review for American Pimp on AllMovie

In this era of hip-hop ubiquity and voracious recycling of the past, blaxploitation chic has so permeated music, TV, films, and fashion that pimp mythology is sometimes difficult to put aside. In their first documentary foray, however, Menace II Society filmmakers Albert Hughes and Allen Hughes use this pop-culture lens as a point of departure, contrasting their outrageous collection of interview subjects with historical footage and Hollywood clips. The result is a film as disturbing and thought-provoking as it is humorous and wildly entertaining. Like many documentaries about controversial topics, American Pimp walks a fine line between presenting its subjects unflinchingly and glorifying their sometimes despicable actions and beliefs. In fact, given the self-aggrandizing fashions and mannerisms adopted by both the media's imagined, archetypal pimps and their real-life counterparts, it would be difficult to make a film about the subject that couldn't be accused of promoting the lifestyle. Yet the contradictions in the pimps' own stories provide a subtle layer of subtext, lacing the men's breezy narratives of money, power, and respect with an undercurrent of self-delusion and at least a modicum of gender equity. One pimp ends up in prison; another marries his final whore and becomes a suburban telemarketing manager. The notion that pimping is just a mirror image of American capitalism is carried out in the men's hunger for money and their constant allusions to "the game." Some of the film's plentiful laughs are the result of ironic cross-cutting, but most come from the "I can't believe he just said that" school. When one pimp, discussing his code of ethics, declares proudly that he's never stolen anything "but a bitch's mind," the line is as likely to provoke disgust as it is laughter. Unfortunately, though, actual women are in short supply in American Pimp, and interviews with prostitutes few and far between. For a movie that raises such interesting questions about representations of black men in the American media, the film could have used a few more conversations with real-life women. As is, however, American Pimp sheds light on an aspect of our culture so pervasive yet hidden that it's worth seeing just for the chance to hear these men speak out. As with most documentaries, the film itself is only the beginning of the conversation.