Little Richard (2000)
The story of Little Richard Penniman, from his poor Southern upbringing to dealing with the trials and tribulations of being a Black singer in the 1950s, to his born-again phase and brief "retirement" from rock and roll.
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It is fitting on a musical Sunday to get your heart a pumping, and no one can do that better than Little Richard. The man could sing the drawers off the ladies and defined rock and roll.Look to Leon to provide a definitive characterization, as he has done so with David Ruffin in The Temptations and Jackie Wilson in Mr. Rock 'n' Roll: The Alan Freed Story.This was a fascinating biopic as we saw Little Richard struggle with his father, with his church and with himself over just who he was. He won the battle and there is no one else that has his voice or his style.
This portrayal of Richard Penniman as a skirt-chasing dandy is completely the opposite of what I've seen of Little Richard all these years. Also, having friends in show biz who worked with and knew him well, this is a movie about somebody else! The only "hints" we get of his homosexuality are the knowing glances between Richard and his young singing mentor, who told him he needed to record. Yes, his behavior ranges from "regular guy" to "somewhat effeminate," but the character is inconsistent.Good lip-syncing by Leon and nice acting from Jenifer Lewis, as his supportive mother. Other performances were stereotypical, but the story does give us a clear picture of how black stars were cheated by low-down record shysters and literally robbed by white artists like Pat Boone, Georgia Gibbs and Gale Storm.
As we can only expect, everything gets a little oversimplified. Little Richard's wavering between religion and rock 'n' roll was a lot longer and less resolved than we see here, his sexuality was more complex-- I should say "even" more complex-- and hey, Pat Boone was not a bad singer. He was entirely the wrong singer for Little Richard's music, and he's admitted it forthrightly more than once, but he wasn't the talentless dummy that's shown in this movie.
I really liked this movie, it was good, and the actors were brilliant! Leon Robinson, who played Richard, and many other classic singers, is very good at his job, when you see him in a musical movie, you know that it is going to be good! I would suggest that people watch this heart warming, sad, and special movie, if they want to know more about Richard! Outstanding! Fresh!