Looking Back at ‘Belly’
What is it that’s so enduring about this Hype Williams feature?
by Craig D. Lindsey
Nineteen years ago, I reviewed Belly for a local alt-weekly, and while I don’t remember what I said verbatim, I do remember saying it was akin to eating Chinese food: you get full as hell off of it, but after an hour or so, you don’t remember what the hell you consumed. (I also got a couple of angry letters from people complaining about how I said one Jamaican character has an accent “as thick as Jennifer Lopez’s ass.”)
And yet, like most hip-hop-fueled, black movies that came out during the ’90s, Belly, which can be currently streamed on Tribeca Shortlist, has become a beloved hood classic. If you get caught bad-mouthing Belly, fans will drag you for it. Black on Black Cinema, one of my favorite podcasts, devoted an episode where the hosts broke down why this movie makes no freakin’ sense. And, of course, they got slammed by Belly diehards in the comments section. But there are contrarian writers who have given proud props to the movie these past few years. Even film critic Nick Pinkerton wrote that Harmony Korine was cribbing from Belly when he made Spring Breakers. (Since Belly features a scene of Korine’s film debut Gummo playing on a TV, I guess Korine wanted to show love to the flick.)
But I welcome any Belly fan, white or black, to give me a proper description of what the movie is about. Sure, the general gist is that it’s about lifelong friends Sincere and Buns (played by rappers Nas and DMX, making their motion-picture debuts), making a living as street criminals. Of course, one of them — Sincere — longs for a life outside of crime, while Buns wants to keep making paper illegally.
But, as far as what happens in the film beat-by-beat, it’s just a whole bunch of stuff that gets piled on one after the other. Along the way, we have T-Boz from TLC as Sincere’s concerned girl, Method Man as a gun-for-hire, Tyrin Turner — Caine from Menace II Society — as a bitter, banana-eating drug dealer with a perm and Coke-bottle glasses, a lot of vivid shootouts and a not-bad soundtrack.
Belly is the first (and, so far, only) film from Hype Williams, who directed many a visually stunning music video back in the day. In the ’90s, Williams was The Man to call if rappers wanted some artistic flair in their videos. He helmed many of the decade’s most memorable hip-hop videos: Nas’s “If I Ruled the World,” Busta Rhymes’s “Woo-Hah!! Got You All in Check,” The Notorious B.I.G.’s “Big Poppa,” Missy Elliott’s “The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly),” 2Pac and Dr. Dre’s “California Love.” Next to Spike Jonze, there wasn’t a music-video director who was more inventive, influential and in-demand back then. So, much like Jonze, Hollywood was ready to get Williams behind the camera for a full-length feature.
There was talk that he would direct the big-screen version of Fat Albert, which eventually came out in 2004 and starred veteran SNL cast member Kenan Thompson in the title role. But he dropped out of that project sometime in the mid-to-late ’90s. Williams has a gotten a rep for almost getting major studio productions off the ground. He was one of the many filmmakers considered to direct Speed Racer, which the Wachowskis would eventually helm, and later failed to get the zombie thriller Thrilla made over at Disney. He was supposed to direct the sexual thriller Lust, penned by Joe Eszterhas, but that was SIX YEARS AGO!
His only big-screen credit is writing and directing this flick, which is basically a ghetto version of Mean Streets. And, according to this 2008 oral history, Belly was a bitch to make, with Williams doing everything from going overbudget to constantly slicking down the actors with baby oil to get what DMX called “this shiny look.” Williams, who worked with longtime Spike Lee cinematographer Malik Hassan Sayeed on the film, definitely went all out visually, coming with the same glowing color palettes and unique camera shots that he used to drop in his videos. However, as far as the plot goes, which he conceived with Nas and Anthony Bodden, it’s practically incomprehensible. The movie often seems like a very colorful, sativa-enhanced dream some drug kingpin is having in his traphouse.
But despite its head-scratching narrative, Belly gets a hood pass, mainly because it’s a hood movie. Yes, if a black filmmaker makes a film with a black cast, mostly taking place in a black setting, that movie will usually get accepted by the black, moviegoing public, whether it’s good or not. (See any Tyler Perry movie.) Sometimes, we get so excited to see ourselves on the big screen, we’re willing to overlook that the movie has some (or, sometimes, a lot) of problems. And Belly is definitely one of those films. But there are still many visually amazing moments that make the movie still watchable (the slo-mo opening sequence, set to the a capella vocals from Soul II Soul’s “Back to Life,” is still is a marvel to behold). Watching Belly again makes you wish that Williams would get off his talented ass and make another film that’s as stylish and awe-inspiring as his flawed but flashy, first film was.
