NEW YORK — With his latest and best film in tow, Chris Rock is back in the spotlight right when we most need him.
There's no more salient voice on race in America, not to mention most other things in America, too: marriage, sports, Kanye West. As Rock has prepared to release his film "Top Five" on Dec. 12, his commentary on the grand jury verdicts in Ferguson and New York has been trenchant, and criticism of the movie business — "a white industry," he called it in an essay for the Hollywood Reporter — has been like water in the desert of a (publicly) tight-lipped Hollywood. Rock is on a truth-telling spree.
And for the first time, Rock has found a way to funnel his strong voice into a fiction film of his own. "Top Five," a comedy that sparked a bidding war at the Toronto International Film Festival, is a big-screen breakthrough for the stand-up. Excepting his excellent documentary "Good Hair," Rock's previous films ("Head of State," "I Think I Love My Wife") were disappointments.
But he's clearly thrilled about "Top Five," a romp through celebrity and New York. Rock plays a version of himself, Andre Allen, a comic attempting to turn serious filmmaker.
In person, Rock appears far younger than the 50 he'll turn in February: "It's a rich 50," he says. "Rich 50 is about 35. Money's the best lotion in the world." Over tea recently, he was as animated and forthcoming as usual:
AP: Do you feel as though you've finally cracked this nut, fitting yourself into your own movie?
Rock: I've got to do it again, but it feels like when I did my big "Bring the Pain" special for HBO. You've got to learn from your failures. You've got to really, really take them in. You can't shrug them off. You can't blame them on anyone else. You can't go, "Oh, that day it snowed!"
AP: Did doing the Broadway play "M------- With the Hat," which you've said was the most fun you ever had in show business, help lead to "Top Five"?