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GOLDIE (2020)
Director: Sam de Jong Cast: Slick Woods, George Sample III, Danny Hoch, Marsha Stephanie Blake, Edwina Findley Dickerson, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Khris Davis, Alanna Renee Tyler-Tompkins, Jazmyn C Dorsey, Angela Griszell, Jose Fernandez, A$AP Ferg MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:28 Release Date: 2/21/20 (limited) |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | February 20, 2020 Goldie (Slick Woods) runs and struts down the sidewalks of New York City with the confidence of someone who knows exactly what she wants—even if she isn't exactly sure how to get it. Goldie, written and directed by Sam de Jong, shows its own brand of stylistic confidence, although it's also clear that the movie doesn't exactly know what it wants to do. The movie is something of a big-city adventure, which follows Goldie through a series of trials. She wants to become famous, partly for herself but also as a means for her family to escape the impoverished life they have been living. The character's driving motive is to get in a music video, being filmed the next day, and to obtain the clothes she needs to stand out from the other dancers. The major item on her list is a bright, yellow fur overcoat. As things get worse and worse for Goldie, she occasionally envisions herself wearing it—her ideal, sure-to-impress form. De Jong's technique here is to combine such fantastical elements (the visions, vibrantly animated shapes highlighting certain images, and character introductions spoken by voices of children, in a tone that sets up how we should feel about the character being established) and the harshness of the many problems Goldie encounters. Her mother Carol (Marsha Stephanie Blake) is arrested for unclear reasons (The mother's boyfriend, played by Danny Hoch, has been selling drugs from the shelter where the family lives), leaving the just-turned-18 Goldie to care for her younger half-sisters (played by Alanna Renee Tyler-Tompkins and Jazmyn C Dorsey) and keep them from child services. Goldie shoplifts to get her outfit, and she comes up with a plan to sell her mother's prescription drugs to pay for the coat. The kids are passed from friend to friend, and the vital part of Woods' performance (her debut), beyond its naturalistic energy, is that the character's goal, while seemingly selfish, is clearly for more than her own success. Despite this clearly defined character, the movie itself plays like a miserable fairy tale, in which lessons are presented and often ignored (De Jong repeats shots of Goldie climbing stairs toward likely trouble, as if begging her to turn around). The tone and approach of Goldie, then, inevitably undermine de Jong's ultimate attempts at injecting some cold realism into this tale. Copyright © 2020 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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