Life of Notorious B.I.G. captured

Rap earns its first top-drawer bio film with “Notorious,” a revealing, moving and entertaining peek at the 24 years that Biggie Smalls, aka Notorious B.I.G., spent on this Earth.

George Tillman Jr.’s film may follow the well-worn path of many a musical biography. But spot-on casting, a light touch around the edges and affection for its subject makes this warts-and-all look at the big man with the big hits a winner.

We meet Christopher Wallace when he’s a grade-school nerd, wearing a uniform, getting the good grades that his mom (Angela Bassett) demands. But a smart kid with a passion for cash and the new hip-hop of the streets figures out pretty quickly that good grades won’t get him where he wants to go.

The kid grows into a teen dope dealer, an amoral greedy creep (Jamal Woolard) who will sell crack to pregnant women, lie to his mom and his pregnant girlfriend, and risk prison time – anything for “the cash.”

He can rhyme, sure. But his life doesn’t change until he meets the charismatic, inspiring Sean “Puffy” Combs.

“Don’t chase the money. Chase the dream,” preaches Combs, played by Derek Luke with a charge of energy and a splash of stardust.

And so “Biggie” is born.

Tillman, who directed the fine “Men of Honor,” trips through the benchmarks of Biggie’s rise – concerts, studio sessions – and his women. Naturi Naughton gives a star-making performance as Lil Kim, a Biggie discovery who rocked his bedroom (fun, graphic sex scenes) and then became a star in her own right.

“Notorious” is framed within a flashback that takes place on the night in 1997 when Biggie was murdered. Tillman deftly takes us through the friendship with Tupac Shakur (Anthony Mackie) that degenerated into a paranoid feud that police have never been able to pinpoint as the cause for the murders of both stars.

Woolard, a novice, nails the man’s swagger, his tone and his style. The resemblance, physically and vocally, is uncanny.

Tillman has crafted a film biography that will stand as definitive, with all the passion, ambition and violence that this man and his era in rap came to represent.

For times and locations, see page 6.