Screen time
We’re now far enough away from its birth and saturated enough in its influence to warrant several screen histories of hip-hop. After Empire and Straight
Outta Compton comes The Get Down, set in The Bronx, 1977. This tale is the TV directorial debut of white Australian Baz Luhrmann, a surprising choice to story this culture. He weaves together two of his stylistic hits – the central love story is pure Romeo And Juliet, all extended party scenes summoning
Strictly Ballroom – with fairy-tale gloss. Most scenes look like a David Lachapelle photo. He intercuts bits of documentary footage from ’70s New York, turning them into something fantastical and sentimental (only occasionally a bit corny). So much sugar can be disquieting in the context of ghettos burning down, gang warfare and institutional racism. On the one hand, he reimagines some of the thrilling new urban poetry that sprung out of breakdancing, graffiti art and turntablism. On the other, from the first episode, he might be missing its true grit. The love-struck central teens are amazing and Luhrmann’s natural feel for screen joy, frivolity and glitz throws up scenes of magical escapism. But The Get Down looks remarkably like a Blaxploitation flick, the Black American experience that hip-hop overthrew. One question hangs over the project, start to finish. Why didn’t Spike Lee make it? Netflix, from Friday. For more, see our interviews, opposite