GetOut Magazine

Other director Lee rolls into the ’70s
By CRAIG OUTHIER
Get Out

One must wonder what Spike Lee makes of Malcolm D. Lee, his less famous and eminently less controversial cousin. In terms of artistic temperament, the two filmmakers offer stark contrasts. Malcolm's movies (“Undercover Brother,” “The Best Man”) are unburdened and beatific, less serious than a hiccup. Spike's movies are hardly that.

Malcolm's latest effort is “Roll Bounce,” and to Spike, it must look and feel a bit like kryptonite. Set in 1970s Chicago, the movie glides by on a blissful summertime cloud of roller-skating, disco lights and teenage nostalgia. It's weightless but spirited; comfort food for the cinematically undernourished.

Pint-sized rapper Bow Wow (“Johnson Family Vacation”) is affable and alert as Xavier Smith, a roller-skating middle-class teenager on Chicago's South Side. Attached to a tattered pair of skates given to him by his now-deceased mother, X and his four skate-whiz buddies (played by Brandon T. Jackson, Rick Gonzalez, Marcus T. Paulk and Khleo Thomas) are forced to migrate northward when their neighborhood rink shuts down.

At the swanky Sweetwater Roller Rink — a gleaming citadel of hot pants, Afros and pure '70s cheese — X and the boys discover girls, competition (“Drumline” star Nick Cannon has a brief, unfunny role as a roller-skating Lothario) and the creepily catchy stylings of something called “the Bee Gees.” Screenwriter Norman Vance Jr. (“Beautyshop”) never veers off formula: There's an obligatory “roller jam” skate-off, and an arrogant nemesis named Sweetness (Wesley Jonathan) whom X will inevitably challenge for dominance. Jonathan (“Unlawful Entry”) is poetry on wheels, but the character — flanked by a gaggle of polyester-wearing protégés — is asinine, and comes perilously close to puncturing the movie's buoyant charm.

“Roll Bounce” isn't all bell-bottoms and boogie; X must confront his mother's death and reconcile with his out-of-work, overtaxed father (the excellent Chi McBride from “Boston Public”) to earn the spiritual merit necessary to perform at his very best. In the end, he learns that most valuable of lessons: There's no problem in the world that some smooth skating and hot grooving can't solve.