Mo’ Money, 1992, Peter MacDonald
Johnny can resist anything ...except love and money. Especially money. Directed by Peter MacDonald, Mo’ Money is the story of a recovering con artist who gets a job with a credit card company, only to fall for one of his coworkers. The introduction of most of the scenes and characters are made up of medium close-up shots that pan back and forth between two or more characters at a time.
MacDonald makes unusual directorial decisions... the most noticeable one being the use of close-up shots. Usually, close-up shots are used to show intimacy with the character onscreen, but there is no apparent relationship or importance of some of the close-up shots. For example, when Johnny Stewart (Damon Wayans) is applying for a job, he sits next to a woman who talks to him in a crazed state. The audience watches this scene as it cuts back and forth between the two characters in close-up shots. The reasoning behind this may be to demonstrate her crazy personality: she gets really close to Johnny’s face, and as a result, she fills up our entire screen.
A lot of the film is shot through medium close-up shots, which is interesting because it forces the audience to be on Johnny’s side – everything he does in these shots seems more genuine because it feels like he can’t be hiding from the audience, they’ll see it in his eyes. Moreover, when other characters – such as his coworkers or the head of company security – are shot this way, it feels like we’re taking on his point of view slightly. However, this may be due to the actors’ individual expressions: Johnny is calm and relatively expressionless while everyone else exaggerates their expressions to the point of humor.
Though this movie is something that you might expect to see on late night TV on Nickelodeon in the 90s, which leads to a cliché or predictable story, this movie doesn’t follow that stereotype. For example, the montage is a technique that was used for comic effect to show the passing of time by following a goofy character around and cross cutting footage. Here, on the other hand, it is used to show that Johnny is both adjusting to the working life rather than the life of a con artist, as well as his budding romance with his coworker, Amber Evans (Stacy Dash).
Another generally overused and cliché technique are transitions between shots instead of straight cuts. MacDonald has used rapid camera movements, blurs and quick fades, but they enhance the movie rather than hinder its effectiveness: working with the hip-hop music in the background, the transitions increase the pace and illustrate the passing of time. For instance, this can be seen when Johnny and his brother go shopping – the transitions are used as they change departments and stores.
In the second half of the film, chaos erupts as Seymour Stewart (Marlon Wayans) is discovered to be using a stolen credit card and is chased by the mall security guards. This scene is a combination of medium shots, close up shots, full shots and dolly shots that come together to evoke a panicked escape from Seymour. These shots are similar to the end of the film where Johnny tries to find his brother, which involves a car chase. The tension rises as the cuts between shots become more rapid. Nonetheless, true to the cliché, good prevails and Johnny survives!
Ending as it began with a series of medium close-up and close-up shots, Johnny gets it all: the girl, his brother, his reputation, and the right mindset to not go back to scamming people to get around. So was there any motive behind the close-up shots on MacDonald’s part? Perhaps... but they seem more like a stylistic device of the director rather than having a specific purpose. All’s well that ends well.
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