The Review: Mo' Better Blues

Mo Better Blues 8/10

It has been about a week since I have seen this movie Mo' Better Blues and I can't quite explain exactly what its about. It starts in the late 60's in New York where this kid named Bleek is being forced to stay indoors and practice his trumpet while his disrespectful friends scream for him to come out and play. He doesn't want to play it but his mother demands his ass stay in and do it while his father is like “Just make her happy cause I wanna watch the game and she won't stop until you do.” We fast forward to Bleek now an adult man playing music with his band.

Bleek's band is good but they aren't getting paid because their manager, Bleek's childhood friend Giant, sucks at his job. Well, he is getting them more money but he is spending it on his gambling habit. One member of the band, Shadow, likes to do long ass solos and acts like he should be running the band. Bleek likes to spend time with a woman named Indigo. While hanging with his father he admits to liking her along with other women. Bleek is a dog. He later meets with another woman he is sleeping with named Clarke. They mess around and she bites his lip pissing him off because his lips and fingers are his job. While all this is going on Giant is fucking around placing more and more bets he can't possibly pay off.

Later Bleek's ladies both show up at the show wearing the same dress. Later he has sex with each of them and calls them by the others name. This was my favorite scene not just because his nasty ass got called out but because of the way it was shot. During a performance Giant gets his ass snatched up and beaten in an alley. Bleek goes out to help and gets his trumpet slapped against his lips and his ass kicked. He spends a lot of time recovering but he isn't the same. He goes to perform with Shadow's new band with Clarke as a singer and ends up stinking up the joint and leaving. He heads back to Indigo and she asks him to leave...a bunch of time. Like so many. They end up together and having a son and getting married and its great.

Still...I'm not quite sure what this movie was about. I really liked the acting, the music, and the way it was filmed. If this was just about Bleek and the members of his band I would've been cool with that. They were all funny characters. I was glad that even though Bleek was a sumbitch and turned his life around. In some of these movies the guys are just bastards and still get a happy ending without any work. But in this he was drunk and ruined after being injured but tried to get back on stage and he didn't knock it out the park like I sorta expected. He had an actual downfall and worked to be a better man. I can dig that.

Denzel Washington as Bleek Gilliam

Spike Lee as Giant

Wesley Snipes as Shadow Henderson

Joie Lee as Indigo Downes

Cynda Williams as Clarke Bentancourt

Giancarlo Esposito as Left Hand Lacey

Bill Nunn as Bottom Hammer

Jeff "Tain" Watts as Rhythm Jones

Dick Anthony Williams as Mr. Gilliam

Abbey Lincoln as Lillian Gilliam

John Turturro as Moe Flatbush

Nicholas Turturro as Josh Flatbush

Robin Harris as Butterbean Jones

Samuel L. Jackson as Madlock

Coati Mundi as Roberto

Diahann Carroll as Jazz Club Singer

Rubén Blades as Petey

Click here for previous The Review.