The Tenants

As a man who enjoys the raw power and honesty of a Snoop Dogg performance, this movie was perfect for me. My friends and I rented the movie solely because Snoop Dogg was on the cover, and Snoop did not disappoint. The movie is filled with Snoop intensive scenes where he is afforded the opportunity to display his dominant personality.

Despite Snoop Dogg's immaculate performance, other actors within the movie, as well as the story itself contained some unattractive qualities. Regarding the lead actor, Dylan McDermott's portrayal of Harry Lesser was too dramatic and unrealistic. I cannot find that kind of depression and seriousness in my real life experiences. The depressive nature of his character may in fact be the fault of the author and not the actor. At many times, the characters of The Tenants would act irrationally and contrary to real life behavior.

Overall, the story and the actions taken by the characters were not as believable as I would have liked them to be. Nevertheless, I have yet to see a bad Snoop Dogg performance in any of his films. I stand by my initial instincts to rent the movie because he was on the cover.

THE TENANTS began as a 1971 short novel by the now deceased Bernard Malamud - writer/philosopher - examining the conflicts between Jews and African Americans in the incendiary atmosphere of Brooklyn at the time the book was written. As a novel the story was gut wrenchingly real: as transcribed into a screenplay by novices David Diamond and Danny Green (who also directs) it is more of a cerebral dissertation that gradually erupts into action in the final moments.

Harry Lesser (Dylan McDermott) is a Jewish novelist with one book under his belt but currently attempting to finish his 'newest' book ten years into the writing. Convinced that he must complete the novel in the same environment where it was started. he is the sole tenant in a condemned Brooklyn tenement owned by Levinspiel (Seymour Cassel) who constantly tries to 'buy out' Harry's lease so that the filthy dilapidated building can be demolished. Into this atmosphere enters another Black militant quasi-anti-Semitic writer Willie Spearmint (Snoop Dogg) whom Harry befriends, hides, and offers help to the nascent novelist's attempt to write about the death of all white people. Harry's attempts to help Willie lead to conflict, not the least of which is Harry's meeting Willie's girlfriend, the white Jewish Irene Bell (Rose Byrne) at a less than friendly gathering of Willie's militant black brothers and sisters. Willie and Irene are on the skids and Harry gradually falls in love with Irene and they plan to leave New York as soon as Harry finishes his novel. When Willie hears of the assignation and is further critiqued by Harry, Willie explodes and begins the downward descent of not only a delicate friendship but also a competition between writers. The ending 'reveals the slippery nature of the human condition, and the human capacity for violence and undoing'.

The actors do their best with a script that is a bit awkward but despite scripted lines that border on preaching they create believable characters. The cinematography enhances the story, keeping the mood dank and dense and primarily confined to the condemned building. The musical score appropriately makes use of the solo jazz trumpet and blues piano to underline the tension and isolation of each of these groundless characters. Though it takes some patience to make it through the cerebral ramblings, the film in the end is worth watching. At least it attempts to recreate Malamud's bizarre look at life in the big city. Grady Harp

This movie sticks out in a good way. At first I thought Snoop was going to be a little cheesy,but He wound up winning everybody in the room watching it with me. I remember Snoop's in a mysterious room, and he just keeps writing. It appears or common sense would tell you that he's wasting his time, but the movie chugs along. It turns out he doesn't and Snoop then develops a cool relationship with Dylan McDermott. This movie was pretty much straight to DVD, and I thought it was a shame. In fact it was in the two dollar bin at blockbuster in a corntown, but we all needed to do something on a Friday night besides staring at the wall. I will say It's my favorite performance from McDermott and I really enjoyed Snoop in this role.

30 years ago (wow!) back in High School, I was a big fan of Bernard Malamud and read most of his works in Modern American Literature Class. But I didn't read The Tenants. So I looked forward to seeing The Tenants especially since my Cuzzin, Snoop Dogg is in it.

The Tenants is an excellent though simple story transformed into a very good screenplay. The problem, however, is the director. This movie feels like it was directed by a film student. It's directed in what I would call a "matter of fact" style which fails to develop a relationship between the characters. In fact, the characters seem just to be reciting lines. Despite that, the screenplay carries this movie well and it was certainly a movie I wanted to go back to and watch to the end on DVD.

The movie wasn't bad as everyone says, but it could of been made a little better, casting wise I do say. BUT... look at the way the movie LOOKS, the colors are very crisp and MAKES the picture stand out for that reason. The person or persons involved in that did an OUTSTANDING job. 10 out 10 for that, and as a filmmaker I would love to hire the people who were in charge of that. I sat through the film looking at it from that angle. It was done beautifully, it looked like it was shot on film (which it was I bet)but in the 70's era. I can't stress that enough, it looked so damn amazing, I began to think that it was shot in that era. Great job, bottem line.