Inspired by Blaxploitation cinema and the grimy, post-New Hollywood crime films of Martin Scorsese and Abel Ferrara, Hype Williams’s Belly follows two low-level criminals from Queens, Tommy (DMX) and Sincere (Nas), whose lives spiral out of control when they attempt to enter the heroin trade, putting them on the radar of authorities and rival gangs. The increasing danger all around the two friends changes them in divergent ways, with one sinking ever deeper into the morass of serious crime and the other contemplating getting out before it’s too late.
Throughout the film, Williams filters his cinematic influences through the techniques that he picked up as a music video director for countless hip-hop and R&B artists. Belly arranges a relatively simple narrative but approaches it through images that emphasize as much visual information as possible over strict shot-to-shot coherence. Extreme variations in color timing delineate locations via, say, the stark white of Tommy’s lavish pad from the earth tones of Sincere’s home, the latter of which are suggestive of a more reflective personality. Many shots are bathed in blue and red hues that better capture the gradients of the actors’ skin tones, while the use of slow motion and dissolves heightens the intensity of guns being drawn or blood spilling out of torsos.
The aesthetics of commercially ascendant hip-hop inform all of Belly’s interior scenes; in the place of the worn, filthy look of, say, Scorsese’s Mean Streets are surfaces so polished that they sparkle with reflected light. But the film’s gleaming, intoxicating glimpses of wealth are regularly set against neighborhoods rotting from economic and developmental neglect—all rusted chain-link fences and stained concrete. Around every corner is a reminder that the seeming upward mobility of the characters is paid for by the continued immiseration of areas already rundown by the pointed disregard of civic leaders and lack of infrastructure money.
Like many a noir and neo-noir before it, Belly boasts dialogue that so bluntly spells out character motivations and overriding themes that the directness loops around into a kind of abstract poetry. As Sincere in particular grows disgusted by the escalating violence around him, he speaks more and more philosophically. “I don’t feel a need to play the whole part in the entire movement,” he says at one point. “But if you just raise your family right, if I just live righteously, I’ll be alright. My whole life is dedicated to change.” Compared to the immolating guilt that characterizes so much crime cinema, Williams’s film resolutely believes in finding a better path, culminating in both of the main characters seeking their own form of peace.
Image/Sound
The heightened color grading and ample shadows of Malik Sayeed’s cinematography are utterly gorgeous on Lionsgate’s Dolby Vision-boosted 4K disc. Detail is consistently sharp and filmic grain is evenly distributed, and the UHD also reveals subtle gradations of contrast that were never before visible on earlier home video editions of the film. Low-light scenes look more richly dark than the prior Blu-ray while also making more elements of the frame visible. A Dolby Atmos mix opts for immersion over assault, widely spreading sound effects and soundtrack cues across all channels for an enveloping mix that never opts for mere crescendos of volume.
Extras
Lionsgate ports over the same supplements from their 2008 Blu-ray, most notably a commentary by Hype Williams, who thoroughly breaks down his creative choices and the film’s themes. A series of shorts lumped into the 39-minute “Spoken Word” stages small scenes with community theater actors and other performers riffing on specific quotes and broader ideas from the feature film. There’s also a deleted scene with additional footage from the opening strip club sequence, as well as the Williams-directed music video for DMX’s “Grand Finale.”
Overall
Hype Williams’s cult noir looks more eye-popping than ever on Lionsgate’s UHD.
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