Kevin Hart: What Now?
HOW DOES KEVIN HART TRANSFER LIVE ENERGY TO TWO-DIMENSIONAL SCREEN?
‘Stop making me feel tall,” says Kevin Hart to a cheering sold- out arena in his hometown of Philadelphia.
The joke is that at 5’4” Hart is hardly statuesque by stereotypical mal e standards. But then, the joke isn’ t really at his expense. Behind the comic, his image is projected on screens as tall as small apartment buildings, as he celebrates being the first comedian to sell out a stadium.
Looming while laughing from these screens, Hart’s height gag doesn’t ring with any real selfdeprecation, but an assured confidence. He knows the joke will land well in front of some 50,000- plus fans. And based on the cuts to the audience, it does. But it’s the translation of his humour to the screen that proves a bit trickier.
Billed as a “standup film,” What Now? pushes the limits of what constitutes, well, film. Yes, there are moving images that were recorded and then projected on a screen. But in terms of style, directors Leslie Small and Tim Story are shackled to the movements of the man on the stage and stuck with the near impossible task of capturing that indefinable feeling of alive event: the sensation of evoking t he place, presence and distinct moment that the show unfolds.
Hart isn’t the first to capitalize on this live- to- tape format, as multiplexes now offer the likes of The Met: Live in HD or the Bolshoi Ballet without having to venture as far as Russia. And, of course, all for a fraction of the price.
This price-point ac- cess has a democratizing ring to it: harder- to- access art forms can now be livestreamed i nto a t heatre near you. But stream is the operative word, as I’ve yet to see a screen experience that evokes the live immersive one. Each “live” production only ever reinforces that the stage uses a different language than film, one where close- ups, reverse shots and framing aren’t considered.
What Now? tries to circumvent this stage-to-screen issue with a framing device: a 15- minute fictional bumper. After a James Bond-inspired credit sequence, onscreen text promises the backstory of how Hart’s record- breaking show almost didn’t take place.
Enter Hart, posturing as the 007 agent, who gets involved in a winner take- all poker match, aided by real life Bond Girl ( and, you know, Oscar winner) Halle Berry.
As an onscreen duo, the two banter and bicker, and Berry goes toe to toe with Hart’s manic pacing. Once at the card table, Hart faces competition with the likes of Don Cheadle, and things take a turn toward a roast. Hart launches into a full- on attack on Cheadle, goading him for his insecurities about being the “black Iron Man” and wondering about “vacancies at Hotel Rwanda.”
By the time this playful prelude wraps with Berry sending Hart out on stage to let the standup begin, the show feels flat. Cutting between close- ups of Hart and audience reactions, the film’s pacing slips into the conventionally mundane. While the intro was far from a master class in cinematography, its flashy style nailed the spoof genre and further allowed Hart to do what he does best: play off his co-stars.
Hart’s real charm is in his energy, which feels as though it shouldn’t be possible to contain in a body of his size. Next to other actors, it looks like every atom in his body is vibrating at a higher frequency.
His delivery never slows and his expressions never diminish. On stage, live, this might be conveyed, but even with a multi- camera setup and fancy l i ghting, what makes Hart great onscreen doesn’t translate in a flattened screen scenario.
Then there’s the content of the standup itself. While the Black Bond opening was suggestive of potentially subversive material, Hart instead leans toward safe, occasionally just mean, material: raccoon jokes, baddad j okes, dumb- women jokes, duping-his-kids jokes, a few rape jokes and ending with Starbucks jokes. In t he moments where Hart l ets l oose with his impressions, especially of his children and father, it feels like something’s there. But overall during his standup, the directors never manage to capture Hart’s ... well, heart. Ω
HIS DELIVERY NEVER SLOWS AND HIS EXPRESSIONS NEVER DIMINISH.