Honeydripper (2007)

No one makes movies like John Sayles !

John Sayles is a true independant filmmaker who not only finances, directs, edits and writes his movies but often times acts in and writes music for them. For "Honeydripper" Sayles did it all, and he wrote a couple of songs. He has dealt with the African American experience in movies before like: "Brother From Another Planet", "Passion Fish" and "City of Hope", but since most of the characters in "Honeydripper" are black he delves even deeper into the issue and the film is written more like a play with echoes of the work of August Wilson.
It's 1950 in the deep South and Danny Glover's Tyrone is barely making it and his Honeydripper lounge featuring aging blues players can't compete with the popular Jukejoint next door. To make matters worse the Honeydripper is about to close down unless Tyrone can come up with some serious money.
Most of the story revolves around the conflicts and relationships Tyrone has with his wife ( a powerful performance by Lisa Gay Hamilton), his partner (an excellent Charles Dutton), his daughter (a nice debut by model Ya Ya DeCosta), a young musician stranger (effectively played by young bluesman Gary Clark Jr.) and the white sheriff (a tailor made role for Stacey Keach). My favorite character is played by veteran bluesman Keb' Mo', a sort of bluesy greek chorus muse who appears at pivotal times only to Glover and Clark.
Sayles always takes his time developing his characters and the world in which they live, and though it may seem slow at first this lets you begin to care about what will happen to them. A big plus is the terrific music, and except for Glover, it is all played by the actors themselves and surprisingly it was all done live while filming.
Yes the movie, like a play, takes it's time to develop, but the payoff was one of the most uplifting times I've had at the movies in a long while.
I read that Sayles has decided to stop making movies and just write. I'm sure it must be getting harder to get these kinds of movies made and harder still to get them released, unfortunately no one makes movies like John Sayles.
July 12, 2008

John Sayles Does It Again

John Sayles, perhaps more than any other American filmmaker, has his finger on the pulse of what make this country special. A gifted storyteller, not one of his films is alike, but hes's at his best when he takes a small moment in time and uses it to explore a major change. EIGHT MEN OUT uses the Black Sox scandal to reflect the loss of innocence of our nation. LONE STAR uses a murder mystery to unearth skeletons long hidden, etc. With HONEYDRIPPER, Sayles latest, he explores the moment Blues Became Electric, opening the door for Rock & Roll, the dominant music of the last half of the 20th Century. He does so in the style of the late August Wilson, using quiet rhythms and essentially one locale to tell the story. In the process, he gets allows his stellar cast to deliver some great performances, including Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Keb Mo, Vondie Curtis-Hall and newcomer YaYa Dacosta, as China Doll. Gary Clark, Jr. is a little stiff in his acting debut, but once he picks up the guitar, he puts a smile on your face. Parts of the story may move a little slow, but Honeydripper's built for comfort, not for speed. Once you know the plot, you'll begin to pick out minor details in the fabric of the film that absolutely glow. Mind you, this is a film that could never be made within the Hollywood studio system, so if you're looking for Rush Hour 3, then move along. But if you like a good story told well or just love the Blues, Honeydripper deserves a spot on your personal video shelf. July 2, 2008

Excellent

Honeydripper is probably one of the best movies I've seen in the last year or so, besides the Great Debaters. Danny Glover gives a great performance of a bar/club owner who has to compete with the new sounds of the day, rock & roll, as opposed to the blues singing that was the prominent popular music along with Jazz for so many years.

It's set in the south and portrays things the way they were without being too over-dramatic and all the characters are likeable. Charles 'Roc' Dutton does a great job as Danny's sidekick also. Look out for Keb' Mo', the blues singer that is surprisingly very good as the mysterious guitar player that keeps appearing throughout the movie to give Danny advice.

It's rare that you see such a good movie that portrays African-Americans as humans with emotions without being silly, campy, or unrealistic. If you've seen the movie Life with Eddie Murphy & Martin Lawrence, this one has the same time period piece feel, but told as a serious story about how we have to deal with a constantly changing world. June 27, 2008

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