Slice of alternative Americana

As a writer, John Sayles has been happy to play the Hollywood game (he's currently working on the script for Jurassic Park IV). But as a writer/director, he remains at the forefront of US independent cinema, telling the stories of those in whom Hollywood has no interest.

In that sense, Honeydripper is classic Sayles: a portrait of the black community in a small Alabama town in the mid-1950s. The run-down bar of the title is a music joint run by Tyrone "Pinetop" Purvis (Danny Glover), a one-time muso with a skeleton in the closet.

Times are a-changing, and the Honeydripper is about to go under. Only a Saturday night gig by Guitar Sam can save it. But Guitar Sam doesn't show up, so a young drifter with a homemade electric guitar is drafted in to save the day.

The pitch-perfect cast is almost entirely black (Charles S Dutton, Sean Patrick Thomas and Vondie Curtis-Hall are especially memorable) and the music is sensational.

But Honeydripper, at 123 minutes, is in need of a trim; its script is a little stagey, and the result is a loving slice of alternative Americana that finally fails to engage as a film.

Honeydripper