Not even a full twelve months after landing on my Best Of 2019 list, director Nisha Ganatra has already delivered with another serving of industry comedy-drama, switching this time from world of professional comedy to a look at the music industry. While I could unfortunately argue that this isn’t as fiery, or even as funny, as Late Night (and of course, I will do exactly that in a bit), it’s still a solid feature that puts the ‘soul’ in ‘cinematic soul food’.
This is a pretty top-notch cast, starting with its central duo of Dakota Johnson and Tracee Ellis (daughter of Diana) Ross. Johnson’s Maggie is a walking music encyclopedia, imbuing most of her conversations with a familiar rattling off of trivia (‘did you know the dude who made this also made this?’) that I tend to indulge in whenever discussing movies. Her relationship with Ross’ Grace reminded me a bit of John Frusciante, with her as the fan whose dream is to work close with her idol, and who ends up reinvigorating said idol in the process.
As for Grace herself, she serves as a pretty vivid depiction of many an artist in her position: A famous, older singer on the brink of being put out to stud, which in her business means getting a residency spot at a Vegas venue. She’s got definite diva energy, but it’s more reminiscent of the blues and jazz greats than to the likes of, say, Beyoncé or Rihanna. Where that distinction gets interesting is how it plays into Grace’s own insecurities, brought to a head in a conversation with Maggie where she gets damn close to Late Night’s level of examination of how race and sex can affect one’s chances in the business.
Not that I should oversell that aspect, though; this isn’t the kind of film that wants to absolutely take the industry to task for its… ‘ingrained attitudes’, let’s say. This is a little too enamoured with the glamour of it all to dig too deep into such matters. Not that it completely shies away from it, between Grace’s character arc and some knowing winks from Ice Cube and Diplo’s supporting roles; just that it feels stuck between making those observations, and being a more traditional La La Land-style romance with the music scene as a backdrop. That includes the occasionally uncomfortable racial optics, which would be more of an issue if it weren’t for that glorious moment from Grace, showing that the film is at least aware of those optics to a degree.
As for the romance itself, it really isn’t anything that spectacular, with Maggie connecting with budding musician David (Kelvin Harrison Jr.). It benefits from the prevalent warmth afforded by Flora Greeson’s debut script, although the juxtaposition of music and characterisation that insists on making everyone likeable in some fashion is more than a little similar to the works of Nick Hornby. It may not be as endearing as the man’s better works, but for what is essentially comfort food for the eyes and ears, it pans out.
And speaking of food for the ears, wouldn’t be right if I missed out on discussing the soundtrack, which is definitely the main selling point here and rightfully so. Keeping with Grace’s place as a symbol of the R&B older guard, the music banks on a lot of classy instrumentation and soulful delivery to make its mark. While it adds some ironic laughs out of the idea that Diplo could ‘improve’ on such work with a remix, it also creates an aesthetic that ties all the smaller notes together. I can’t be the only one who gets annoyed when characters on-screen keep extolling about how great a character’s music is in a movie, but it’s only considered ‘great’ because the script says so; I’m so glad that no such sensation happened here. Also, this has sound mixing comparable to A Star Is Born, so it brings some real live energy to the proceedings.
I’ll admit that I am a bit let down by the final product here, as going by the names attached to it kinda got my hopes up that I’d get to see Nisha Ganatra continue a trend for charmingly salient cinema. But while it seems stuck between two very different types of music movie, the acting pedigree combined with the soundtrack make for a smooth and pleasant ride.
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