Patti Cake$ (2017)

Jack and I enjoyed this story of a white, plus-size, female rapper hoping for fame and fortune to escape her hard New Jersey life. Danielle Macdonald (new to me but not to the business) is terrific as Patricia AKA Killa P. From Australia, she had to learn a Jersey accent and to rap but we never guessed from seeing her on screen. Comedian/cabaret singer Bridget Everett (five episodes of Inside Amy Schumer, Trainwreck) is also wonderful as P's mean mom Barb. There's a mention in the movie of Precious, as a taunt about P's weight, but it made me think of the similar casting, with comedienne Mo'Nique as an even meaner mom. Everett uses her singing skills in this movie to great effect. You can hear her chops in this clip from Jimmy Fallon's show (first an interview, then at 4:32 a preview from this movie, then at 6:00 she belts out Piece of My Heart to a standing ovation--I literally got chills listening).

Siddharth Dhananjay, a rapper/singer in his own right making his movie debut, plays P's best friend and bandmate Jheri. Here's some back story on the actor and a video of him. Cathy Moriarty (nominated for Best Supporting Actress in her first ever gig Raging Bull (1980), then I liked  Soapdish (1991), Forget Paris (1995), Gloria (1999), But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), and Analyze That (2002), to name a few) brings life to P's Nana and Mamoudou Athie (new to me despite two series and more) is good as the mysterious Basterd. Anthony Ramos (from the original cast of Hamilton and soon to star in the Netflix series based on Spike Lee's She's Gotta Have It (1986)) plays a recording engineer in a cameo. I have submitted two corrections to imdb: as of today Athie's character is unnamed and Ramos isn't mentioned.

This is the feature debut of director/writer Geremy Jasper, and he and his movie were nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the Golden Camera at Cannes, among other wins and and nominations. A New Jersey native, he wrote all the rap lyrics.

For us sensitive people, this movie will cause Motion-Picture-Motion Sickness or MPMS. It's going on my running list. I advise medication, watching from the last row, looking away from the screen occasionally, waiting for its digital release (estimated November 2017), or all of the above.

Rotten Tomatoes' critics and audiences like this one, too, averaging 83 and 80%. If you don't hate rap you'll like this movie.