Who's in It: Eric Abrams, Gary Clark, Jr., Yaya DaCosta, Charles S. Dutton, Danny Glover, Albert Hall, Vondie Curtis-Hall, Lisa Gay Hamilton, Stacy Keach, Keb' Mo', Mary Steenburgen, Sean Patrick Thomas, Kel Mitchell
The Basics: A slice of life drama set in the 1950s-era rural South, it's centered on an African-American-owned juke joint called Honeydripper that's in desperate need of a cash influx. A famous blues guitarist is booked to draw a crowd, but he doesn't show. In his place, a young drifter gets his chance to prove he's as good as he says he is. But that's just the centering plot. It's mostly about the molasses-like changes that take place in a small town just before the big changes came along that pushed everyone forward whether they wanted to be pushed or not.
What's the Deal? You can't say John Sayles makes bad movies. If you've seen Matewan or Eight Men Out then you know that's not true. And he's just too meticulous and earnest and serious about everything he does to throw that kind of criticism at him and not make yourself look like a fool. But he does often make slow movies. Really slow movies. Really slow movies that bore me to tears more times than not. But I'm not everyone. He's had that NPR audience eating out of his easy-going art-house hands for a long time now. So maybe it's just me.
Southern Cliché-O-Meter: Blind bluesmen + cotton fields + juke joint antics + cracker sheriffs + homespun wisdom = a much more authentic film than, say, Ralph Macchio's Crossroads, but still …
Castmember Who Has the Most Groan-Worthy Dialogue: Danny Glover. Because being in Beloved wasn't enough for him.
Surprises: Kel, of Kenan & Kel fame, is in this! I sort of lost track of him after Good Burger and that kooky Dance 360 TV show. So now you know where he went off to. And you America's Next Top Model followers will recognize Yaya [DaCosta] as Danny Glover's daughter. She was the one who came in second to Eva. If you remember stuff like this then you're a useless-information-collecting nerd, too.