Something New
Picture: C+
Sound: C+ Extras: C Feature: C+
Sanna Hamri is the latest director to go from directing
concerts (Prince, Mariah Carey) and Music Videos (Prince, Mariah Carey,
Destiny’s Child, Jay-Z, Seal, Lenny Kravitz, Mary J. Blige, Sting) to dramatic
productions. Something New stars
Sanna Lathan (Alien Vs. Predator) as a young executive woman finding
some career success, but not in her personal life. Suddenly, an interesting young man (Simon Baker) comes into her
life and at first, she thinks nothing of him, but then finds him of interest.
The feeling is mutual, but because of their different skin
color, the persons around them (including her family and friends more concerned
with some form of high society and what others think) as well as their own
discomforts and prejudices. The idea of
the society and media’s built-in prejudice is never addressed, but the story is
not bad despite some predictability.
Blair Underwood plays the “other guy” those family and friends try to
set her up with, while Mike Epps, Donald Faison and Alfie Woodard help round
out a decent cast of actors. It may not
be a home run, but Miss Hamri has made a respectable debut and we can only hope
she will juggle more projects like this with her music-affiliated work.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image seems to have
been shot in digital High Definition video and does not look too bad, as lensed
by Shane Hurlbut. The soundtrack here
in both Dolby Digital and DTS 5.1 sound are very low and disappointing,
pointing to the low-budget roots of the production, but we have heard
monophonic films decades old get good sound remixes, so what when wrong
here? It is odd, but the DTS is the
best track by default. Extras are few,
including Blair Underwood intro and two featurettes. One is a making of piece, while the other is an amusing “do’s and
don’ts” segment.
- Nicholas Sheffo
