"Why Do Fools Fall In Love?"

Hollywood-produced parody of a great fallen talent

Watching this biopic of Frankie Lymon, I'm reminded of why I hated a lot of late 1990s cinema. Here we have a very tragic and historic story of the music business and its treated like a campy ghetto melodrama, something John Waters would have envisioned and abandoned. The story is more about the women in Frankie's life, but it still paints a ridiculous portrait of its main character. Everyone is a cartoonish parody of the 60s who speak in never-ending "cute" and unrealistic 1960s euphemisms. The clothing and sets are too stylized and cinematic for a biopic. This is someone's romantic and braindead idea of what the music business was like for young black stars. Its a parody of this man's very important and sad life.

There is little historical accuracy as none of the actors or fashions resemble the real thing. The handsome, muscular, swaggering and very brash Larenz Tate is a good actor, but he is a very wrong Frankie Lymon. Whats really absurd is how his onstage performances look NOTHING like the documented performances of Lymon. Frankie is characterized as a violent, self-destructive "Negro" with no redeeming traits besides the fact he is good looking. Which is retarded because the real Frankie was apparently a classy, but brat-ish man-boy who was corrupted by leeches in the music business. The story finds some respect for Frankie towards the end of the film, but its not compelling at all. Like the film Sid and Nancy we have a very dramatized and speculative climax where Frankie returns to New York and is rejected by his manager and turns to heroin in his disappointment, as he has nothing else to do. THE FILM GLOSSES OVER HIS INTENSE DRUG ADDICTION so this comes out of nowhere and doesn't effect us at all. And the real Frankie actually was in the process of recording new music in New York when he shot up, for the first time in years, to celebrate his good fortune.

The film is written by a woman, a black woman, and it comes off as a condemnation of black men in general as adulterous and insincere. There is little focus on his talent, his deep struggles, his being manipulated by men AND women around him. In the end, his three wives are the heroines for putting up with him. Its poorly staged, poorly researched and way too condescending to be a tribute to this genuine musical legend. Fucking shameful.

Here is the powerful real drama that was absent from this shitty film: An older, heroin-raddled Frankie Lymon makes is final appearance on television having to lip-sync to his classic hit "Why Do Fools Fall In Love?" because his voice is so damaged by age and drugs. Despite this, Frankie's class and showmanship is still moving. In the biopic, this event is a garish and joyous choreographed spectacle by a healthy Frankie. Sickening.