A year or so ago, our friends Chris and Julie started telling us about this absolutely indescribable little film they’d seen by R&B singer R Kelly entitled “Trapped in the Closet.” I know they must have told us half a dozen times that we needed to see it immediately, but, for whatever reason, we didn’t take their advice. We stuck it on our Netflix list and forgot about it. Well, it finally came up in our queue and we watched it a few nights ago, after Clementine went to bed, and, holy shit… I don’t know what to say.

It’s good, but not good in the same way that something like “Citizen Kane” is good. It’s good like truly visionary art is good. It’s so completely outside of the realm of what’s currently accepted as entertainment that it’s truly breathtaking. R Kelly calls the format hip-hopera. Whatever you call it, it deserves attention. And I hope you believe me when I say that I don’t mean that in an, “Oh my God, this is so terrible it’s funny” kind of way. I don’t. I’m being completely serious when I say that I think it’s a courageous piece of extremely personal filmmaking. I don’t know that the analogy is perfect, but it reminds me very much of the work produced by the writers of song poems featured in the documentary “Off the Charts.” Even though there’s this appallingly bad component, which cannot be denied, there’s also something really beautiful and heartfelt about it at the same time. (As it really is indescribable, you should check it out for yourself. Fortunately, scenes can be found online here, here, and here. There’s also great footage of R Kelly giving running commentary on the film here.)

And, as Christmas is right around the corner, you might also want to check out this brilliant holiday-themed tribute to the R Kelly original, featuring Santa Claus.