Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club was everything I hoped it’d be, it’s a great Harlem-set crime drama with a few romantic subplots to be charmed by, and with its impressively built connection to the time-period and location it’s portraying, a collection of great performances from a fun cast, and a technical experience that reminded me why Coppola is one of the greats I couldn’t be happier with the experience I got from this. I’ve only ever seen Richard Gere in one other movie, that being the not-so-serious comedy role he took in Chicago so seeing him excel in this drama role was a lot of fun, I really like him as a lead man and I’m now excited to check out what else he’s done in his career. Out of the whole cast my standout was definitely James Remar who also earned a lot more appreciation from me with this role, I haven’t seen enough 80’s movies but this is one of my new favorite villain performances from the decade as he completely took over the screen in his every scene and he was a delight. Supporting roles from Nic Cage, Gregory Hines, Bob Hoskins, Laurence Fishburne (in the one or two scenes he actually talked), and especially Diane Lane were all so good and added to the magic Gere and Remar were bringing. I’m also a fan of this screenplay, I know nothing about the source material but I loved how they brought scenes together and the dialogue writing was very effective throughout which I’m sure was due to Coppola’s involvement there. Speaking of how they brought the scenes together the technical experience was also pretty great, the editing was well done and kept a very enjoyable pace that made these 2+ hours feel like 90 minutes, the cinematography and lighting looked so good throughout with the highlights there being any scene filmed in the club, and the score from John Barry with all of those things established the connection to the 20’s Harlem crime world beautifully, they all came together to create what is maybe the best mob movie atmosphere I’ve ever taken in outside of The Godfather, Goodfellas, and Miller’s Crossing which is truly legendary company. I’d yet to truly connect with Coppola before this watch, obviously The Godfather was incredible and I connected with him there and movies like The Rainmaker and The Conversation were great as well, honestly not too far off this, but I did struggle to connect with them, thankfully for this movie I took in and understood Coppola’s vision better than I ever have before it and the result is a greater understanding of Coppola’s style and status and most importantly a huge uptick in excitement to see what else his filmography has to offer.
Francis Ford Coppola’s The Cotton Club was everything I hoped it’d be, it’s a great Harlem-set crime drama with a few romantic subplots to be charmed by, and with its impressively built connection to the time-period and location it’s portraying, a collection of great performances from a fun cast, and a technical experience that reminded me why Coppola is one of the greats I couldn’t be happier with the experience I got from this. I’ve only ever seen Richard Gere in one other movie, that being the not-so-serious comedy role he took in Chicago so seeing him excel in this drama role was a lot of fun, I really like him as a lead man and I’m now excited to check out what else he’s done in his career. Out of the whole cast my standout was definitely James Remar who also earned a lot more appreciation from me with this role, I haven’t seen enough 80’s movies but this is one of my new favorite villain performances from the decade as he completely took over the screen in his every scene and he was a delight. Supporting roles from Nic Cage, Gregory Hines, Bob Hoskins, Laurence Fishburne (in the one or two scenes he actually talked), and especially Diane Lane were all so good and added to the magic Gere and Remar were bringing. I’m also a fan of this screenplay, I know nothing about the source material but I loved how they brought scenes together and the dialogue writing was very effective throughout which I’m sure was due to Coppola’s involvement there. Speaking of how they brought the scenes together the technical experience was also pretty great, the editing was well done and kept a very enjoyable pace that made these 2+ hours feel like 90 minutes, the cinematography and lighting looked so good throughout with the highlights there being any scene filmed in the club, and the score from John Barry with all of those things established the connection to the 20’s Harlem crime world beautifully, they all came together to create what is maybe the best mob movie atmosphere I’ve ever taken in outside of The Godfather, Goodfellas, and Miller’s Crossing which is truly legendary company. I’d yet to truly connect with Coppola before this watch, obviously The Godfather was incredible and I connected with him there and movies like The Rainmaker and The Conversation were great as well, honestly not too far off this, but I did struggle to connect with them, thankfully for this movie I took in and understood Coppola’s vision better than I ever have before it and the result is a greater understanding of Coppola’s style and status and most importantly a huge uptick in excitement to see what else his filmography has to offer.
