The Robert Downey Jr. Film Guide: Black and White (2000)

A plotless indie flick about the unlikely web of relationships among black and white New Yorkers.

Fairly low, it’s an ensemble cast.

Terry Donnager, flaming queen whose wife conveniently ignores the fact he shamelessly flirts with every man in sight

Short brown hair, wild clothing.

The most stereotypically gay performance he has ever given, and yet he still shines every moment he’s on camera

Brooke Shields is his in-denial wife, Jared Leto is the most significant object of his affection

Ben Stiller, Method Man, Brooke Shields, Mike Tyson, Jared Leto, Elijah Wood, Bijou Phillips, Allan Houston, Claudia Schiffer, Joe Pantoliano

Claudia Schiffer Friends and Lovers. Brooke Shields in The Outsider. Ben Stiller in That’s Adequate and Tropic Thunder. James Toback’s Two Girls and a Guy, The Pickup Artist and in The Outsider. Mike Tyson in The Outsider. Joe Pantoliano in US Marshals.

[James Toback] said that I should be someone who’s directing a documentary. I said, “Maybe I’m in the periphery of the world.” He goes, “Maybe you’re married.” I said, “Maybe I’m gay too.” ... Brooke and I chose our names—Terry and Sam—because they were androgynous, just like our marriage She got the more masculine name, because she wears the pants in the family ... I figured I’ve played a send-up version of the heterosexual James Toback in The Pick-Up Artist and Two Girls and a Guy. Why don’t I now play the gay-hausfrau version of Toback? ... I make Elton John look like a bullfighter ... James Toback was like, “Just go tell him.” And I was like, “What? Just go tell him that I had a super-gay dream about him, and I was wondering if he’d hold me?” And Mike was like off in the corner deciding what Versace shirt to wear for the scene. He’s like, “Yeah, we’re going to improvise. Yeah, just don’t have him saying any weirdo gay stuff.” And when I said it, he was like, “You can’t talk to me like that, man, I’m on parole man, I’m on parole.” And I said, “Will you hold me?” He said, “If I hit you, I’ll pull my punch.” But Mike Tyson pulling his punch is like a donkey trying, I don’t know, to bite an apple out of your mouth or something ... A stage slap from Mike Tyson is like a shovel whack from a normally fortified male.

Present day (2000), New York.

Released in theaters 5 April 2000. On DVD in Region 1, 2 and 4.

Brazil: Preto e Branco (Black and White)
Croatia: Crno i Bijelo (Black and White)
Hungary: Fekete-fehér (Black and White)
Poland: Czarne i Biale (Black and White)

39% Fresh | 79 Reviews

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: [James Toback] plugged actors into situations, told them where they had to go and let them improvise. This leads to an electrifying scene where Downey makes a sexual advance on Mike Tyson.

Wesley Morris, The San Francisco Chronicle: The tag line for Black and White asks: “What happens when you mix it up?” You should answer, “Ideological disaster!” ... Toback is an actor’s director only insofar as he carves out spaces for improvisation. But Downey, who’s been blazingly self-aware in two previous outings with Toback, is the [only] actor who knows what to do within them.

The Guardian: [Downey] has the best and funniest moment in the whole film. Terry goes up to Mike Tyson at a party ... and mincingly tells him that he dreamt about him last night ... Toback says this scene was improvised. If so, Robert Downey Jr has balls of titanium.

1. His scene with Mike Tyson.
2. The scene where he breaks it off with his wife.

Robert Downey Jr. shines every second he’s on camera. Every other moment (the majority) of the film is much less bearable.