Review of The Cotton Club (1984) by Dawdlingpoet — 26 Nov 2021

This is quite a stylish watch - its dark and gritty, with a bit of a film noir feel to it, although its obviously in colour but its very much gangster centered, with some scenes taking place in really quite literally dark conditions, which make it a little hard to ascertain exactly whats going on. Needless to say, there's a fair amount of violence present - bloody violence. There is, as you may expect, quite a lot of jazz music present, as we see the various performers who played sets in the titular club, including those by non-whites and indeed I felt sympathy towards those artists who had issues being allowed in to the club, where their invited to perform, considering their not allowed to enter as a paying customer. I noticed the irony of the name of the club and what it represents to non-Whites (i.e. slavery).

The musical sets feature some reasonably slick choreography and reminded me a bit of the film Cabaret I suppose.

Also needless to say, there is some moderately strong language present, including numerous instances of racial slurs. This film is set in the late 1920s, so racism is very much rife and this film certainly doesn't shy away from that. There are also some slurs towards Jews (anti-semitism?) by the local gangsters.

Acting wise, I found it interesting seeing Richard Gere and Nicolas Cage playing characters in this film. Richard Gere certainly looks very fresh faced in his role as Dixie Dwyer. Also present is Bob Hoskins, who makes me think of Roger Rabbit since that film must have been made only a few years later I suppose, although that film is certainly more family friendly than The Cotton Club.

Overall I enjoyed this film and I would recommend it to others.