Joyful Noise (C+ or 2.5/4 stars)
'Joyful Noise' (directed by Todd Graff) tells an inspirational - if messy - story of music, faith, love, & understanding. The small town of Pacashau, Georgia are counting on the poor, mostly black members of Divinity Church Choir to raise their spirits by winning the National Joyful Noise Competition in Los Angeles. The choir is good, but the discord btwn. its 2 leading choir ladies threaten to tear them apart. Their newly appointed director, Vi Rose Hill (Queen Latifah), stubbornly wants to sing traditional gospel music, while the church's spunky benefactor, G.G. Sparrow (Dolly Parton) thinks that the respectful gospel music will fail them again in competition; feeling that they need some more energetic tunes. So their conflicting notions of what to sing for competition is what drives the film's narrative.
Shaking things up even more is the arrival of G.G.'s cheeky grandson, Randy (Jeremy Jordan). Randy sings very well and joins the choir. Great. But he happens to have a crush on Vi Rose's beautiful & talented daughter, Olivia (Keke Palmer), and the sparks between the 2 teens are causing an even bigger riff btwn. Vi Rose & G.G.. If these 2 Type A personality women can put aside their differences for the greater good of the people in their rundown town, they just may be able to make some win God's praise and attain 1st prize at the Joyful Noise competition.
Haha, oh, what a mess 'Joyful Noise' is. But ... dare I say it's an intermittently fun mess? The writing offers a painfully simple plot: there's a competition, complications ensue involving the core characters, and they'll leave their humble rural town existence to compete in glamorous L.A. to possibly win the Finals. As a result, any interesting narrative/characterization plays second fiddle to the music -- which is a good thing. The music is great {I probably had a grin on my face for every musical number & was tapping my feet in tandem}. And while the dialogue is fairly atrocious, there's something oddly wonderful about watching Queen Latifah & Dolly Parton launch themselves into their cornpone wisdom-infused bantering. i.e., Vi Rose might say, "I swear your train of thought makes all local stops". Or G.G. will say, "Tryin' to fool me is like tryin' to sneak sunrise past a rooster!"
'Joyful Noise' aims to please all demographics (blacks, whites, pro-interracial relationships, young, old, Glee fans, Sister Act fans, uber-religious, Southern, etc. etc.) -- but by doing that, it can miss the mark. And thanks to the inadequate writing, a lot of the campy comedy misses, too. For instance, there's a big diva battle btwn. Latifah & Parton in a diner that made me chuckle with nervous laughter, not because it was actually funny. Furthermore, there's a very strange subplot involving a cheery sex-deprived choir member whose trysts usually end up with her partner dying (as if she were a black widow). It just didn't fit in with the rest of the story, and was awkwardly played for laughs -- didn't care for that, at all.
'JN' also afforded me one of the stranger audience experiences I've had in a while. To my left was a black woman who thought that everything was hysterical, & proceeded to repeat back the dialogue. To my right was a group of drunk white people. There were screaming babies in attendance. And people were taking photos with their phones throughout the film, as well. You know, the critic in me knows that 'Joyful Noise' is ungainly, cringe-worthy, & cornball beyond belief. But it's really a sweet movie whose combination of beautiful gospel music, irresistible uptempo numbers, squeaky clean characters, underdog scenario, Latifah, Dolly, Keke Palmer, & charismatic newcomer Jeremy Jordan put a goofy smile on my face whenever I wasn't scrunching it in cocked-head disbelief at its quality.
Shaking things up even more is the arrival of G.G.'s cheeky grandson, Randy (Jeremy Jordan). Randy sings very well and joins the choir. Great. But he happens to have a crush on Vi Rose's beautiful & talented daughter, Olivia (Keke Palmer), and the sparks between the 2 teens are causing an even bigger riff btwn. Vi Rose & G.G.. If these 2 Type A personality women can put aside their differences for the greater good of the people in their rundown town, they just may be able to make some win God's praise and attain 1st prize at the Joyful Noise competition.
Haha, oh, what a mess 'Joyful Noise' is. But ... dare I say it's an intermittently fun mess? The writing offers a painfully simple plot: there's a competition, complications ensue involving the core characters, and they'll leave their humble rural town existence to compete in glamorous L.A. to possibly win the Finals. As a result, any interesting narrative/characterization plays second fiddle to the music -- which is a good thing. The music is great {I probably had a grin on my face for every musical number & was tapping my feet in tandem}. And while the dialogue is fairly atrocious, there's something oddly wonderful about watching Queen Latifah & Dolly Parton launch themselves into their cornpone wisdom-infused bantering. i.e., Vi Rose might say, "I swear your train of thought makes all local stops". Or G.G. will say, "Tryin' to fool me is like tryin' to sneak sunrise past a rooster!"
'Joyful Noise' aims to please all demographics (blacks, whites, pro-interracial relationships, young, old, Glee fans, Sister Act fans, uber-religious, Southern, etc. etc.) -- but by doing that, it can miss the mark. And thanks to the inadequate writing, a lot of the campy comedy misses, too. For instance, there's a big diva battle btwn. Latifah & Parton in a diner that made me chuckle with nervous laughter, not because it was actually funny. Furthermore, there's a very strange subplot involving a cheery sex-deprived choir member whose trysts usually end up with her partner dying (as if she were a black widow). It just didn't fit in with the rest of the story, and was awkwardly played for laughs -- didn't care for that, at all.
'JN' also afforded me one of the stranger audience experiences I've had in a while. To my left was a black woman who thought that everything was hysterical, & proceeded to repeat back the dialogue. To my right was a group of drunk white people. There were screaming babies in attendance. And people were taking photos with their phones throughout the film, as well. You know, the critic in me knows that 'Joyful Noise' is ungainly, cringe-worthy, & cornball beyond belief. But it's really a sweet movie whose combination of beautiful gospel music, irresistible uptempo numbers, squeaky clean characters, underdog scenario, Latifah, Dolly, Keke Palmer, & charismatic newcomer Jeremy Jordan put a goofy smile on my face whenever I wasn't scrunching it in cocked-head disbelief at its quality.