One of the blessings of working with young co-workers is that, just like ye olde days of my teaching career, I’m able to be more hip. Vincent, my Saturday comrade between two to four p.m., always hips me to the latest in rap. Because of him, I’ve become a Kanye fan and Tyler the Creator, too!
So in this wasteland of post Oscar nominations/rotten movies openings, I skipped over to see Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy at Hollywood 11. And, I loved it! Kanye, much like Serena and Venus’s dad Richard (see Will Smith’s amazing performance in King Richard), believed enough in his own destiny that he ram rod-ed his way into the music world. Coodie, his friend who had aspirations as a stand-up comic, but then decided to hop on the Kanye train and film his life, has a home movie amateurish sense of direction, but his editing skills are fire (as the kids say). And there’s something endearing about his homespun footage that is far more genuine and believable than other polished or stylized docs (think unfiltered photos vs. buffed).
Kanye’s relationship with his mother is perfection. She is (or sadly was, died at 58 after cosmetic procedures) a beacon of encouragement, hope and grounding that obviously served Kanye well.
I look forward to the next two installations and hope to see them on the big screen as well.
Jeen-yuhs: A Kanye Trilogy
