Super-saturated color, wide-angle lenses, endless filters, oddball angles—music-video auteur Hype Williams only made one standalone feature film, but it still stands out. DMX and Nas star as the kind of around-the-way gangstas they rapped about, the former escalating into the drug game, the latter turning to Self-Improvement. Subtle it is not, and the plot is coconuts, but the visuals define an era. -Lee Gardner
1998 Hype Williams 1.85:1 Color DCP 96 min.
