DysFunktional Family Review

by Karina Montgomery (karina AT cinerina DOT com)
April 7th, 2003
DysFunktional Family

Matinee

Eddie Griffin uses the word "nigger" a lot. More than simply as a substitute for a proper noun or regular noun. It's almost a grace note in his speech, like a Valley Girl's "like" and "y'know" sprinklings. Some of it is urban patter, but he says himself that the more you use a word, the less power it has over you. It's jarring, to be sure, but by the end of this film, we two little white girls almost felt we could refer to each other using it in public safely. It's as if his whole standup routine, while wildly energetic and filled with kinetic movement and volume, was being delivered in a bar booth to his best bud from home. So if it made you wiggle to see it written once in this review, don't go!

Griffin's movie is mostly concert film, with snapshot moments of himself or his family inserted for emphasis. Some of his material comes from clear familial wellsprings. Other (like his very righteous segment on 9/11/01) feels so universal that it comes from everywhere. Overall, his material is more about race, spanking, drugs, sex, religion, and general people relations. Titling the film as if it were more focused on family (his or anyone's) is somewhat misleading, but the flashes of mom and Uncles (particularly the amateur pornographer) are a humbling vanity that adds depth to his stand-up routine. I'm not sure, ultimately, if he meant anything "deep" by it, but we don't know much about why he includes his family beyond the fact that they made him who he is today, for the good and the bad.

His keen wit, coupled with director George Gallo's sense of pacing and alternating stage and offstage material makes this more than a concert film. In one segment, we see Griffin regaling the audience with a tale about something his mother did when he was a child. At a backstage gathering, she is telling the same story from her perspective, but it is equally crazy, funny, and harsh. It's clear Griffin survived some of the things he did by finding the humor in them, but it's an extra bonus that he can get that across so smoothly.
Griffin's got a great stage presence, with well-worked material and a decpetively casual approach to what he's doing. He's also not afraid to show a few scars, negative images of his family or himself, to get a laugh. His mom is in the audience, and sometimes seems like she wishes perhaps she wasn't, but even when he seems to be criticizing her, you really can feel the love, and it keeps it funny. Is it art? Nah, but it doesn't need to be. It's more Funk than Family, but genuinely enjoyable all around.

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