Susan Granger’s review of “Barbershop: The Next Cut” (Warner Bros.)
It’s been about a dozen years since we last visited Calvin’s Barbershop on Chicago’s South Side. Calvin Palmer (Ice Cube) and his longtime cohorts, including Eddie (Cedric the Entertainer) and Terri (Eve), are still there but there have been some major additions.
There’s Calvin’s teenage son Jalen (Michael Rainey Jr.) and Calvin’s best-friend Rashad (Common), along with dorky Jerrod (Lamorne Morris), son-of-Indian-immigrants Raja (Utkarsh Ambudkar), enterprising One-Stop (J.B. Smoove) and outspoken Dante (Deon Cole)
But most noticeably, the male bastion has gone co-ed. The ladies’ salon is managed by Angie (Regina Hall) with savvy Bree (Margot Bingham) and saucy Draya (Nicki Minaj), whose buttocks obviously fascinate cinematographer Greg Gardiner.
Functioning as the community’s social meeting-place, it’s where the timely issue of senseless, gang-affiliated neighborhood shootings is thrashed out. With the urgent threat of an ominous “enclosure” soon to be voted on by the city council, the crew decides to promote a 48-hour cease-fire – with free haircuts, weaves and styling for the weekend.
On the lighter side, there’s the inevitable war-of-the-sexes with its predictable gossip, squabbling about infidelity and enlightened riffing about gender stereotypes.
“It’s a comedy, but it’s a story that has heart – with all the gang violence that’s going on in Chicago, and the gun violence that’s going on around America,” notes rapper Common.
Working from a screenplay by Kenya Barris (ABC-TV’s “Black-ish”) & Tracy Oliver (“The Neighbors”), based on Ned Brown’s characters, it’s effectively directed by Malcolm D. Lee (“Best Man” series, “Undercover Brother”), Spike’s cousin.
FYI: New York-based playwright J.D. Lawrence, a.k.a. Ronald Dickerson, has filed an opportunistic lawsuit against the “Barbershop” franchise, claiming it ripped of his stage play “Scissors” set in a black barbershop, focusing on its importance in the local community. It’s curious why Lawrence waited all these years…perhaps to score a bigger payoff?
On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Barbershop: The Next Cut” is a snippy 7 – with relevant social commentary.
