Review of The Cotton Club (1984) by Cameron J — 28 Aug 2011

I know he wrote it, but one can only wonder how many times they had to tell Francis Ford Coppola that they weren't actually sticking cotton in their mouths. See, a joke like that should tell you that I'm am drained of creative juices and it doesn't help that there's not much that's very outstanding film. It's just kind of bland and not terribly original, making it pretty easy to lose interest in the film. The film also suffers from a lack of development and slow spots. Also, although anthologies feel smoother when we see the stories are split into segments layered on top of each other, whether then whole back-to-back stories, there is still a very real chance that the transition between story segments with kind of throw you off. That's definately the case here, as the messy storytelling makes our jumps between the multiple segments feel rather bumpy. Also, Diane Lane puts on a pretty weak performance and although she's rarely given anything to do, she's not the most enjoyable thing to see, outside of the pretty face, of course. Still, that short leg isn't enough to knock the chair over, because the other performances, keep the film going, among other things.

The story is not terribly original nor complex, but still rather compelling and the fabulous production designs really bring everything to life. Coppola really knows how to bring life to this film's period in how he sets the tone and even though you've seen this period explored to death, it's still fascinating to see. What further captures the time are the performances, which - with the exception of Lane, of course - capture the time, but still enough spirit and charisma in them to make the characters strong ones. Wow, this review isn't as bad as I feared. I mean, it's pretty bad, but not as bad as the opening joke promised. I guess I'm just no good at jokes or producing enough sentences to close out a paragraph, leaving me to resort to this stupid monologue to close out this paragraph. Okay, let's just close this thing out.

Overall, although the lack of originality and the somewhat messy storytelling keep it from delivering as well as a Coppola gangster film should, "The Cotton Club" holds the fabulous production design and compelling, well-acted ensemble that make a film like this an enjoyable one.