Review of Bodied (2018) by John M — 23 Jan 2019

It's more than just rhymes. So this is about a very white college kid named Adam (Calum Worthy). He is doing his college thesis on battle rap, and while doing some research, he gets challenged in the parking lot.

Turns out that he can turn a phrase on a dime, and he finds himself getting pulled into this lifestyle, for better or worse. Now this has been on my radar for over a full year now. I heard my critic friends talking extremely highly about it.

.. but I had zero means of actually watching it. I couldn't even rent it if I wanted to. Well, out of all the services out there, YouTube actually ended up landing the rights for it. I really wasn't ready to add another paid subscription to my monthly bills.

.. so I signed up for a free trial to their premium services and promptly cancelled it once the end credits rolled. Not surprisingly, this was produced by Eminem; a young man who looks like he could be in the Gleeson family, and he just so happens to battle rap, who else do you think would be backing this? This is a very tight package of a film, and if you have any sort of love for rap and/or hip-hop, this will have a whole additional layer for you.

The commentary here is well thought out and pointed, and even though I will say that I think that Blindspotting did it better, this covers similar ground and the two movies combined would make for one of the best double features you could possibly put together.

Another element I feel really works is in this is the editing; there's so much extra that didn't have to be there, like the hand trace visuals that follow character movement, or the fact that it shows win-loss ratios at the bottom of the screen like it is a boxing movie.

It gives it that extra bit of pizzazz, and when you break it down, what these rappers are doing in this isn't all that different than a heavyweight fight. They are all going blow for blow, and the crowd recognizes when they have just witnessed a knockout.

Bodied plays on stereotypes, but I would say in the best way possible. The story explores an entire subculture, and one of the most interesting elements I found about it was how respect works in these warehouses.

Once that line is crossed, you can identify it almost immediately, and it makes the tension ratchet up to the next level when it happens because you know it can get violent when it is done against the wrong performer.

The rhymes are clever, and it ranges from laugh out loud funny to "he/she just said WHAT". This is a really good little film, and it is worth doing a free month trial on YouTube Premium to watch it.