cheap outtakes from "West Side Story." They were blacks and Puerto Ricans feuding over turf, from block to block. Eventually, they tried to make peace, and they found common ground in music -- finding a ragged mix of latin, rock and soul, inspiring break dancers and the like.

Talking heads whiz by so fast that it's difficult to keep track of who's who. Nicholson helps out by diligently repeating ID titles on the screen. Former leaders include engaging characters like Karate Charlie and Benji Melendez. The star of the show is Afrika Bambaataa (the former Kevin Donovan), an early pioneer in the areas of electronic music and hip-hop.

The early-MTV style of filmmaking creates an atmosphere of drive-by storytelling, and while you appreciate the efficient production, you get the feeling that he has only scratched the surface, telling only part of the story.

BONUS TRACKS
The Braniff commercial from the 1960s:



"Renegades of Funk," 1983: