Metrograph

A procurer and drug dealer getting by on his wits in the streets of Memphis, Terrence Howard’s D-Jay dreams of a different life, and towards that end steps into the studio with Anthony Anderson and DJ Qualls to be reborn an emcee. An egalitarian vision of all-American self-reinvention, featuring some of the finest nuts-and-bolts songwriting scenes in all of cinema, breakthrough performances from Howard and Taraji P. Henson, Amy Vincent’s vividly grotty cinematography—inspired by the juke joint photographs of Birney Imes—and, of course, the Academy Award–winning Best Original Song “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.” “[Howard gets] the most flamboyant and riveting opening scene any movie actor has had since George C. Scott in Patton. Brewer has seized the phenomenon of rap-music stardom to focus on the universality and pathos of a man’s desire to determine his future.” —Armond White, New York Press

Distributor: Paramount

Q&A with cinematographer Amy Vincent, ASC, on Saturday, April 11th