My dad is a huge blues fan, and when I was a very affected mod/new wave teenager in the 1980s, he would sneak me into his favorite haunts to see what I now know was some pretty legendary stuff. So when I ran across the opening credits whilst cruising Showtime, I was immediately hooked by the first of many searingly authentic blues club scenes. Obviously, the key people attached to this movie really gave a shite about this hard-to-pin-down genre of music.
All throughout the film, it was the excellence of those key people that really made the movie so great. Morgan Simpson, co-writer, producer, and central actor brings a lot to this movie, and he managed to attract some heavy hitters like just about every other actor, especially Tom Skerritt and Michael Clark Duncan, and the criminally undersung Mario Van Peebles as director. There must have been a huge amount of synergy between Van Peebles and Simpson, because their movie is very fully realized, artfully shot, and brings alive the characters with amazing depth of emotion. Yes, I too cried.
My favorite movies are made by guys like Polanski, Scorcese and P.T. Anderson, who totally commit to every aspect of their project, and this movie has that passion. I can see where some might find the storyline and ending, and some of the "fortune cookie" platitudes a bit trite, but I understand: this is an unabashedly sentimental film refreshingly absent of the jadedness/irony/ennui in which many indie directors overindulge.
I read a review in an Austin paper in which the reviewer really savages Morgan Simpson's acting performance. She could not be more wrong. I had never seen this actor before, but after being very affected by the depth of his performance, I looked up the movie on IMDb, and saw that he was very key to the overall production of the film, which impressed me even more. And after looking at his fresh-faced photo on his bio page, I got the sense that he really inhabited his character, because he was quite physically transformed into a rather crusty, shady guy whom you really don't want to like, but end up shedding tears for.
All in all, a surprising big film that also feels very dark horse. Love it.
All throughout the film, it was the excellence of those key people that really made the movie so great. Morgan Simpson, co-writer, producer, and central actor brings a lot to this movie, and he managed to attract some heavy hitters like just about every other actor, especially Tom Skerritt and Michael Clark Duncan, and the criminally undersung Mario Van Peebles as director. There must have been a huge amount of synergy between Van Peebles and Simpson, because their movie is very fully realized, artfully shot, and brings alive the characters with amazing depth of emotion. Yes, I too cried.
My favorite movies are made by guys like Polanski, Scorcese and P.T. Anderson, who totally commit to every aspect of their project, and this movie has that passion. I can see where some might find the storyline and ending, and some of the "fortune cookie" platitudes a bit trite, but I understand: this is an unabashedly sentimental film refreshingly absent of the jadedness/irony/ennui in which many indie directors overindulge.
I read a review in an Austin paper in which the reviewer really savages Morgan Simpson's acting performance. She could not be more wrong. I had never seen this actor before, but after being very affected by the depth of his performance, I looked up the movie on IMDb, and saw that he was very key to the overall production of the film, which impressed me even more. And after looking at his fresh-faced photo on his bio page, I got the sense that he really inhabited his character, because he was quite physically transformed into a rather crusty, shady guy whom you really don't want to like, but end up shedding tears for.
All in all, a surprising big film that also feels very dark horse. Love it.