If there's any justice, this should be a career-redefining performance on the order of Frank Sinatra's in "From Here to Eternity." The scenes between them are the best and most powerful element of "Patti Cake$." Everett's history of using her considerable weight and height as comic fuel in standup and cabaret made her a perfect choice for this role, but she's as strong in the arguments and drunk scenes as she is when she's singing or cracking wise. Like Prince's "Kid" in his 1984 movie breakthrough, who struggled to define himself apart from his dad ( Clarence Williams III), a failed professional pianist and wife-beating drunk, Patti is simultaneously inspired and embarrassed by Barb, a onetime rock singer who was on the verge of a commercial stardom when she got pregnant with Patti.īarb holds Patti's existence against her at the same time that she sincerely expresses love for her. The film turns into "Purple Rain" when it shifts focus to Patti's fraught relationship with her mother Barb, brilliantly played by actress and singer Bridget Everett. Of course they're wrong, because this film is " 8 Mile," with a big woman in the lead, and set not in Michigan but in the post-industrial jumble of northern New Jersey ( Bruce Springsteen country he even has a song on the soundtrack). ![]() A big white girl can't make it as a rapper, they tell her. ![]() There's also a strong element of flat-out sexism in young men's responses to her, whether they're black, white or brown. People constantly make fun of how fat she is and how white she is, sometimes at the same time, depending on the situation. Patti works a series of menial jobs while trying to make it as a rapper with the encouragement of her hip-hop-loving best friend Jhen ( Siddharth Dhananjay). Written and directed by filmmaker and musician Geremy Jasper, who also did the film's original soundtrack, it's the story of of a plus-sized, working class white teenager, Patti "Dumbo" Dombrowski ( Danielle Macdonald, an Australian actress making a sensational American debut). ![]() If "Patti Cake$" were a song, it would be the kind you hear on the radio and get excited about singing along with, until you realize it's not the song you thought, but another one that sounds like it and because you liked the first song, you like this one, too, and after hearing the new one a few times you start singing along it.
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