Patti Cake$

(spoiler free)

‘Patti Cake$’ is the story of a young woman living in New Jersey who has aspirations of escaping her current life by becoming a successful rapper. Certainly not a story with much of a wide appeal but isn’t that the beauty of film, that through movies we can experience stories that wouldn’t normally by our kind of thing? With a lot of festival love too ‘Patti Cake$’ was looking to be quality as well as something a little different.

At first the film is a slightly challenging to engage with due to it’s unique content. It was a slight concern that the movie would be nothing more than a montage of spitting bars and rap battles. However, as the film begins to focus more on it’s characters and the story it becomes much more enjoyable. The narrative focuses on a family of three generations of women and each of their different struggles. It’s an underdog story with a massive injection of drama and it’s this kind of narrative which makes the film accessible to all audiences regardless of their preference for all things rap. Whilst the overall story might seem a little naive at points you can’t blame the writer, Geremy Jasper, for being optimistic and uplifting. It’s his story to tell and through his direction he tells it well. Testament to this is the fact that at first I struggled with the rap scenes but by the end of the movie I was loving them!

Danielle Macdonald plays the titular ‘Patti Cake$’ in a convincing manner, she nails her rapping persona ‘Killa P’ but also the more raw humanity of her character too. This character very much acts as the middle (wo)man between her mother and grandmother. Both of which are played very well by Bridget Everett & Cathy Moriarty respectively. It was Everett’s performance which always caught my attention the most though, for me making her the most interesting character of the film. The chemistry between the three actresses is solid creating a deeper dynamic for the film. There are supporting performances from Siddharth Dhananjay & Mamoudou Athie playing some of the most unique characters you’ll see all year, offering another level of entertainment to this strangely infectious movie.

Don’t be put off by the unusual subject matter for ‘Patti Cake$’ as whilst it might take a while to get accustomed to it’s content once you do it becomes a joy to watch. The musical scenes are well executed and you’ll be spitting the featured bars for days after the credits role. All the performances carry off this simple but worthwhile story effectively making for one of the best cinematic surprises of the year.

Rating – 7/10

Question: What is your favourite underdog story film?
(Leave your answers in the comments section below!)

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