Little Richard (2000)

Good idea lost in the noise

A Masterpiece!

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

I honest NEVER knew that the same guy who was in Madonna's Like a Prayer' music video and was Leila Rochron boyfriend in 'Waiting to Exacle' could do such a wonderful job playing Little Richard. The film shows Little Richard life as being both happy and at times sad. The relationship with his father is somewhat like that of Michael Jackson and his father-but VERY MUCH different. Little Richard grows up as a Christain and is taught NOT to listen to music such as Rock n' Roll. But he CAN'T help himself to fall in love with it and become a Rock n' Roll star. His sisters are happy that he fulfilled his dreams but his father still thinks he made a big mistake. When Little Richard becomes the big music star that he is, even his own mother is amazed and proud of what her son has achieved. The rest of the film shows Richard as a sweet, naughty, and at times, broken. Leon did a wonderful performance as Little Richard and HAD the film been made for the screen, he would surely of been nominated for an Oscar.

Actually they could not have chosen a better diversified actor to portray Little Richard than Leon. He captures Little Richard to a most believable essence. The outfits where wonderful and any person watching this movie will definitely keep a smile on their face through the entire movie. Although the movie is a little long, it keeps your attention with the personality and outfits of Little Richard in mind. The ending should have taken a direction of moving Little Richard more into the present where you could see him as he has aged into this new millennium. He will always be the King of Rock-N-Roll as far as I am concerned regardless of what the other media says.

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.

The Life and Time of Little Richard, as told by Little Richard, as produced and directed by Little Richard, was about as one sided as one of his songs. This is not a biography or even a docudrama, but does have good writing, great energy and an outstanding leading actor playing Richard. All the music is by Little Richard, so it rocks a tight lipsync on every song.The movie covers his early childhood, carrys thru the formative years in music, the wild success and Richard's throwing it all away to praise the Lord. Its all tied together well and the obvious comeback in 1962 manages to stay away from the idea that Little Richard discovered the Beatles, whom opened for him.My main objection is that his outrageous, counter cultural behavior is underplayed and you get no feel for how his audience experienced him at that time. Some of his energy, which he still has, does not come across full force. He seemed tame, compared to what I remember of him at the time.The best scenes are Richard getting jilted by Lucille and writing a song about it and the strip to bikini shorts while performing, to make the point about not having a decent place to change.If they had gotten into the "Bronze Liberace" as Richard use to refer to himself in interviews, then there's a story. Trust me I just saw him perform a couple of months ago and he still flirts with the pretty white boys, giving the one particularly good dancer in the audience, his headband. Nearly 68 and still going strong I recommend this movie and any concert or T.V. appearance you can find. Little Richard is always on