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MOVIES / ON DVD / HONEYDRIPPER
Honeydripper

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Honeydripper (2007)

67%
83%
100%
N/A
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67 %
Reviews Counted: 70 Fresh: 47  Rotten:23 Average Rating: 6.5/10
 
Consensus: Electric musical numbers and sharp performances make for an exciting film. Honeydripper's electric musical numbers and sharp performances make for an exciting film, despite its slow pace. more
 
Rated: PG
Runtime: 2 hrs 3 mins
Theatrical Release: 09-05-2008
Synopsis:
Iconoclastic filmmaker John Sayles, in his feature film, continues his extraordinary examination of the complexities and shifting identities of American sub-cultures in the new film Honeydripper.With his usual understated intelligence, Sayles uses the rhythms of the citizens of... [More]
Iconoclastic filmmaker John Sayles, in his feature film, continues his extraordinary examination of the complexities and shifting identities of American sub-cultures in the new film Honeydripper.With his usual understated intelligence, Sayles uses the rhythms of the citizens of Harmony, Alabama to immerse the audience into the world of the Jim Crow south. It’s a fable about the birth of rock n’ roll—a quintessentially American subject, but with a fidelity to time and temperament that is unusual in an American director.

It’s 1950 and it’s a make or break weekend for Tyrone Purvis (Danny Glover), the proprietor of the Honeydripper Lounge. Deep in debt, Tyrone is desperate to bring back the crowds that used to come to his place. He decides to lay off his long-time blues singer Bertha Mae, and announces that he’s hired a famous guitar player, Guitar Sam, for a one night only gig in order to save the club.

Into town drifts Sonny Blake, a young man with nothing to his name but big dreams and the guitar case in his hand. Rejected by Tyrone when he applies to play at the Honeydripper, he is intercepted by the corrupt local Sheriff, arrested for vagrancy and rented out as an unpaid cotton picker to the highest bidder. But when Tyrone's ace-in-the-hole fails to materialize at the train station, his desperation leads him back to Sonny and the strange, wire-dangling object in his guitar case. The Honeydripper lounge is all set to play its part in rock n' roll history.

Honeydripper features an all-star cast including Danny Glover, Charles S. Dutton, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Stacy Keach, Mary Steenburgen,Yaya DaCosta and Sean Patrick Thomas; as well as such notable musicians as Keb’ Mo’ and Dr. Mable John. It also introduces a major new talent, Gary Clark Jr. who makes his electrifying film debut as Sonny. debut as Sonny. --© Emerging Films [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Danny Glover, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Charles S. Dutton, Mary Steenburgen, Gary Clark

Director: John Sayles
Screenwriter: John Sayles
Producer: Maggie Renzi
Composer: Mason Daring

DVD Info

Release:

Dec 6, 2009

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Snap Case
  • Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.78

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English
  • Subtitles - English (SDH), Spanish - Optional

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - Director's Commentary
  • Featurette - Behind the Scenes
  • Interviews

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
05/09/08 03:15 AM
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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Click to read the article

Full Review | Comment
05/08/08 03:15 AM
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
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This isn't the kind of flashy Big Issue movie that makes people stand up and take notice. It's quiet and moody, with outbursts of strong emotion and energy.

Full Review | Comment
05/01/08 03:15 AM
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
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inert

Full Review | Comment
04/02/08 05:22 PM
Walter Chaw
Film Freak Central
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In this allegory, you understand, times change and troubles stay the same.

Full Review | Comment
03/21/08 09:20 AM
Cynthia Fuchs
PopMatters
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... a tone deaf movie, filled with obvious, overly expository dialogue and sometimes patronizing symbols.

Full Review | Comment
03/21/08 06:35 AM
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
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The movie's central story is too slight and predictable to justify all the embroidery Sayles adds around the edges.

Full Review | Comment
03/17/08 03:44 PM
Sean Means
Salt Lake Tribune
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Never reaches its full tempo

Full Review | Comment
03/14/08 04:39 PM
Donald Munro
Fresno Bee
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Those who are patient will be rewarded with an engaging cast and the type of rousing ending that makes it worthwhile.

Full Review | Comment
03/13/08 05:07 PM
Jeff Vice
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
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The cumulative effect is very tasty indeed.

Full Review | Comment
03/10/08 08:26 AM
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion
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It survives on its versatile leads, its smoky cinematography (courtesy of Dick Pope) and its seductive musical performances, which run from gospel to jazz to blues to the to the electrifying kick-start of early rock 'n' roll.

Full Review | Comment
03/07/08 01:39 PM
Amy Biancolli
Houston Chronicle
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John Sayles is back in the saddle with another film in his regional cinema series

Full Review | Comment
03/06/08 10:11 PM
Marty Mapes
Movie Habit
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like a rich and complex novel rendered as a visual experience that is equally rich and as unabashedly poetic in its images as Sayles is with his metaphors

Full Review | Comment
03/04/08 04:33 PM
Andrea Chase
Killer Movie Reviews
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Even more than the music in this musically rich picture, the great pleasure of Honeydripper is in watching Danny Glover as Tyrone Purvis, the club owner.

Full Review | Comment
02/29/08 02:33 PM
Mick LaSalle
San Francisco Chronicle
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Honeydripper is a pleasant enough story, but when Sayles is involved, it is a shock to feel so little.

Full Review | Comment
02/29/08 02:29 PM
Mary F. Pols
Contra Costa Times
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With its cotton-field locations, diddley-bo props and scripted nods toward blues history and mythology, 'Honeydripper' somehow feels touristy rather than authentic -- as if it were a product of research rather than passion.

Full Review | Comment
02/29/08 07:55 AM
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
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John Sayles returns with another literate, professional, yet highly enjoyable film.

Full Review | Comment
02/29/08 03:15 AM
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid
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Although Honeydripper won a screenplay award at the San Sebastián Film Festival, it's not Sayles' strongest work. Part of the problem is that it keeps building to a rock-'n'-roll payoff that never quite arrives.

Full Review | Comment
02/22/08 01:45 PM
John Hartl
Seattle Times
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With each turn of events being telegraphed well in advance, there are no surprises in Sayles' script. The cast, however, headed by Glover's complex portrait of a man plagued by his past, is fresh enough to cover the stale plot mechanics.

Full Review | Comment
02/22/08 01:41 PM
Bill White
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
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Trudging nobly under a mantle of impeccably earnest intentions and a fussy, too-quaint-by-half production design, Honeydripper lags and drags to its utterly predictable end. There's not a spark of spontaneity or soul about it.

Full Review | Comment
02/21/08 11:47 AM
Ann Hornaday
Washington Post
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