Honeydripper

Meandering but evocative, Honeydripper, filmmaker John Sayles’ 16th feature, follows a ’50s juke joint owner (Danny Glover’s Tyrone “Pine Top” Purvis) as he attempts to avoid bankruptcy by booking a legendary guitar player named Guitar Sam. After the famed strummer backs out at the last minute, Tyrone, banking on the knowledge that nobody in his community actually knows what Guitar Sam looks like, decides to run the show with a talented drifter (Gary Clark Jr’s Sonny) standing in for the headliner. As expected, Sayles offers up an incredibly vivid portrait of this small town and the various inhabitants within – ensuring that one can’t help but feel as though they know the place by the time the movie concludes. Sayles’ penchant for delving into the personal lives of even the most periphery of characters ultimately lends the proceedings a distinctly rambling vibe, however, and there’s little doubt that the film would’ve benefited from some judicious editing (at 123 minutes, the movie suffers from a leisurely pace that often threatens to become oppressive). Still, it’s awfully difficult not to be drawn into this refreshingly low-key and simple tale – with the uniformly superb performances (Glover’s never been better) certainly playing a substantial role in the movie’s mild success.

**1/2 out of ****