Plot: Aspiring rapper Patricia Dabrowski fights for glory and stardom in her downtrodden hometown in New Jersey.

Here comes a release of another hit from the Sundance Film Festival at the start of this year. The general consensus coming from the screenings, was that it was a rap version of La La Land. That already sounded intriguing. But the trailers did not match my initial response. However, I still had enough confidence that the full film would match with the reviews from Sundance.

Now that I've seen it, La La Land is most certainly not the main ingredient. It's more of a mix between '8 Mile', 'Hustle & Flow' with a hint of 'La La Land'.
The first half moves a long at a solid pace with some interesting aspects of the story and some captivating dream sequences. It wasn't until the second half of the film where I started to truly believe in the story and the characters motivations. It's a rags-to-riches story, and that is always tough to give it a refreshing new look. But I think what just about gave this film an exceptional rating, was the believability our main characters experienced throughout.
By the end of it, it gave me the feeling of punching the air, which is what any similar story should aim to achieve.

The performances were pretty good across the board. Leading the way is Danielle Macdonald, who gives us quite a star-turning performance and could be an early shout for some possible award nominations. There are also top supporting performances by Siddharth Dhananjay, Mamoudou Athie, Cathy Moriarty and Bridget Everett. They all have great chemistry with Macdonald, and each have their defining moment on screen.

While it does go through similar tropes that we have see with many underdog stories before, the strong performances and believable story won me over.
This will most likely be a tough sell for many demographics as it involves heavy rapping. But I felt that you can look beyond the music and see a well developed and inspiring story with a powerhouse display by Macdonald.

Rating: 8/10