Honeydripper: Critic Reviews

The large cast is admirable, but the joint doesn't so much jump as shuffle earnestly from foot to foot.

Honeydripper, directed by John Sayles, is a shambling fusion of pop mythology and social mosaic.

Trudging nobly under a mantle of impeccably earnest intentions and a fussy, too-quaint-by-half production design, Honeydripper lags and drags to its utterly predictable end. There's not a spark of spontaneity or soul about it.

Has John Sayles finally lost his mojo?

Honeydripper takes forever to develop its characters, its period and its location. But once it's done all that, the payoffs are rich.

It survives on its versatile leads, its smoky cinematography (courtesy of Dick Pope) and its seductive musical performances, which run from gospel to jazz to blues to the to the electrifying kick-start of early rock 'n' roll.

Moviemaking seems to have become almost magically easy for this independent writer-director.

[Sayles is] more concerned with spinning a ground-level human comedy than searching for pie in the sky. His movie is rich with characters and flowing with music.

While this may not be the rowdiest birth-of-rock-'n'-roll film ever made -- it's very likely the least rowdy -- Sayles addresses a transitional moment in his own patient, precise way.

The wonderful cast, mainly black, carries it all with ease, even sailing past occasional false moments.

John Sayles is a natural storyteller and national treasure, dedicated to spinning narratives of America, state by state, into a vibrant quilt of 20th-century American history.

A musical period piece that manages to be lighthearted and socially conscious.

It's a solid history lesson that's less solid as a movie, simply because so much of the weight seems to be crammed into a too-fragile framework. As a film, Honeydripper is fine history put to less fine use.

In the endearing musical time-piece Honeydripper, the indie icon [Sayles] lets his narrative gifts take the lead and the social issues follow like a tight bass line.

Written and directed by the indefatigable indie idol John Sayles, the movie is well-acted, but it's as talky as if it were written for the stage, with fatally slow pacing.

Honeydripper, by veteran American director John Sayles, shows just how much life music can give to a movie.

A contemplative fable, Honeydripper locates the moment but misses the heart-pounding, gut-wrenching explosion -- the history is there, the thrill isn't.

A leisurely, atmospheric production with lots of time to appreciate [Sayles'] largely African-American cast, along with rocking musical interludes and just the faintest wash of spirituality.

The film does feature a host of interesting characters and, as always with Sayles, the dialogue has more than a few zingers.

Together with production designer Toby Corbett and costume designer Hope Hanafin, they get their visual cues from the narrative and the music, creating a rich, down-to-earth environment where violence and magic seem equally possible.

An engaging and inspirational tale... handled with graceful understatement.