The Cotton Club (1984)

So much average

hyped garbage

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club is every bit as dazzling, chaotic and decadent as one might imagine the roaring twenties would have been. it's set in and revolves around the titular jazz club, conducting a boisterous, kaleidoscope study of the various dames, dapper gents, hoodlums, harlots and musicians who called it home. Among them are would be gangster Dixie Dwyer (a slick Richard Gere), Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines), a young Bumpy Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) and renowned psychopathic mobster Dutch Schultz (a ferocious James Remar). Coppola wisely ducks a routine plot line in favor of a helter skelter, raucous cascade of delirious partying, violence and steamy romance, a stylistic choice almost reminiscent of Robert Altman. Characters come and go, fight and feud, drink and dance and generally keep up the kind of manic energy and pizazz that only the 20's could sustain. The cast is positively stacked, so watch for appearances from Nicolas Case, Bob Hoskins, Diane Lane, John P. Ryan, James Russo, Fred Gwynne, Allen Garfield, Ed O Ross, Diane Venora, Woody Strode, Giancarlo Esposito, Bill Cobbs, Sofia Coppola and singer Tom Waits as Irving Stark, the club's owner. It's a messily woven tapestry of crime and excess held together by brief encounters, hot blooded conflict and that ever present jazz music which fuels the characters along with the perpetual haze of booze and cigarette smoke. Good times.

"The Cotton Club" deserves all manner of praise for its lavish production values and recreation of prohibition-ear Harlem. The sets, the costumes, even the cast. Such set dressing (almost) makes up for the messy narrative and lack of focus. It's not a movie I'll revisit anytime soon, but it's worth a watch just for the soundtrack, musical numbers (that tap-dancing was something) and the laundry list of performers. This was like a who's who of future "Miami Vice" guest stars, not to mention how many actual names are present here. If only the rest of the movie wasn't such a slog.Even still, Bob Hoskins walks away with the whole movie, and such an ability is always worth a look.5/10

Francis Ford Coppola reunites with Mario Puzo to deliver another gangster film, this one revolving around the infamous Cotton Club in Harlem starting in the year 1928. To those hoping for another Godfather, it must have been somewhat disappointing - this is just not another Godfather movie, despite the similar milieu. The script isn't nearly as tight, and the all-star cast, despite being mostly good, isn't anywhere near as good as the Godfather ensemble. Personally, I'd take it over at least the third Godfather film any day of the week (that one was nominated for Best Picture; this film must have had similar aspirations, getting released near Christmas of 1984, but it only garnered two noms, for art direction and editing). The film is kind of Altman-esque with the way it follows multiple story lines (my first thought was "I wonder what Altman could have done with it?" but then I remember his own film of a similar vein, Kansas City, was a dud). None of them are particularly fantastic, truth be told, but all are serviceable. Richard Gere is the closest thing we have to a protagonist, as a cornet player who becomes a right-hand man to a gangster (James Remar). Diane Lane becomes romantically entangled with the both of them, but ends up with the gangster. Another plot line follows dancer Gregory Hines' romantic pursuit of the light skinned singer Lonette McKee. Bob Hoskins and Fred Gwynne play gangsters who co-own the Cotton Club. Nicolas Cage plays Gere's brother, who also becomes a gangster. The real worth of the film, though, is just the wonderful milieu and the awesome musical and dance numbers. Near the end of the film, Cab Calloway becomes the Cotton Club's premier musical talent (he's played by Larry Marshall). Perhaps this isn't great, but it's definitely worthwhile.

Richard Gere is a trumpet and piano player who is hired by the famous gangster Dutch Schultz to provide some music at parties and to squire around Dutch's girl friend, Diane Lane, when Dutch is busy browbeating and killing people elsewhere. Gere and Lane fall for each other. Complications ensue. There is a sub plot involving alienation between Gregory Hines and his brother, a duo tap-dancing act, and they finally make up. The plot centers around -- or whirls around -- the Cotton Club, a fashionable night club in Harlem in which talented African-Americans provided entertainment for rich white couples and celebrities.Frankly, I found myself confused about some of the turns in the plot. The one thing I was able to keep straight is that all the murderers and thick-necked traitorous goons were white, while the black folk were all good. Dutch Schultz (James Remar) is particularly contemptible. The guy has no sense of humor. He's always scowling. And he gives too many orders like, "Get me a cigar," and "Tie my shoes," and "Where is my garter belt?" After a scuffle with Richard Gere and Gregory Hines in The Cotton Club, he and his sour henchmen drive to The Palace Chop House in Newark, New Jersey, where they are shot to pieces by a rival gang. I was honestly glad to see Schultz get it. With Newark the way it is today, I don't think he'd have made it as far as the chop house.The Cotton Club was famous, really famous, and Harlem was aboom in the 1920s and part of the 30s. Duke Ellington played there, Fletcher Henderson, Cab Calloway, everybody who was anybody. It was called "going slumming" and was a must-visit for movie stars. An unrecognizable Diane Venora plays Gloria Swanson, who gets Gere a job as an actor in a Hollywood movie.How does is the Cotton Club's entertainment fitted into the movie? Not so neatly. There are some great performers, including "Honey" Coles, and Coppola lets the camera roll while they do their stuff -- once in a while, for two or three numbers. But he makes the same mistake he made with Fred Astaire in "Finian's Rainbow." Too often he cuts directly from a dancer's upper torso to a close up of the dancer's feet. And the cuts are too fast to allow the audience to appreciate what's going on. And there is a LOT going on during a well-choreographed dance, with the performer's whole body involved. I can say this with some certainty because I studied dance and, after a good deal of effort, found that, as a dancer, I had all the finely honed skills of a performing seal. It really puzzled me. I asked myself, "Self, what the hell is wrong with your kinetic sense?", but the answer was a confusing explanation of myoneural plates and I gave up trying to understand. Some people have it. Some don't.Richard Gere is the central figure and he does all right by the role. He's edgier and more impulsive than ever, which is saying a lot. When he gets the proper role, Gere can do it to death, although I must say I found him no more than adequate as my supporting player in the poetic masterpiece, "No Mercy." I had to carry the kid through the whole picture by giving him sound advice like, "Just say your lines and make sure you don't look at the camera". And, I swear, whoever dubbed his trumpet solos couldn't find anything inventive in the subdued variations on the melodic theme. Listen to Gere's solos and then listen to a CD of Bix Beiderbecke or Louis Armstrong.