Mindless Behavior: All Around the World (2013)

Mindless Behavior: All Around the World: Directed by Steven Goldfried. With Myles Brown, Princeton, Prodigy, Ray Ray. A documentary that follows the Ru0026B/hip-hop boy band as they travel across the US on their first major headlining tour.

“So Iu0026#39;ve worked with this band for several years. Allow me to take you behind the veil with an actual review.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eOK, so the movie itself is all platitudes, do your best, be who you are (except also be u0026quot;mindlessu0026quot; though that is never really explained) and yadda yadda yadda. Be who you are is weird coming from people who do not choose their own names or personas nor write their own songs (and with the auto-tune, they barely sing them) nor do their own dance moves, so yeah, be who a marketing team says you should be. But donu0026#39;t be gay, the boys are kind of homophobic. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eFor the most part, their moves are very precise and the feats of onstage dance and movement are very apt and keen, but the rest, yikes. Itu0026#39;s so damn clumsy, itu0026#39;s constantly hitting you over the head with u0026quot;do your bestu0026quot; and thatu0026#39;s sad because an actual movie IS lurking here, but itu0026#39;s not the one on screen.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe real movie is a study on fame and money. How a record executive saw a hole in a medium and was u0026quot;called by Godu0026quot; (no, seriously, thatu0026#39;s his reasoning) to audition 4 kids to create a boy band. To pull them from school, alter their names (they canu0026#39;t be called by their own names, they MUST be called by their stage ones, so Roc Royal is actually called that at ALL times) and change everything about them to create a team / cash machine. Theyu0026#39;re also kind of separated form their families and friends for LONG periods of time, in one case, a full year. Also, pulling them out of school is true, theyu0026#39;re never there. I saw their teacher scrape by to get a TINY bit of learning out of them and yeah, itu0026#39;s tragic what they do not know. Iu0026#39;ve seen them go on tours in winter and not bring coats to Chicago or Detroit, itu0026#39;s… strange. Theyu0026#39;re also barely supervised while on tour. They have a wholesome image but itu0026#39;s just that, an image. This is not done in a drinking or smoking way, though they DO love Chris Brown to a disturbing degree, but I wouldnu0026#39;t leave my daughter with them. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eHere is where the movie is; in the trailer Prodigy goes off as a 7 year old about not u0026quot;being famous but heu0026#39;s hoping and prayingu0026quot;. Hey, how about wanting to create art not for fame, but because it is what you LIKE to do? Isnu0026#39;t THAT being yourself and the other way of having everyone else tell you how to dress, act, sing, dance and more or less u0026quot;beu0026quot; kind of making you just a fake human being? The weirdest part of the movie is when they travel to Michael Jacksonu0026#39;s childhood home. The kids of MB for the most part come from bad areas, like Compton and such, and MJu0026#39;s house in Gary is tiny and in a lower income area. Theyu0026#39;re are lots of moments of reflection that should seem forced but might be genuine, making them all the creepier (in general, production and the boys seem to fetishize Jackson to a disturbing degree) but the reflection should be that fame is fleeting like it was for the rest of the Jackson 5, or Menudo, 98 Degrees, New Kids on the Block, Bobby Brown or any other fleeting act, except these guys hardly have a mainstream audience, as this movies shamelessly tries to make a grab for. Fame is fleeting as is money, and with the way they spend it, itu0026#39;s going to be like MC Hammer, thatu0026#39;s the real tragic element here.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis movie is also a u0026quot;coat-tailsu0026quot; movie. Justin Bieber (who MB opened for a few years back) also has a song called u0026quot;All Around the Worldu0026quot; and ALSO did a doc about a tour he did as did Katy Perry, except that one I have heard on the radio, and just on Radio Disney. This is their U.S. tour, itu0026#39;s not all around the world (released the same week as their album of the same name, changed at the last second to u0026quot;All around the Worldu0026quot; from House party or something like that). This movie seems to capitalize on that factor rather shamelessly when you see how it all lines up. It also opens with them u0026quot;winningu0026quot; the BET Coke-a-Cola Viewers Choice award, a feat that sounds great but then you realize that anyone can vote as many times as they want and if you, an adult, think youu0026#39;re going to out-vote a teenage girl, youu0026#39;re wrong. One fan voted 60,000 times, and this is spoken with no sense of irony. Thatu0026#39;s how they beat out Beyonce and other acts you HAVE heard of. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat a weird marketing tool; watchable if youu0026#39;re mindless, otherwise Iu0026#39;d save your money, there is nothing new outside of an after school special here.”