Head of State

Irreverent Chris Rock directs this bright political comedy about individual clout and race. He also stars as Washington, D.C., alderman Mays Gilliam, a sort of official mother hen and miracle worker in a high-crime neighborhood (an area so bad that “you can get shot while getting shot”). After the death of a prominent politician in a freak accident, Mays is plucked from his foreclosed office and obscurity to be America’s first African-American presidential candidate. With his bail bondsman brother (Bernie Mac) as a running mate, Mays must deal with an opportunistic ex-girlfriend (Robin Givens), a manipulative party leader (James Rebhorn) who is more concerned with his own future than with that of Gilliam, and an American public that doesn’t quite know how seriously to take the barnstorming loose cannon as he squares off against an opponent who is not only a war hero but also Sharon Stone’s cousin.