Patti Cake$ is based on a woman in her early twenties who is an aspiring rapper Patricia Dombrowski, a.k.a. Killa P, a.k.a. Patti Cake$. Trying to escape her life in a small town in New Jersey entering a world people don’t think she has any place being in.
The hype and build up surrounding this film has been quite big really, bigger than you would expect for an indie film like this one. That then creates quite a build up before you watch it and often leaves you wondering what you have missed. Unfortunately that was exactly how I felt after watching this film. I missed something that everyone seemed to love.
I am unsure as to whether it is because I am not a huge fan of rap music, I mean I loved Eminem back in the late 90s/early 00s when he came back but everyone did. I never really got into anything else with rap music, so maybe just maybe that helps a lot when watching this film. I guess I will have to now read others reviews and find out what everyone else thinks.
Patti is struggling to survive and getting work as a barmaid or waitress as she must help her mother Barb provide money to pay her Nan’s hospital bills. The parts with the Nan I actually liked because it showed who was believing in her the superstar and that she wanted to be able to take care of and look after her. Something that everyone should remember about their grandparents before it is too late.
Her friendship with Jheri was a pretty crazy one as he kept pushing her to perform and that what she wrote was very good. That was probably where I struggled in all honesty as I don’t really get how what she was writing was good, some of it just didn’t make any sense to me to be brutally honest. I guess Macdonald put in a very good performance in her first and probably only leading role. We have seen it before in this type of film when someone makes a big debut but then can never really get anything in the similar mold again.
I will give it the story in terms of wanting something and putting up a fight for your dream. The ending was good as at one point I thought it was going to totally sell the film out, but it was pretty perfect in terms of what had previously happened. Good messages that you won’t just suddenly be given everything that you really want just because you think you deserve it. You have to work hard and you must do things for yourself instead of waiting for someone to just give you everything. So in those terms I thought it was brilliant and realistic to life and how hard life really can be at times. Are you happy just being content with what you have at the moment or are you really going to work and fight for more? I guess that is what I took from the film in the end which is a good thing, even if the whole rapping part was lost on me. A huge positive that you don’t have to like rap to then end up liking the points of this film.
I do feel I need to warn you though that at times it really is very very strange!
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