Opinion: All that glitters isn’t gold, and Patti Cake$ film is no exception

Australian newcomer Danielle Macdonald, headlines an indie cast to stardom with only a CD and a dream. Defying the conventional Hip Hop rapper image, this big girl, takes her even bigger talent to the stage, and lets the rhyme do the talking. But is Patti Cake$ as good as everybody says it is?

Cringe if you must, but we’ve all had that famous person, hanging on our Instagram walls that we can’t stop drooling over. So it’s intriguing to know what godfather rapper OZ will be like, when confronted with his biggest fan, wannabe rapper Patricia Dombrowski, aka Killer P, who dreams of getting out of downtrodden New Jersey, in the hopes of making big.

It’s an ‘old hat’ narrative, where we see resident rapper Patti do grueling shift work, after her heavily drinking mother is sent an eviction notice. Her only way out says Jheri, her best friend and singer of all her praises, is through her wordy talent, so with little or no persuasion they join forces with an unlikely band of outcasts, and try to get heard.

It’s true the premise for the film is a little stale and overdone, but to its credit there are a few surprises along the way, and the gritty dynamic between Patti and her mother, which is intense as it is divided, works.

‘Why don’t you just act your age’ snarls Patti, Why don’t you act your race’ retorts her mother.

Playing the negligent single parent is Bridget Everett, a messed up has been who’s one time brush with fame, sees her on a selfish chase for the limelight once again. But it’s not without good reason, I mean she’s good, I’ll go as far as to say she’s Pat Benatar good [a huge star in the 80’s, for those of you too young, to know who I’m talking about? God, I feel old] But likewise can be said for first time actress Danielle Macdonald, who plays her daughter Patti, impressing the audience with a selection of fiery and quick witted rhymes. However, this is as far as the magic goes, Macdonald definitely comes into her own in the bigger, raw lyric spitting scenes, but the acting falls a little short in the quieter ones, losing the tension which should be holding the film together.

Patti Cake$ is a funny, at times melancholic film, and writer/director Geremy Jasper, goes out on a limb to challenge the Hollywood stereo-type, with characters like Basterd, a black, metal-mad anarchist, a mouthy grandma -played by Raging bull star Cathy Moriarty- to Patti Cake$ herself, a white voluptuous female rapper, who omg isn’t a size four.

So with an ace line-up such as this, it’s unfortunate other than for a few golden moments- the last act being one of them, Patti cake$ simply isn’t the rappers delight they said it would be.