Patti Cake$

Twenty-three year old Patricia Dombrowski (Macdonald) dreams of escaping the rut of New Jersey bars and break into hip hop scene with buddy J (Dhanajay). But this isn't a world that bothers with overweight white girls (everyone calls her Dumbo) and so she gravitates towards aloof weirdo Basterd (Athie), an amateur but talented producer who works out of a shack near a cemetery. As they get a demo together, alcoholic mum Barb (comedienne Everett), who too almost had a singing career in the eighties, pushes 'Killer P' into get a stable job to help with terminally ill grandmother's (Cathy Moriarty) hospital bills…

Let's get one thing out of the way. The music is awful. Australian actress Macdonald, who had to be taught how to rap for the role, works hard at keeping the lyrics 'real' but they, along with Basterd's screeching heavy metal riffs and harsh pummelling beats, wind up being just pointless noise. Barb, with her caustic tongue and cruel put-downs, is for large swathes the villain of the piece but it’s not hard to disagree with her take that the music her daughter produces is just horrible. P herself is accused of being a 'culture vulture' on more than one occasion.

And the big emotional developments can get lost in the mix: the romance subplot is undercooked somewhat and it's late in the day that the family dynamic (the relationship between Macdonald, Everett and Moriarty) comes to the fore, which should have been the beating heart of the story from the get-go.

But Patti Cakes (or Patti Cake$) is a winner despite all this. Geremy Jasper directs the hell out of his first feature, coming at it like he's never going to get the chance to do it again. The camera never stops moving and cutting, zooming in and pulling out, close ups matched with wides, establishing shots plonked into the middle of scenes. Different genres of music are dropped in willy-nilly. It could so very easily have been a messy affair but Jasper's anything goes style gives the proceedings a raw, energetic vibe. The director also taps into that feeling that music-as-release, with P floating above the ground as she listens to her tunes (on a discman!).

And the largely unknown cast are terrific. Newcomer Macdonald, as strong and defiant as she is insecure, is a joy as she shares barbs with her nasty mum in their cramped and ill-kept house (Everett's Barb could do with a film of her own). Athie, who seems to be channelling a Oxbridge version of Prodigy's Maxim (complete with spooky contact lens) doesn't convince however.