
1950. Rural Alabama. Cotton harvest. It's a make-or-break weekend for the Honeydripper Lounge and its owner, piano player Tyrone "Pine Top" Purvis. Deep in debt to the liquor man, the chicken man, and the landlord, Tyrone is desperate to lure the young cotton pickers and local Army base recruits into his juke joint, away from Touissant's, the rival joint across the way. His plan to hire a guitar legend go awry and Tyrone is forced to take drastic action in a final scheme to s... (Full plot summary below)
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1950. Rural Alabama. Cotton harvest. It's a make-or-break weekend for the Honeydripper Lounge and its owner, piano player Tyrone "Pine Top" Purvis. Deep in debt to the liquor man, the chicken man, and the landlord, Tyrone is desperate to lure the young cotton pickers and local Army base recruits into his juke joint, away from Touissant's, the rival joint across the way. His plan to hire a guitar legend go awry and Tyrone is forced to take drastic action in a final scheme to save the club.
Leave your thoughts about Honeydripper.
| ComingSoon.netEdward DouglasFalls quite short of its mark, mostly due to the poor casting as well as a deathly slow pace that far too often veers away from [the film's] greatest strength, which is the music. |
| Killer Movie ReviewsAndrea Chaselike a rich and complex novel rendered as a visual experience that is equally rich and as unabashedly poetic in its images as Sayles is with his metaphors |
| Chicago ReaderJonathan RosenbaumDanny Glover, as hard-rock reliable as Spencer Tracy in his prime, plays onetime pianist Tyrone "Pine Top" Purvis. |
| Flipside Movie EmporiumRob VauxAny time Sayles clicks with his material this succinctly, the results are thrilling. |
| One Guy's OpinionFrank SwietekThe cumulative effect is very tasty indeed. |
| Combustible CelluloidJeffrey M. AndersonJohn Sayles returns with another literate, professional, yet highly enjoyable film. |
| Washington PostAnn HornadayTrudging 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. |
| I.E. WeeklyAmy NicholsonThe only surprise in all this scripted sentiment is its apparent conclusion that maybe the blues deserve to be dead |
| New York TimesStephen HoldenHoneydripper is agreeable, well-intentioned and very, very slow. Sadly, it illustrates the difference between an archetype and a stereotype. When the first falls flat, it turns into the other and becomes a cliché. |
| L.A. WeeklyErnest HardyHoneydripper is classic Sayles cinema: an insightful sketch of assorted common folk whose criss-crossing dreams and agendas unfold against larger, more powerful (and sometimes crushing) sociopolitical and cultural forces. |