FIND MOVIES
Movie List
Loading ...
or
Find Theaters and Movie Times
or
Search Movies

Honeydripper

A hot sticky mess
By TED DROZDOWSKI  |  January 16, 2008
2.0 2.0 Stars
honeydripperinside
Danny Glover and Lisa Gay Hamilton

John Sayles’s first clunker is a threadbare yarn about the emergence of rock and roll that substitutes clichés for character development. Danny Glover plays a juke-joint owner in ’50s Alabama whose past is playing karmic catch-up, with the law (a greasy Stacy Keach), the landlord (smooth Vondie Curtis-Hall), and his lady (Bible-toting Lisa Gay Hamilton) on his back. There’s also his troubled conscience, in the persona of Grammy winner Keb’ Mo’ as Possum, a blind blues singer who spouts hackneyed dialogue. Only anachronistic blueswoman Bertha Mae Spivey, played by Stax Records veteran Mable John, seems real, but her death early on buoys Sayles’s simple strategy for portraying the succession of musical styles. Glover saves the day with the Little Rascals Maneuver: he puts on a show. Its star is newcomer Gary Clark Jr., a real-life musician from Austin. Clark’s innocence is endearing, but only the era-appropriate soundtrack makes this fractured fairy tale tolerable. 123 minutes | Boston Common + Fenway + Kendall Square + Circle/Chestnut Hill + suburbs
Related: Adoring public, History rocks, Be Kind Rewind, More more >
  Topics: Reviews , Entertainment, Music, Pop and Rock Music,  More more >
| More

Most Popular
Blogs
 More: Phlog  |  Music  |  Film  |  Books  |  Politics  |  Media  |  Election '08  |  Free Speech  |  All Blogs
ARTICLES BY TED DROZDOWSKI
Share this entry with Delicious
  •   TOM HAMBRIDGE | BOOM!  |  August 23, 2011
    Roots rock is the new country and ex-Bostonian Tom Hambridge is the style's current MPV.
  •   COUNTRY STRONG | SOUNDTRACK  |  January 11, 2011
    This steaming pile of songs is emblematic of the state of mainstream country music — all artifice, no heart, calculated anthems written to formula and meant, like the film itself, to do no more than capitalize on the genre's current success and rob its undiscriminating fans.
  •   MARC RIBOT | SILENT MOVIES  |  November 02, 2010
    This exceptional, eccentric guitarist has traced a slow evolution from screamer to dreamer.
  •   IN MEMORIAM: SOLOMON BURKE, 1940 — 2010  |  October 11, 2010
  •   REVIEW: RONNIE EARL AND THE BROADCASTERS | SPREAD THE LOVE  |  September 07, 2010
    Boston-based blues-guitar virtuoso Ronnie Earl seems to be considering his past on his 23rd album as a leader.

 See all articles by: TED DROZDOWSKI

LATEST SLIDESHOWS

All Slideshows