Bodied review: Music video director Joseph Kahn brings his battle-rap tale to 2018’s Arrow Video Frightfest.
Bodied review by Andrew Gaudion.
Bodied Review
You may be familiar with the name Joseph Kahn. If the name doesn’t ring a bell, there is still a good chance that you have seen some of his work. Kahn has made his name as one of the most prolific music video directors in the business, working with likes of Taylor Swift, Britney Spears, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and many more across his career (the ‘Toxic’ music video for Spears is a personal favourite).
As a feature director, he has never quite managed to breakthrough with a calling card, despite a visual style that is packed with incredible energy. His debut was the ‘Fast & Furious rip-off on motorbikes Torque back in 2004, and his follow-up, 2011’s Detention, is a bit of a mess, but a fascinating one nonetheless. Movie-making was a nut he just couldn’t seem to crack. That all looks like it’s set to change with his latest film Bodied, a wildly unique and whip-smart comedy drama that finally feels like his cinematic calling card.
Adam (Calum Worthy) is a graduate student looking to write his thesis on the use of racial language in battle rap. One night when he goes to see a battle live, he ends up battling himself and soon becomes hooked on the freedom of expression that battling grants him. However, he soon finds out that there are more consequences to his words than he initially anticipated.
Beyond 8 Mile, there isn’t a particularly a rich tapestry of movies focusing on battle-rap. Bodied assumes that there is a disconnect, and uses its characters as means in which to plunge the audience into the world of battle rap in order to unpack the stereotypes that surround it through exceptional sharp satire.
Following Adam as he goes deeper and deeper into this world, the film uses battle rapping as the canvas in which to explore boundaries of taste and cultural sensitivity in a manner which is consistently outrageous and terrifically perceptive. No one gets off lightly here, pretty much every character gets called out on their shit, be it in cases where they racially stereotype or forget to check their privilege, again in a fashion which is both hilarious and observant, examining a generation that is more aware of what is deemed offensive than any other before it.
Written by Alex Larsen, himself a rap performer from Toronto, there is a sense of authenticity to the battle raps themselves that comes from the incredibly well written verse and bars. The battles themselves provide the biggest moments of drama, often set up in a fashion akin to a boxing film. They can be funny, they can be painstakingly awkward, and they can be utterly devastating. The final act itself is made up of numerous extended battles, ones which bring the characters into conflicts that can be tense to the point of being unbearable to watch.
You only feel like you can’t watch these moments due to the fact that the characters are all incredibly layered, with complex arcs that often take you by surprise with their levels of depth and complexity. Worthy is a brilliant lead, turning in a level of intensity that really colours Adam’s arc as a dark descent, as he begins to complete strip away everything he once held value in. This gives Bodied’s satire a darker bite and a grander sense of stakes as we begin to see that everyone’s soul is on the line.
Its navigation of cultural representative and offensive language can often feel smug, and it is filled with moments where it is very much having its cake and eating it too. But Kahn’s exceptionally energised directing style, the razor sharp observations and surprisingly affecting arcs allow Bodied to rise from the crowd as an exceptionally funny and creative endeavour that demands your attention. A wildly original exploration of bad taste and cultural sensitivity.
Bodied review by Andrew Gaudion, August 2018.
Bodied screened as part of Arrow Video Frightfest 2018. Bodied will arrive on You Tube Premium later this year.
