Honeydripper (2007)
Country: US
Technical: col 124m
Director: John Sayles
Cast: Danny Glover, Gary Clark Jnr, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Stacy Keach
Synopsis:
In 1950 Alabama a bar owner/piano player down on his luck makes a last ditch attempt to draw custom by booking a celebrity act in the shape of Guitar Sam. With the sheriff and creditors breathing down his neck, and his star act failing to show, he must take a gamble on a kid just arrived in town who claims to know a thing or two on his own guitar, which runs on electricity...
Review:
Sayles's gentle, backwoods variation on the 'night they invented rock'n'roll' scenario has some delightful characterisations and a feel for the negro milieu, even if one's ear must atune to some pretty indistinct delivery (Glover being the major culprit here). On the down side there is a typically leisurely approach to narrative and one or two too many pauses for reminiscence and even one or two too many characters. Less of an attempt to produce a black film with every conceivable black character in it, and one with a more decisively rousing musical finale - after all, it's what we are waiting for - would have raised this uplifting dose of the blues to minor classic heights.
Country: US
Technical: col 124m
Director: John Sayles
Cast: Danny Glover, Gary Clark Jnr, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Stacy Keach
Synopsis:
In 1950 Alabama a bar owner/piano player down on his luck makes a last ditch attempt to draw custom by booking a celebrity act in the shape of Guitar Sam. With the sheriff and creditors breathing down his neck, and his star act failing to show, he must take a gamble on a kid just arrived in town who claims to know a thing or two on his own guitar, which runs on electricity...
Review:
Sayles's gentle, backwoods variation on the 'night they invented rock'n'roll' scenario has some delightful characterisations and a feel for the negro milieu, even if one's ear must atune to some pretty indistinct delivery (Glover being the major culprit here). On the down side there is a typically leisurely approach to narrative and one or two too many pauses for reminiscence and even one or two too many characters. Less of an attempt to produce a black film with every conceivable black character in it, and one with a more decisively rousing musical finale - after all, it's what we are waiting for - would have raised this uplifting dose of the blues to minor classic heights.
Country: US
Technical: col 124m
Director: John Sayles
Cast: Danny Glover, Gary Clark Jnr, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Stacy Keach
Synopsis:
In 1950 Alabama a bar owner/piano player down on his luck makes a last ditch attempt to draw custom by booking a celebrity act in the shape of Guitar Sam. With the sheriff and creditors breathing down his neck, and his star act failing to show, he must take a gamble on a kid just arrived in town who claims to know a thing or two on his own guitar, which runs on electricity...
Review:
Sayles's gentle, backwoods variation on the 'night they invented rock'n'roll' scenario has some delightful characterisations and a feel for the negro milieu, even if one's ear must atune to some pretty indistinct delivery (Glover being the major culprit here). On the down side there is a typically leisurely approach to narrative and one or two too many pauses for reminiscence and even one or two too many characters. Less of an attempt to produce a black film with every conceivable black character in it, and one with a more decisively rousing musical finale - after all, it's what we are waiting for - would have raised this uplifting dose of the blues to minor classic heights.