Honeydripper
Emerging Pictures 122min TBA
Written, Directed and
Edited by John Sayles
This film is about the birth of something. At the very middle of the
late century, in the very middle of the Deep South, Rock'n'Roll was
first heard. This is a fanciful recreation of that earth-shattering
event, and it's actually one of the happier movies to come from the
mind of John Sayles in quite a while.
Tyrone Purvis(Danny Glover) is the beleaguered proprietor of the
eponymous roadhouse. Apparently, his main atrraction, an old jazz
singer named Bertha Mae(Dr. Mable John) isn't bringing them in like
she used to, and with almost nobody coming around, and the landlords
demanding what landlords usually demand, Tyrone, his wife
Delilah(Lisa Gay Hamilton) stepdaughter China Doll(Yaya DaCosta) and
sidekick Maceo(Charles S. Dutton) are in a heap of trouble.
So, poor Bertha Mae gets the sack, her boyfriend Slick(Vondie Curtis
Hall) goes with her, and things look bleak as hell. But desperation
is the father of invention, and Tyrone has an idea, going through
channels, he books the famous Guitar Sam for a one night stand.
Will he show up? That's the question alright, but before that, a
certain Sonny Blake(Gary Clark Jr.) actually does, and in doing so
gets himself in trouble with the slightly evil Sheriff Pugh(Stacy
Keach), who's also breathing down Tyrone's neck. To make matters
worse, Delilah may be on the verge of finding God, something the
owner of a roadhouse doesn't exactly want to do, and what does this
have to do with the legend of Stagger Lee and Billy?
This is historically accurate as to what it was like in the South
for Black folk at the time, but for the most part it's pure sitcom,
and despite all the trouble and the death of poor Bertha Mae, this
is probably the happiest movie that Sayles has ever made. It's a ton
of fun and is worth a bargain matinee or a place on the old NetFlix
queue.
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