"Lackawanna Blues" takes place in the 1950's and tells the story of a young "black" (well, actually, black and Latino) boy whose parents are unable to take care of him, so he is reared by the neighborhood "Mama" who owns a boarding house full of eccentric people. The movie works when the story focuses on the two main characters--the boy and his adoptive mother. Unfortunately so many characters weave in and out of the movie that I found them downright distracting. But the biggest problem with the film was the MTV-style direction by George C. Wolfe. Okay, I know I'm not watching a PBS Masterpiece Theatre production, but does the camera have to keep moving and jumping around so much? This constant shifting actually distances the viewer from the performers on screen. The performances of S. Epatha Merkerson as the adoptive mother and Marcus Carl Franklin as the young boy are generally very good, but "Lackawanna Blues" was good material that should have been allowed to breath.
Review of Lackawanna Blues
