I loved the movie, I loved the soundtrack, I love everything about it and, as usual, movies I LOVE, get little attention from the mainstream. So I'm writing a love song of my own for this beautiful film, its story and its music.
Spoilers ahead!
I think too many people got the wrong impression from the trailer, that this movie was a new take on The Bodyguard. That couldn't be farther from the truth.
There are obvious similarities, as she's a rock star and he's a policeman, but the "danger" she's in is from herself, her life, and her mother, and he's not there to protect her. He stumbles into her life by fluke and they have a moment of destiny. Where the story goes from there... it's the story of a young woman, finally stepping out of the shadow of a controlling stage mom and coming into her own.
That's a hell of a journey.
This woman, Noni, she's about to be launched into super stardom, she's on that precipice, but she's so broken and lost inside that she tries
to kill herself. It's Kaz that saves her and from that moment on, their lives are entwined and what starts as a deep attraction and flirtation becomes the kind of real love we all want to find.
Why I love this movie though is for it's realness. The ugly, the complicated, the family that surrounds them both, the reality of their paths combining and the ripples that makes into both their worlds.
This story is well told and beautifully turned into a movie.
Originally titled "Blackbird" which is a title that makes more sense once you see the movie, but one of the places I think the storytelling in this film is so stellar is in how they use two different songs with that title to bookend the movie.
There is a song, it's a classic song by Nina Simone that the young Noni sings at the beginning of the movie in a talent competition. A competition in which she comes in first runner up and we are instantly introduced to her mother's drive for success as she tells the young Noni to throw away the trophy because "Do you want to be a runner up? Or do you want to be a winner?"It's one scene from the entire movie, but it lives in your soul through the rest of the story. You never forget that moment when young Noni is made throw away her trophy.
The second song called Blackbird is one that Noni writes as she's come through this amazing journey and has finally begun to embrace her truth, her dreams, her future. She's terrified, but she's brave and we see that in this final scene.
This film starts in London, and ends there. It starts with a young, talented girl singing a song she loves for a small audience of mostly parents, scared, but brave. It ends with this amazing young woman performing a song she wrote from her soul, as herself, not the fantasy Noni, only this time, it's an enormous crowd of fans who shower her with love.
Noni's Blackbird... (song only)
This relationship will always be messed up, we see that. We see how the mom used the daughter to validate her own existence. We see that there is nothing she won't give away of Noni, but we also see in glimpses how miserable a human being she is, even though by all accounts, she's made Noni, she's been successful and then at the end, when we think for a second there's been a breakthrough and this mother finally gets that her daughter is a gift and the relationship with her may be more important... she blows it.
Again, it's real.
Love that about the film and I even love where they leave it. During that concert Noni's doing in London, we see Minnie Driver on the floor in Noni's Hollywood mansion, listening to the concert on the phone and for one second, we do see that she does love her daughter, she's just so fucked up that she has no clue what that love really is or how to respect it.One of my favorite parts in the film is when Noni and Kaz run away together and spend alone time in Mexico.
Their worlds have blown up during a VERY public display where Noni's ex, rapper Kid Culprit humiliates and practically rapes her during a dance number for a televised awards show and where Kaz steps in and decks him on national television.
One of the many things I like about this film is that, though it's primarily Noni's journey we're being shown, Kaz has dimension and a life as well. In fact, he's getting ready to run for city council and his handlers are courting the backing from two high profile pastors in the area. So in this one moment, he sees the political aspirations he had blown to pieces, but I don't think he cares. He cares about Noni. He wants to save her, or at least be safe for her. In the end we realize his political dreams are more the unrealized dreams of his father, showing another level of why he gets Noni so well.
While his father isn't a narcessitic bitch, the way Noni's mother is, it's still clear that Kaz just loves being a cop and saving people is his thing. In the end, when they return from Mexico, in a moment I just love, his handler tells him, "Yes, you lost the pastors, but Kid Culprit calls your girlfriend a whore on national television and you kicked his ass... you won the youth vote."
Omg I laughed out loud at that part.
But I digress, the time in mexico is the most romantic of the entire film. They find peace, quiet, a place where no one knows them and they get real with one another. Noni even takes out her purple extensions and though a part of me wept inside at the loss of that beautiful purple hair, again, excellent story telling device!This movie made me think and it made me feel things.
It made me want to be a better story teller. It made me want to see one of my films on the big screen someday. It made me want to fall in love, It made me feel okay about the relationship I currently have with my mother. It made me want my purple hair back... lol Well, it did!
But most of all, it made me understand the power of the gift I have, the gift to move people with my stories. From the first time I seriously decided to try to get published, that was my goal. I wanted to make people think and feel. This movie inspired me to keep going. This movie reminded me how very deeply blessed I am to have this gift and poked me a little with how I've been ignoring it.
2015 will be different for me. I will have fiction out again, but for now, I just want to tell everyone about this beautiful, real, film, the amazing story teller, actors and about the music.
If you still have the chance to catch it in theaters, please do and check out the soundtrack, the videos on youtube and when it comes out on DVD... check out that too! If you love a good story well told, you won't be sorry you did.
My favorite song from the film...
