Audience Member
In his first major motion picture, award-winning musician (and registered sex offender) R. Kelly presents a thought-provoking narrative that sheds light on infidelity, discrimination, gun violence and socioeconomic status. A bona fide Odyssey of modern American experience, Kelly's neo-noir classic almost makes you forget about his countless sexual assault allegations. Almost.
The film's most notable staple is a hauntingly repetitive track, punctuated by the occasional 'water droplet' sound effect. Played fifty five times over the course of the film's 45-minute running period, this ghostly blend of synth and percussion serves to ground the audience through R. Kelly's rollercoaster of heartbreak, love, loss and passion. While some contend that fifty five is "mind-numbing" and "boring as all hell", most qualified critics are of the firm belief that R. Kelly's elegant theme is played just enough to keep the audience absorbed.
R. Kelly's work additionally makes excellent use of the poetic 'slant-rhyme.' This is evident in his use of rhyme pairings such as "beretta and dresser", "pie and free", as well as "nuts and spatula". Furthermore, while most musical artists utilize a singular, pre-established "rhyme" framework in their artwork (i.e: the correspondence of sound between words), Kelly brilliantly subverts this model. Arguably the most prominent example of this subversion is in Episode 7, where he skillfully nuances the 'rhyme' format by 'rhyming' words with themselves: "He walks up to the closet, [...] He's close up to the closet [...] Now he's opening the closet."
The most celebrated turning points of the film are the instances when R. Kelly's character 'Sylvester' "pull[s] out [his] beretta". Often paired with heated arguments and declarations of "I'm going to shoot somebody", Sylvester's use of "[his] beretta" effectively furthers an already thrilling narrative. However, upon further investigation, researchers have identified Kelly's weapon as -- not a beretta -- but a 1911 pistol. By outwardly deceiving his audience into believing that he, in fact, pulled out "[a] beretta", Kelly presents a postmodern commentary on the American consumer's blind susceptibility to Hollywood's carefully constructed 'realism'. It is poignant commentaries like this that make Trapped in the Closet
Aside from its thoroughly gripping narrative, Trapped In the Closet's primary strength lies in its three-dimensional characterizations. Each of the film's 24 characters is separately complex, diverse, and voiced by R. Kelly. For instance, in Episode 9, Sylvester shoots his brother-in-law "Twan" with the aforementioned beretta. The man is initially presumed to be dead, but quickly recovers from the blow and patches himself up with a medical bandage. Twan's story exhibits a distinct resilience that is rarely represented in the film medium, and his bravery in the face of danger easily parallels that of Braveheart's William Wallace and Rocky's Rocky Balboa. Additionally, R. Kelly's representation of tragic housewife 'Bridget' successfully subverts America's notion of the 'conventional family' dynamic. A cherry-averse Southern woman with an eye for infidelity, Bridget's affair with a diminutive male stripper effectively sheds light on an untapped majority and pushes the boundaries of Hollywood's traditionally one-sided narrative.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/13/23
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Audience Member
Trapped in the Closet does not quite lose steam as much as it indulges in self-parody of its hip hop-era, mostly for the better. The writing jumps the shark by the end of every chapter; blame it on the music, where every three-minute chapter must reach a jaw-dropping climax. I buy it though. R. Kelly plays literally every role in voice, with other characters in motion for the rest of the acting. They are all fully committed to the melodrama in their performances, and that is commendable on its own. Short enough for replay value, cheesy enough for one-time shock value.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/13/23
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Audience Member
What... what did I just watch?
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/25/23
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Audience Member
I can't relate to this because i never got trap in a closet
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
01/19/23
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Audience Member
i personally love this movie
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/19/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This movie is so bad it's amazing. I find myself constantly narrating my daily life to the tune of the movie, now
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/16/23
Full Review
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