Film Reviews

Biggie and Tupac

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Several years after Kurt and Courtney, documentary filmmaker Nick Broomfield returns to the world of music with Biggie and Tupac. This time around, the genre of music is 'gangsta rap', and the subject is the relationship between Christopher Wallace (AKA The Notorious B.I.G) and Tupac Shakur. Both rappers were gunned down within six months of each other, supposedly due to a bitter East / West coast rap war. Broomfield, however, believes there were facts hidden in the deaths of the two men, with the FBI and others involved in the slayings and subsequent cover-ups. Broomfield has consistently made entertaining, if not always truly informative or groundbreaking documentaries and he doesn't buck that trend with Biggie and Tupac. While he's all too eager to engage in conspiracy theories, there's also a measure of unintentional hilarity in his films, as things often go wrong, (Here, he runs out of tape at a crucial moment and is intimidated by big hitters in the rap industry). But as reasonably enjoyable as his films are, Broomfield seems to lack the necessary insight or skill to really get in touch with his subjects or indeed, the reasons for their actions, and that's the case with Biggie and Tupac.

Review by Garreth Murphy