The Review: A Jazzman's Blues

 

A Jazzman's Blues 2/10

This movie was ass. L. wanted to check out this Tyler Perry movie called A Jazzman's Blues on Netflix so we did. This movie was long and full of people making dumb decisions to keep the story moving. It is about a dude named Bayou who falls in love with this girl named Leanne aka Bucket. They explain why she was called Bucket and it is so stupid that nickname would have never stuck. Bayou's no father hates him. His brother hates him. Everyone makes fun of him except for his mother who baby's him. This story is told through letters that Bayou wrote to Leanne in the late 30's to early 40's after they were given to this racist dude in the 80's. Yeah.

Leanne and Bayou sneak out every night and she teaches him to read and they smooch. He says he is in love with her and she runs off like a wicked city woman. One night he heads to her place and her grandfather is boning down on her. Ew! H plans to escape with her but her mother comes from literal nowhere and takes her away. Bayou's father leaves for Chicago to play music. His brother Willie Earl does the same but returns with a producer and a drug problem. Their mother, Hattie Mae, opens a club and it is doing just fine. Bayou can not play instruments but he can sing. At least the movie tells me that he can. I thought he made every song sound the same and flat. He joins the Army, leaves after getting hurt, and works with his mother.

The producer, Ira, takes both Willie Earl and Bayou to Chicago. Willie Earl leaves mad after being told to wait a week. Bayou goes on stage and sings and they get the gig. One day Bayou goes to drop off laundry and this lady Citsy who they knew back home is working there and fucking Leanne shows up. She is married to this guy and passing for White. This was her mother's plan. At this point the movie spirals even further into a series of bad decisions that end up costing multiple people their lives. I would get it if a time traveler with no knowledge of history and racism were behaving the way these characters do. But they know for a damn fact that each move they make is terrible. Even the synopsis of this movie is a lie. Look it up. This is not a forbidden love. Leanne is not a White woman.

Like, Bayou gets chased out of town by Leanne's husbands family who run the place. He comes back to play at his mother's club because she poor now when really he wants to see Leanne. His brother is addicted to heroin and Bayou treats it like his brother eats too much sugar. We find out that Bayou is mixed even though his brother the one that looks like he belongs in Debarge. This is to explain why the baby Leanne has looks Whiter than it should I guess. Oh, and the racist dude at the start is Leanne and Bayou's kid. I was gonna give this 1/10 but after talking to L. I raised it a point because the mother could act. She and Ira seemed like they were in a different movie. This was two hours of nonsense and basic Black trauma.

Joshua Boone as Bayou

Amirah Vann as Hattie Mae

Solea Pfeiffer as Leanne

Austin Scott as Willie Earl

Ryan Eggold as Ira

Milauna Jemai Jackson as Citsy

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