The High Note

 Year 13, Day 310 - 11/6/21 - Movie #3,972

BEFORE: This was a full week of movies, starting with "Godzilla vs. Kong" on Halloween, and I haven't had one of those for a while. I've got to sort of pack the beginning of November here, in order to make it to my Thanksgiving movie on time. BUT, after tonight I'll have to take two days off, because I've got shifts at the movie theater Saturday night AND Sunday night.  Movies are important, but work is also important, I can't let one overtake the other.  I could maybe in the future find a way to combine the two, like I could probably watch the movies we're screening at the theater, but so far there hasn't been a film screening there that I want to see, plus I don't really get advance notice of what's screening, so that's difficult for me to plan for.  It is award season, though, and there have been guild screenings where I work, but I still haven't quite worked this all out - and I've got a schedule that gets me to Christmas, so I'll probably just stick with that, any films being screened now are probably going to turn up on Netflix or HBO Max or Amazon Prime by January, so I'll try to catch up with some of the movies of 2021 that I've missed then. 

Kelvin Harrison Jr. carries over from "Mudbound". 

THE PLOT: A superstar singer and her overworked assistant are presented with a choice that could alter the course of their respective careers. 

AFTER: Well, as soon as I stated last night that all movies about the black experience are similar, in that they all involve black people getting shafted by white people, either in the past or the present, along comes a film that proves me wrong. There's very little here on that topic, and in fact most of the black people here are rich, talented and successful, or some combination of those things, and the lead character, who's struggling in her career, is a white woman.  So they sort of flipped the script here, which feels a little refreshing, maybe even original. Whether this is based on Tracee Ellis Ross' mother, Diana Ross, or some other famous singer, is debatable, I suppose - and if it is, well, then so much for originality. 

When we meet Grace Davis, soul music superstar, she's already put out a live album and a greatest hits album, but her record company is now suggesting that she put out a live greatest hits album.  Her manager wants her to take up an offer for a Las Vegas residency, rest on her laurels, so he can get a big payoff and not have to do much for the next few years, plus he can then spend most of his time in Vegas. But it's Maggie, Grace's personal assistant who thinks she should record new music, keep innovating and moving forward and not just keep performing her old hits in concert for the die-hard fans.  Maggie has aspirations to be a record producer herself, but making that leap from personal assistant is difficult for her, she may have the skills but not the confidence. This role here is another racially-flipped trope, because her serving as an advisor to the professional is perhaps a play on the "magical negro" character seen in films like "The Legend of Bagger Vance" or "The Green Mile". Maggie is always right, somehow, her advice keeps paying off, but she's got no street cred yet in the soul music business. 

So, Maggie re-mixes Grace's concert tracks in private, without permission.  She meets David Cliff, a young black singer (who's got a killer apartment or house, so clearly he also has money somehow...) and convinces him that she's a record producer with other clients and offers to cut his demos and make him famous.  She's got good intentions, but the duplicity here is at almost Shakespearean levels, and she learns that nothing good can come after "Well, I've been lying to you for the last several months..." especially when she's gotten involved with David on a personal level as well as a professional one.  He does not take the news well, that she's not really a record producer after all. 

Maggie also makes a strange move, she arranges for a particular famous recording artist to play at one of Grace's parties, sort of as her opening act, but she also convinces him to NOT show up, so that she can save the day with her newfound sensation, David, as a last-minute substitute.  The plan backfires, and this puts her job and her whole plan in jeopardy.  Why did she think this was a good idea, to intentionally plan to fail?  It's a bit like setting a fire at your job just so you can get the credit for putting out the fire, or for calling 911. OK, you saved the day, but you also started the fire, so thanks for your time, you no longer work there. 

NITPICK POINT: This is not how you "Ocean's Eleven" an event - that would apply to a heist, not just making sure that a scheduled performer doesn't show up. 

There are some strange characters here - the woman who lives in Grace's pool house, who runs her household (?) is a weird character. Is she Grace's friend, servant, roommate?  And Maggie's roommate, the doctor, is another weird character, what's her deal? Is she in love with Maggie?  I got that vibe, but maybe not. Ice Cube's character is a bit odd, too, is he just Grace's manager, or is there something else to the relationship between them?  So many questions...

I guess the takeaway here is that you may have what it takes to be a producer, and you may not.  You may not be able to move forward without experience, and you may not be able to get that experience until you move forward.  But whatever path you take, just don't LIE about who you are, and for God's sake, don't sabotage an event just so you can save it. For you, there may not be some kind of magical Hollywood coincidental ending that gets you your job back. 

Also starring Dakota Johnson (last seen in "The Peanut Butter Falcon"), Tracee Ellis Ross (last seen in "Becoming"), Zoe Chao (last seen in "I Used to Go Here"), Ice Cube (last seen in "Straight Outta Compton"), Bill Pullman (last seen in "Too Big to Fail"), Jonathan Freeman (ditto), June Diane Raphael (last seen in "Going the Distance"), Deniz Akdeniz, Eddie Izzard (last seen in "Victoria & Abdul"), Eugene Cordero (last seen in "The Mule"), Diplo, Marc Evan Jackson (last seen in "Bombshell"), Neil Lane, Sonal Shah, Uttera Singh, Ross Partridge, Rupak Ginn, Ben Lewis (last seen in "Pompeii"), Jeffery Self, with a cameo from Melanie Griffith (last seen in "The Disaster Artist"). 

RATING: 5 out of 10 cover songs (Maggie's father here is a DJ who seems to play exclusively covers on his radio show, always naming who did the song originally - I would listen to this as a satellite radio channel or podcast if it existed!)