As this year’s white ‘Precious’… plus-sized rapper Patti (Danielle Macdonald) steals the hearts of film critics with this down-on-her-luck-underdog-tale of a young woman Straight Outta Newark.
For Patti Cakes, a.k.a Killa-P, a.k.a Dumbo (to the neighborhood idiots) life is just a vicious cycle of waitressing gigs, bill collectors and her drunken mother. But, Patti dreams of being a famous rapper. Her bedroom walls are lined with her gold-toothed-rapping heroes. She imagines herself with them…performing duets, chocolate cherries, and smoke machines. The crowds, of course, screaming for more.
But unlike films before (Hustle and Flow, 8 Mile) Patti handles life in an endearing way with a raw energy of humility. The voice in her head is one of hope. If you live it, you can become it; and she takes a kind/karmic route to achieve it. Granted, her lyrics are rough-and-tough-nasty – a means to escape the anger that she harbors deep inside – but her compassion shines. Her mother, Barbara (Bridget Everett’s) pain surfaces about her men who walked out, her mother, Nana, (Cathy Moriarty) who’s dying, as life is all just a burden in a bottle. But on a deeper emotional level, she too once had aspirations as a singer with her intense ballad voice (think of the band ‘Heart’).
If Eminem’s mother (portrayed by Kim Basinger) was soft and wounded, Everett’s character is vulnerable…trapped…despicable but likeable.You’ll be seeing a lot more of Everett whose next project is a comedy-thriller for Netflix, and an Amazon series called Love You More co-written with Micahel Patrick King (Sex and the City) and Bobcat Goldthwait. But for now, you’ll recognize her as a woman who often belts out songs on Inside Amy Schumer.
These unlikable, albeit likable, women in Patti Cake$ is what makes this film unique. When Patti finagles a foursome for her song “PB & J” we feel a contagious love for her music. She creates and raps along with an Indian Pharmacist (Siddharth Dhanajay), a one-eyed homeless Anarchist (Mamoudou Athie), and her cranky Nana in a wheelchair, as back-up singer.
Patti is their Dorothy and this is their Oz. In one scene, with the four of them walking in slow-mo through New Jersey, you just chuckle with delight as the misfits do their best. [note that Patti’s favorite rapper is called O.Z. in the movie.]
This is the first feature film of the fall already generating Oscar buzz. It’s helmed by commercial and music-video director, Geremy Jasper. Sure, we’ve seen this tale before, but he manages to spin it just enough to get traction. The irony is while these misfits want to be discovered, Patti and friends provide more camaraderie, measured by their affection, rather than their successes.
Eminem’s lyrics to “Lose Yourself” – you only get one shot –are a thing of a decade-past, but you’ll feel that same vibe for Patti. And, you’ll be singing ‘PB & J, PB & J’ all the way home, because as Terrance Howard once sang in Hustle & Flow “It’s Hard out there for a Pimp…when he’s tryin’ to get the money for the rent.” 4 tiaras