Page 6 September 7, 2017
Entertainment
Film Review
Hip-Hop Heart-Warmer Patti
Cake$ is Stylish and Sweet
Danielle Macdonald in Patti Cake$. Courtesy of Fox Searchlight
By Ryan Rojas for www.cinemacy.
com
What if 8 Mile starred a girl? This is essentially
Patti Cake$, a Cinderella story of
an overweight underdog who tries to upend
herself from a dead end life in her New
Jersey hometown by following her dream of
becoming a rap superstar. Premiering at this
year’s Sundance Film Festival and acquired
by Fox Searchlight, the rap musical is now
playing in theaters, including the Landmark
and ArcLight Hollywood.
Patti Cake$ is a certain kind of wonderful--a
refreshing breeze into your life that only indie
cinema can offer. The movie is essentially
another follow-your-dreams journey, but is
made all the better and worthwhile by its
stylish, street-savviness and fresh flair. Patti
Cake$ will delight and reignite you to be
your baddest self.
Our lead hero Danielle Macdonald is a
beautiful new star to fill the screen. As Patricia
Dombrowski, aka Patti, she smirks and stunts
through the streets with her gangsta exterior,
but balances her toughness with sensitivity,
flinching when she’s shamed by others over
her appearance. Macdonald’s star is one that
alternates between shimmering and shining,
and really owns this movie.
This is the work of the film’s writer and
director Geremy Jasper (a music video
director who wrote all of the rap lyrics to
the film). And, oh boy, do these songs kick-
-especially when it comes time for Patti to
do her thing. These well-written moments,
whether it’s a freestyle rap-off in a gas station
or in the makeshift studio, give the lo-fi rap
tracks a hard rock swagger of a Sleigh Bells
metal meets the MC-queen authority style
of Nicki Minaj. Half the reason I enjoyed
Patti Cake$ so much is because the tunes
transport you to this concert world. In fact,
if you want to get a flavor of the music now,
the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is
available to stream on Spotify. While “PBNJ”
may be the film’s single, “Hunger Gamez”
is a real fun one as well.
Of course, you can’t have a party without
pathos--or in this case, some sort of story
that fuels Patti to strive for this dream
(which she takes seriously) without a few
real motivating forces that try to inhibit her
at every turn. For each brash in-your-face
moment of riled energy, there are equal
balances of tender and affecting human
moments. These include watching her
washed-up alcoholic mother sing a karaoke
tune, an intimate moment with a mysterious
anarchist, and being hospital-bound with her
sickly but snappy grandmother. These are all
instances that make Patti Cake$ more than
just a fun time, but one of deeper insight
and understanding.
While it ultimately follows a more conventional
story arc than I thought it would,
if you’re looking for a movie to shake you
out of your more familiar viewing patterns,
Patti Cake$ will do just that. It offers music
that rocks and moments that connect. It’s a
bad girl story that will reinspire audiences
of all ages to follow their dreams no matter
the odds.
Patti Cake$ is rated R for language
throughout, crude sexual references, some
drug use and a brief nude image. 108 min.
Now playing at select ArcLight theaters. •
Check It Out
Survivors Club: The True Story
of a Very Young Prisoner of
Auschwitz
By Michael Bornstein and Debbie
Bornstein Holinstat
Reviewed by Katrena Woodson,
Teen and Young Reader Librarian,
El Segundo Public Library
This week’s review is a new non-fiction
book called Survivors Club: the True Story
of a Very Young Prisoner of Auschwitz by
Michael Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein
Holinstat. The story focuses on the lives
of Michael Bornstein and a few members
of his extended family during one of the
darkest times in history, the Holocaust.
This book and miraculous story might never
have been told if Michael had not seen an
image of himself from the day Auschwitz
was liberated on a Holocaust-denial website.
He knew then that he needed to tell
his story and he enlisted the help of his
daughter, a TV journalist, to help him find
the information that he needed to write this
book. In the preface Michael explains that
all of the event in this book are factual, but
that there is an aspect of fiction. Michael
was only four years old when Auschwitz
was liberated in 1945, so the duo found
documents, diaries and survivors’ essays to
supplement the memories of a very young
child and keep the book as honest as possible.
The result of all their hard work is
a thought-provoking and personal look at
terrible time in history.
The book is written as a first person narrative
that begins before Michael’s birth in
September 1939 and goes on to explore the
first 11 years of his life. You might think that
the time in Auschwitz would be the main
focus of the story, but it comprises only a
few chapters and a small part of Michael’s
journey. Over the course of this book, we
follow Michael as he moves from living in
an open ghetto, to a forced-labor camp, to the
extermination camp, and then back home and
finally to the United States. The hardships
and prejudices the Jews continued to face
after their liberation from the death camps
and the end of World War II are not often
discussed, but Bornstein does an excellent
job showing the continued struggles of the
survivors. The experiences of the Bornstein
family parallel those of many other survivors
of the Holocaust. Even though this book is
aimed at young readers ages 11-14, it will
resonate with older readers as well. In
today’s world, it remains more important
than ever to remember these survivors and
learn from the mistakes of the past.
The El Segundo Public Library offers
access to its collection of titles in a variety
of formats, including traditional hardback,
e-books and books on CD. To check out
Survivors Club: the True Story of a Very
Young Prisoner of Auschwitz by Michael
Bornstein and Debbie Bornstein Holinstat
or any other title on your to-read list, please
visit the library to apply for your library
card, or please contact the reference staff
for further assistance. •
First Day Jitters by Julie Danneberg.
Katrena Woodson.
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