Honeydripper
Directed by John Sayles
By Paul Duder

It’s been a depressingly long while since one-time indie wunderkind John Sayles has roiled any waters beyond his own clannish film festival pond. And Honeydripper, a glossy exercise in presumption and cultural carpetbaggery masquerading as rock’n’roll creation myth, is unlikely to make any wider ripples.

Sayles’s sputtering narrative engine is Pinetop Purvis (a too world-weary to draw breath Danny Glover), an erstwhile itinerant piano man making a desperate stand with his Honeydripper Lounge, a last redoubt of authentic, acoustic (read: “morally pure”) blues in the hardscrabble rural South. In hock to landlord and suppliers, and haemorrhaging business to newer, trendier competitors Pinetop, in wheezy, “let’s put on a show” fashion, Purvis throws up a Hail Mary by blowing his wad on imported hotshot New Orleans axe man Guitar Sam.

When Guitar Sam succumbs to a bad case of “fortuitous plot complication,” Pinetop turns to Sonny, a young drifter with a weirdly square, homemade electric guitar. (Though this is a good decade after Les Paul plugged in, the locals are as bemused by this as Cro-Magnons around a monolith.)

True to the time, if not the audience’s thirst for a Marty McFly moment of thunderous zeitgeist realignment, Sonny’s licks aren’t all that scorching. Still, there is much amazement, and obligatory crosscutting with the gospel choir down the road (competing for souls, get it?), that Pinetop lives to vend booze another day. (Lost in the shuffle are Pinetop’s purist principles, thrown under the bus at the first whiff of the long green.)

Sayles relies unforgivably on stock types to populate his 1950 Alabama — Stacy Keach’s corrupt sheriff is particularly obvious — and burdens them only with the kind of genteel, idealised poverty (viz. Malcolm X’s Harlem) that doesn’t soil the clothes or the complexion. And his thesis, something about the inevitability of change, is hammered home with thudding monotony.

A bigger problem is Gary Clark Jr., a legitimate blues prodigy but rookie actor. As Sonny, he lacks the charisma to inhabit either the Elmer Gantry or the Chuck Berry side of his role, robbing the would-be ecstatic third act of its oomph.

