Music video director Geremy Jasper launches an unlikely rap star – a plus-size, white New Jersey rapper played by Aussie sensation Danielle Macdonald – in this high-energy feature debut.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2017
Patti Cake$ 2017
“Two stars are born in Patti Cake$, one of those rare crowd-pleasers that earn their love honestly. The first is the sensational Danielle Macdonald, who plays the second: the movie’s title character, also known as Patricia Dombrowski, a poor white New Jersey rapper who, with her tiny diverse posse yearns to cross the bridge to fame and fortune. Written and directed by Geremy Jasper, the movie treads familiar aspirational ground: Patricia has dreams, pluck and obstacles (she’s routinely taunted because of her weight), but her outsider status isn’t fetishized or romanticized, and she’s divinely real.” — Manohla Dargis, NY Times
“It’s hard to equate what a star-making turn this is for Macdonald. The audience at the film’s world premiere gave an audible gasp when she answered her first question because no one had a clue she was Australian let alone not American. In a movie like this, filmmakers often have to convince the audience an actor playing a musician is as good as the story says there are. At no point in Patti Cake$ is there ever a hint that Macdonald is unable to legitimately rap. She’s simply a revelation.” — Gregory Ellwood, The Playlist