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| Warm images of vivacious actors and the musical theme are front and center on this poster for John Sayles' Honeydripper |
Pine Top Purvis' Alabama bar is on the downturn in competition with a more popular newer establishment circa 1950, when a young man rides in to town on the train, bringing with him a gift for a different type of guitar-playing.
Honeydripper is written, directed and edited by great New-Yorker filmmaker John Sayles (Return of the Secaucus Seven (1980)).
Sayles' fiery lines and some warm, dedicated performances from Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon 4 (1998)), Charles S. Dutton (Android Cop (2014)), LisaGay Hamilton (The Blacklist (2019, TV-series)), young Gary Clark, Jr. (Elvis (2022)) and Yaya DaCosta (The Nice Guys (2016)) as China Doll, who have great chemistry, and Stacy Keach (Tokyo Trial (2017)) as the bastard local sheriff, all help make this slowly paced yarn worthwhile. Along the way you may think to yourself that, for the kind of story this is, it really isn't that great of a tale. But the aforementioned qualities make it work fine nonetheless, up until the film's marvelously rocking culmination. Sayles chooses to hold back in terms of violence and pathos, and his ode to early rock also works without these popular spices.
Related posts:
John Sayles: 2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2003 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Casa de los Babys (2003) - Sayles' great adoption drama
The Howling (1981) - Colorful escapade from Dante, Sayles et al. (co-writer)
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: Estimated 5 mil. $
Box office: 544k $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.10 times its cost)
[Honeydripper premiered 10 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 123 minutes. Shooting took place from September 2006 - ? in Alabama. The film opened #61 to a 9k $ weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #55 and in 26 theaters (different weeks), grossing 267k $ (49.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 168k $ (30.9 %) and Spain with 85k $ (15.6 %). The film won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches over this one. Sayles returned with Amigo (2010). Glover returned in Be Kind Rewind (2008); Hamilton in Deception (2008); and Dutton in The Third Nail (2007). Honeydripper is fresh at 69 % with a 6.50/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Honeydripper?
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