Popular reviews

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  Review by theriverjordan ★★★★ 15

  Black talent was given next to nothing by classic era Hollywood, but in “Stormy Weather,” black performers turn that nothing into a celebration of everything.
  Even if much of it - was still was out of reach. 

  Though the film has a white director in Andrew L. Stone, every frame of “Stormy” is filled with black excellence. Beyond just screen icons, many figures in its cast list are cultural icons: Cab Calloway, Fats Waller, the Nicholas Brothers, and of course… the inimitable grace of Lena Horne. 

  The plot of the movie itself even follows the rough career biography of Bill “Bojangles” Robinson; one of the founding fathers of American tap dance tradition. Framed as Robinson (here, aka “Williamson”) telling tales…

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  Review by Sally Jane Black 3

  It is a marvel this ever got made.

  As far as I know, its production was not rocky, but this is a film with an almost entirely African-American cast made in 1943. Films with such a cast don't get made very often 70 years later. In 1943, it seems like an impossibility. But here it is. Bojangles Robinson, Lena Horne, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, and the Nicholas Brothers get the star billing (and well they should), and only a few back up dancers are white. It's impressive that this exists, that this was made in a country that still kills people for the color of their skin.

  Which is not to say that it doesn't have problems. There's blackface and…

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  Review by russman ★★★½ 4

  Someone send first aid for those splits on the stairs

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  Review by Ryan Daniel ★★★½ 1

  I won’t lie, I didn’t even know movies with all black casts existed in the 1940’s. It barely existed in the 2000s. But, despite it being an all black cast, they still somehow manage to throw blackface in there. Besides that, it’s very ahead of its time and really cool to watch.

  This movie doesn’t necessarily do a lot story wise, but it’s more about showcasing the raw talent of these performers of the time, which essentially trumps any other reason to watch this film.

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  Review by PUNQ ★★★★½

  To keep it short and simple: You're going to struggle to find more good vibes than this!

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  Review by SkaneNoise ★★★★½

  If you get to the part when Fats Waller comes on the scene and you don’t find you’ve got a big goofball smile on your face then you are probably not going to be a lot of fun at a sleepover.

  With that said, this was an interesting essay - www.mirrorfilm.org/2010/10/18/race-in-film-stormy-weather/

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  Review by 🥀 e m m é ★★★★

  Lena Horne was so glamorous and her voice could easily make me cry. I literally do not understand how Bill Robinson was 65? Also, Jumpin’ Jive is one of the greatest big band tunes and then throw in that unreal dance by The Nicholas Brothers. WHAT A FINALE!!! And like, to a film that is literally overflowing with incredible dances and songs, just one jaw dropping performance after another.

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  Review by AD917 ★★★★

  One of two famous Hollywood musicals produced in 1943 featuring all black casts. It’s been a long time since I saw Cabin in the Sky, but I imagine that one’s the more ambitious and cinematically sophisticated of the two—as both Vincente Minnelli and Busby Berkeley were involved in the direction. This one, on the other hand, almost surely highlights the more impressive array of performers. 

  Bill “Bojangles” Robinson stars in his only Hollywood lead role (he’d previously played lead in an independent film called Harlem is Heaven) and you’d never guess he was 65 years old with his youthful vigor and spry physicality. Lena Horne performs the title song (and others) in what must be her largest screen role as well.…

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  Review by Brandan Silcox ★★★

  I can’t remember the plot but I loved the cast and their performances. That last act was a true showstopper.... like honestly the movie just ended haha I guess they were like “well let’s call it a day here... end on a high an’ all... “ 

  This movie does represent a milestone in representation on the big screen so it should be celebrated for that, and again that last act was fantastic.

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  Review by Joe ★★★★½

  It's impossible to divorce this from its troubling sociopolitical context (of course, that's true of everything), but if you could you'd surely have one of the most purely entertaining musicals ever made, every sequence is imbued with the absolute joy of virtuosic performance, even the ones that seem so wrong by modern standards. The title number with its balletic interlude, followed by the famous showstopper by the Nicholas Brothers, is just a breathtaking stretch of movie.

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  Review by Rick Burin ★★★★½

  The last five minutes of this film briefly made me forget President Trump. They are that bloody good.

  I've lost count of how many times I've watched this film over the years, though this was the first time on the big screen, with soul singer and Wire actor Clarke Peters choosing it as his 'screen epiphany', as part of the BFI's Black Star strand.

  For all its flaws, it's unmissable entertainment: standard studio escapism but with an all-African American cast, including many of the leading jazz, blues and dance stars of the era. The comedy is dated, some of the racial elements are wince-inducingly offensive (black female dancers with golliwog caricatures on the backs of their heads, anyone?) and the…

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  Review by Those Eyebrows ★★★½

  When the Nicholas brothers started doing leap-frogging splits down a giant staircase I unconsciously let out this weird, loud yelping noise I have never heard myself make before, some odd combination of awestruck exhiliration and sympathetic third-party groin trauma. Their routine is seriously one of the single most impressive human feats I have ever seen captured on film.

  Also major props to Cab Calloway for rocking the big suit years before David Byrne was even born.