The irresistibly charming “Patti Cake$” follows the eponymous
character — a white, plus-sized young woman from New Jersey — as she fights to
make her dreams of hip-hop stardom come true. Like many underdog stories, the
plot sticks to a tried and true formula, but it forges through any rough
patches on the strength of a spectacular performance from Australian actress
Danielle Macdonald.
Macdonald
stars as Patti Dombrowski, aka “Killa
P” to her few fans and “Dumbo” by pretty much everyone else. Alongside her
pharmacist best friend, Jhen (Siddharth Dhananjay), Patti passes the time with freestyle rap
battles between working menial jobs to help pay off her family’s
rapidly-mounting bills.
The pair
eventually join forces with another outcast, a moody anarchist metal musician
known as Basterd (Mamoudou Athie) — and the crew even recruits Patti’s supportive,
no-nonsense gran (Cathy Moriarty) to contribute some vocals — as they cobble
together a demo CD they hope might lead to some actual paying gigs, and set out
to take the world by storm.
Of course,
Patti faces setbacks and suffers nonbelievers who try to hold her back. Chief
among these naysayers is her alcoholic mother, Barb (played by a wonderful
Bridget Everett), and their fraught relationship forms the film’s chief
conflict. Barb loves her daughter, but also holds onto a fair amount of
resentment over the dissolution of her own dreams of a music career — dreams
she gave up when she became pregnant with Patti. Now she lives them out by
drunkenly belting karaoke after she’s plied her daughter for free drinks at the
tavern where Patti tends bar.
In keeping
with the artform “Patti Cake$” pays affectionate
tribute to, writer-director Geremy Jasper (who also
produced much of the film’s excellent original soundtrack) samples freely from
what’s come before. You’ll recognize some “8 Mile,” with shades of “Hairspray”
and a smidge of “Rocky” in there as well. But aside from a love story subplot
that doesn’t quite come together, the results are undeniably crowd-pleasing.
Working with
director of photography Federico Cesca, Jasper brings
a nice visual style to the film, especially in rendering Patti’s frequent
daydreams, in which she imagines herself impressing her idol, a local hip-hop
producer known as O-Z (Sahr Ngaujah).
But what
holds it all together is Danielle Macdonald’s career-making performance.
Balancing Patti’s vulnerability with a brash confidence that comes out when
she’s spitting rhymes, she’s a force of nature on screen. And one that’s
impossible not to root for.
Check back on Friday for additional film coverage, including a review of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon’s “The Trip to Spain.”
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2017.
