[usr 4]
A progressive graduate student finds success and sparks outrage when his interest in battle rap as a thesis subject becomes a competitive obsession.
“Bodied” is a funny film about a literary graduate student named Adam (Calum Worthy), who obsessively frequents rap battles as a way to gain inside knowledge about the use of language in rap.
Adam is an ordinary white guy from a privileged life who is obsessed with underground rap battles. He attends the battles with hopes to get a better understanding of the language and get interviews about how and when to use the “N” word; all information he will use for his thesis. His politically correct girlfriend Maya (Rory Uphold), attends one battle rap with him, trying to understand his fixation and completely disapproves, telling him that this type of art is racist and misogynist. One night he gets the chance to talk to one of his favorite battle rappers by the name of Behn Grimm (Jackie Long). When Behn witnesses Adam’s interesting comeback skills when challenged by a rapper in the parking lot, he eventually takes Adam under his wing.
The movie starts off with Adam being interested in learning from Behn Grimm about the use of the “N” word, however, it progresses to Adam entering a battle after being invited and he accepts. He goes up against a well-known battle rapper, wins, and gains respect from the others. Adam struggles to balance his conservative world with the street environment and gets too caught up. It all backfires when Adam and Behn Grimm go up against each other and it gets personal and Behn Grimm cuts him off.
What is not believable, is how easily he is elevated and granted the opportunity to battle these well-known rappers that others would have to work hard to get. What is even more unbelievable is a scene where he gets invited to a private house party and one of the guys is caught with a rapper’s girlfriend. Guns are pointed everywhere and Adam just happens to come out alive after mouthing off to the guy with the gun! I find it hilarious that some outsider who just happens to frequent rap battles, gets a chance to just slide into the culture and be considered great because he knows how to form a few words.
When I saw this, I smelled Eminem all over it. Eminem is notorious for creating an image of the white outsider coming in and taking over a game that was created by black artists. I was not surprised when I found out he produced this film for that is his self-proclaimed story. Nevertheless, you are going to enjoy this movie because it is very funny and the interesting dynamics of it is the use of words and language coming from two different perspectives, that being academic and street. However, they still seem to work effectively when creating battles.
Some of the funniest scenes involve blatant racist, sexist, and homophobic jokes during the battles but they are written well and I doubt they will truly offend anyone. The characters that I thought played off Adam in the most comedic way was his father Professor Murkin (Anthony Michael Hall), and Dean Hampton (Debra Wilson). The scene where he is expelled from school had every last person in the theater laughing.
I felt like this film was a fun game of back and forth of who can play out the most phrases. Very creative, fun, and enjoyable. The cast did well together and the music and artistic talent were amazing, but the story is not in the least bit believable.
In theaters Friday, November 2nd
