There are a few things you should know before you go to see Notorious. A little background on the East Vs. West Coast rap rivalry of the ‘90’s would be helpful to avoid confusion and the impression that the film is flawed because some details aren’t clear. The first important detail to remember is that the murderer of Notorious B.I.G. aka Biggie Smalls, was never found. The second is that “Biggie’s” involvement in the death of Tupac Shakur has never been proven. Tupac’s murderer was also never found. The film offers no answers, or even much speculation. It does offer a unique and fascinating look at an incredible culture where people burn up long before they grow up.

To many, myself included, the New York rap world is a foreign and exotic place. A peek inside could be riveting, or it could be just a vacuous rap movie--another film about a tortured young artist who succumbs to drugs, fame and wild women. Notorious avoids those clichés, and bounces into a well-made film with a killer soundtrack, which I’m very likely to add to my collection, along with Biggie’s second and last album. Surprisingly enough Danny Elfman is responsible for the film’s original music.

Sure, the movie is full of bling, infidelity, hard living, drug abuse, prison sentences and shootings, but it’s also the story of a chubby, nerdy math whiz whose mother survived breast cancer. You forget larger than life characters like Chris Wallace even had a momma or dealt with rejection in elementary school. Although produced by his mother Violetta Wallace and Sean ‘P. Diddy’ Combs, among others, this is no whitewash job. It shows his philandering, his drug dealing and use and his prison time right along with his efforts to be a good father and to help those close to him. While it’s not completely apparent from the film what women like Lil Kim and Faith Daniels saw in him, it’s clear he was immensely talented in his genre. Rookie actor Jamal Woolard, chosen mostly for his resemblance to the real Biggie, plays him as an extremely sympathetic character with charisma as large as his stature. The fact that the 24-year-old boy-man some people consider a murderous, drug dealing thug is shown  as a glorified hero in death, with a funeral procession played as an impromptu parade with sign-waving, screaming fans, is forgivable. After all, it's reported that his mother was on the set every day. There are quite a few warts shown considering this. The film reaches and exceeds its potential.

Rated R

—Lisa Johnson Mandell