Patti Cake$. A Quick Review
Reviewing movies is hard you guys. Like I have to check times, drive all the way out to the theater and then drive back home. It's a real time sink let me tell you and more than half the time the movie stinks. It's a real struggle that I put up with to provide you with the best cinema I possibly can. In all reality I love this shit, I love looking up times and planning the night around them. I even have a little calendar set up for all the releases I am excited for and sometimes when I check IMDb I get surprised by smaller releases I was not prepared for.
Patti Cake$ was one of those smaller releases that I patiently waited all summer for, checking each week on the IMDb showtimes page. all for nothing. Being that Patti Cake$ is set in the great state of New Jersey I figured it would surly get a pretty solid release in the Garden State, but no. Not even at the Bow Tie Cinemas in Montgomery or the New Vision in Cranford showed Patti Cake$ and this made me both sad and even more anxious to see it.
Well instead of letting the man get me down I did something about it! I hopped on my trusty Amazon app (I am a prime member as you know) and bought the Blu-Ray+DVD+Digital Copy+Ocular Implant and in two days I was ready for movie night on a variety of different platforms! I really only like to review the movies I see on the big screen but seeing as I was so excited for this one and my Sunday morning showing of Justice League was sold out, I decided to try something different.
And that kids, is how quick reviews are made, this wont be a full on in depth review but I would like to talk about this movie a bit and my basic thoughts. With that comes a basic rundown, Patti Cake$ tells the story of a 20ish year old woman has big dreams to crack into the rap game and get out of her town in Bayonne New Jersey. Patti a.k.a. Killa P has the talent and ambition but the mix of a complicated family life and a look that is not exactly celebrated in rap culture put her behind the 8 ball. To fulfill her dreams of hip hop stardom she enlists the help of friends, outcasts and family members to show the world what Killa P is really about.
At the center of this movie is the rap and more specifically the rapping done by Killa P. For this movie to be successfull in it's execution the raps need to be slammen yo and not only that they need to progress over the course of the movie. I want to congratulate the entire music department of this one, not only were the raps on point but they somehow captured the feeling of a struggling up and coming rapper, without as far as I can tell any professional rappers helping out. I'm sure this was a group effort so I don't really want to list every name but take a bow y'all, a white movie blogger thinks your raps are tight.
As mentioned before in more eloquent terms, Patti does not exactly fit the visual bill as far as rappers are concerned. Overweight, white and female are things that separately have found success in the "industry" but all together I think have been overlooked. I love a good movie, or really any piece of media/art that wants to tell a unique story, serial killers and super heroes make for an entertaining product but telling great stories that don't need those things can be just as important. I applaud director/writer Geremy Jaspar for not taking the east way out and telling the stories of people that do not often get their stories told.
That is where I would like to wrap this up, I know I have only mentioned a few positives about the movie and yes there are pacing problems and a bit of a predictable final act but these are not things to dwell on. I could do a whole paragraph on the outstanding performance of Danielle Macdonald in the lead role or the representation of my home state but I think these may be better left for you guys to explore. Patti Cake$ is a solid movie with some real heart to it and if that sounds like something that might interest you I recommend you seek this one out.