Superficial, schematic and overlong at 123 minutes, Honeydripper feels like a well-intentioned genre exercise without a natural constituency. On the plus side, however: no Robert Plant. (Seville)
Dvd Reviews: Dante’s Inferno - Dir. by Victor Cook
Dvd Reviews: Daytime Drinking - Dir. by Young-Seok Noh
Dvd Reviews: The Godfather [Blu-Ray] - Dir. by Francis Ford Coppola
Film Reviews: Dear John - Dir. by Lasse Hallstrom
Film Reviews: Frozen - Dir. by Adam Green
Film Reviews: Saint John of Las Vegas - Dir. by Hue Rhodes
Film Reviews: From Paris With Love - Dir. by Pierre Morel
Dvd Reviews: Turner Classic Movies Sci-Fi Adventures
Dvd Reviews: Zombieland - Dir. by Ruben Fleischer
Dvd Reviews: Troubled Water - Dir. by Erik Poppe
Dvd Reviews: Wanda Sykes: I’ma Be Me - Dir. by Beth McCarthy
Music DVD Reviews: Various - GonerFest 4
Dvd Reviews: Surrogates - Dir. by Jonathan Mostow
Dvd Reviews: Turner Classic Movies Greatest Classic Films: Marx Brothers
Dvd Reviews: thirtysomething: The Complete Second Season
Dvd Reviews: Don’t You Forget About Me - Dir. by Matt Austin Sadowski
Dvd Reviews: Aziz Ansari - Intimate Moments for a Sensual Evening
Dvd Reviews: Amelia - Dir. by Mira Nair
Dvd Reviews: Small Wonder: The Complete First Season
Dvd Reviews: Whiteout - Dir. by Domenic Sena
Dvd Reviews: Free Style - Dir. by William Dear
Film Reviews: Edge of Darkness - Dir. by Martin Campbell
Film Reviews: When In Rome - Dir. by Mark Steven Johnson
Film Reviews: The Yes Men Fix the World - Dir. by Andy Bichlbaum, Mike Bonanno & Kurt Engfehr
Film Reviews: La Donation - Dir. by Bernard Emond
Dvd Reviews: Saw VI - Dir. by Kevin Greutert
Dvd Reviews: Mary & Max - Dir. by Adam Elliott
Dvd Reviews: Little Ashes - Dir. by Paul Morrison
Dvd Reviews: Black Belt Jones / Hot Potato / Black Samson / Three The Hard Way - Dir. by Robert Clouse; Oscar Williams; Charles Bail; Gordon Parks Jr.
Videogame Reviews: Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks [Nintendo DS]
Videogame Reviews: The Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces [Wii]
Film Reviews: Extraordinary Measures - Dir. by Tom Vaughan
Film Reviews: Petropolis: Aerial Perspective on the Alberta Tar Sands - Dir. by Peter Mettler
Film Reviews: Tooth Fairy - Dir. by Michael Lembeck
Film Reviews: The Last Station - Dir. by Michael Hoffman
Film Reviews: Creation - Dir. by Jon Amiel
Film Reviews: Creation - Dir. by Jon Amiel
Dvd Reviews: Moon [Blu-Ray] - Dir. by Duncan Jones
Music DVD Reviews: Exodus - Shovel Headed Tour Machine: Live At Wacken And Other Assorted Atrocities
Dvd Reviews: The Invention Of Lying [Blu-Ray] - Dir. by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson
Dvd Reviews: Pandorum - Dir. by Christian Alvart
Dvd Reviews: I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell - Dir. by Bob Gosse
Dvd Reviews: Weeds Season Five
Dvd Reviews: The Age Of Stupid - Dir. by Franny Armstrong
Dvd Reviews: Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs - Dir. by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller
Dvd Reviews: Whip It - Dir. by Drew Barrymore
Dvd Reviews: Adam - Dir. by Max Mayer
Dvd Reviews: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone: Ultimate Edition [Blu-Ray]
Harry Potter and the Chamber Of Secrets: Ultimate Edition [Blu-Ray] - Dir. by Chris Columbus
Dvd Reviews: According to Greta - Dir. by Nancy Bardawil
Dvd Reviews: Downloading Nancy - Dir. by Johan Renck
Dvd Reviews: Gamer - Dir. by Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor
Dvd Reviews: The Drummer - Dir. by Kenneth Bi
Dvd Reviews: Outrage - Dir. by Kirby Dick
Thin Lizzy - Are You Ready
Shot in 1981 for German TV series Rockpalast, Are You Ready doesn't showcase the late Phil Lynott and company at their peak, but this DVD still rocks. The popular notion about Ireland's Thin Lizzy is that the band declined after the 1978 landmark double album, Live and Dangerous... Full Review
Toro y Moi - Causers of This
Last year's most exhilarating subgenre alternated between the ridiculous names of "chillwave" and "glo-fi." Chaz Bundick, or Toro y Moi, may be the last of the bunch to have his say, but he has two reasons to be excited: Causers of This is the first of two albums he's prepared for 2010 and he... Full Review
Dallas and Travis Good
The centre of Blue Rodeo's universe is a non-descript building on the Danforth in Toronto, housing their management company Starfish Entertainment and their renowned Woodshed Recording Studio. If the band have any roommates at the Woodshed, then it's the Sadies.... Read More
Viewing the February 2008 Issue: • Contents Page • News • Click Hear • Articles --> On the Cover  •  Front Five  •  Points  •  Questionnaire  •  Readers Poll  •  Release Dates  •  Timeline  •  Videogames  •  Web Exclusives • Music Reviews --> Recently Reviewed  •  Aggressive Tendencies  •  Beats & Rhymes  •  Destination Out  •  Frequencies  •  No Future  •  Pop Rocks  •  Wood, Wires & Whiskey  •  Concert Reviews • Motion Reviews --> Recently Reviewed  •  Dvd Reviews  •  Film Reviews  •  Music DVD Reviews  •  Videogame Reviews • Music School --> Label Life  •  Meet & Greet  •  Need to Know  •  Where I play • Contests • Contact --> About Us  • Advertising  • Distribution  • Getting Reviewed  • Getting Published  • Letters To The Editor  • Partnerships  • Subscriptions • Exclaim! Radio --> Aggressive Tendencies Radio  • Beats & Rhymes Radio  • Frequencies Radio  • Destination Out Radio  • Groove Radio  • No Future Radio  • Pop Rocks Radio  • Wood, Wires & Whiskey Radio • Exclaim! TV • Home & Latest Issue • Browse Issues