A Jazzman's Blues

Set in a rural Georgia town during the 1940s, the story begins with a budding romance between seventeen-year-old Horace John Boyd (Joshua Boone), nicknamed Bayou, and sixteen-year-old Leanne Harper (Solea Pfeiffer). Despite this, there are terrors at every turn for the two African American lovers. For Bayou, the possibility of being lynched, tortured, beaten and killed is real and terrifying. Every day could be his last because of a widely held belief in the concept of a "superior race" that is somehow more intelligent and beautiful. For Leanne, however, those terrors are slightly different. Despite being part of the African American community, she has something that Bayou doesn't: the ability to pass as white. Ultimately, her decision to take advantage of this particular characteristic breaks everything apart.

The film's appeal stems from the fact that it is a character-driven narrative that brings the darkest aspects of human morality to light. I applaud Perry for never losing sight of that and for creating a film that touches upon many aspects of race and identity without being overwhelming.

I have never found Tyler Perry's movies to be very entertaining so I went into this not expecting much. Safe to say it exceeded my expectations.

Yes this film is cliche, a little awkward, slowly paced, and entirely too long. But it was still a good movie. He captures the emotion very well and the cinematography is good. I hope he feels comfortable enough in his life to take more risks and branch out with more films.

Tyler Perry doing a passion project melodrama is something I never would have expected but here we are. I think I may have to add his releases to my future calendars to watch out for.

Tyler Perry is not known for high-quality material, but this movie pleasantly surprised. It was pretty solid until the end.

I was engrossed in the story even if it wasn't necessarily original. The acting was good, the music was pleasant, and the story was compelling enough to keep you engaged while being uncomfortable awaiting the inevitable tragedy to come in the end.

And while you knew a tragedy was coming, you still hoped there was some kind of resolution. There was none. It was just a buildup to a tragedy. So underwhelming. I was surprised at how lacking the ending was. Then I remembered it's a Tyler Perry project, his art is still a work in progress I think it's fair to say.

Tyler Perry makes a drama. It was ok and glad I watched thru to the end. I almost turned it off about 30 minutes in because I thought the movie was going in a different direction but then saw it wasn't. Story ended up good and original. Some of the themes were to be expected though. Even had unexpected twists. Acting was good. But I walked away feeling meh overall about it. The problem with was the pacing. Dragged too much. Felt myself getting up too many times. Lip syncing was bad during the songs. Needed tightened up and about 30 minutes taken off the film. Love the song in the credits. Added it to my chill playlist.

This movie made my heart beat faster, it's a different movie, very good performance by the actors, good characters, great music, amazing shooting.

This movie made me wonder about the politics of the twentieth century, and how awful racism was in the United States of America.

There are political, social and familial projections, the dispute between the big brother and the little brother, and what drugs do to the human spirit and how they corrupt it.

This movie is very sad despite the amount of cheerful songs there.. Very good and very bad.

The first half of the movie was cheerful, but the closer we got to the end, the sadder it became. The characters at the end were beautiful and black. I realized that love knows no end.

Each person chooses his own path and is responsible for what he chooses, and he must be strong in the face of risks, because the risks will be high when you choose your own path and go far.