Patti Cake$

— An odd, art house, underdog film about Patti (a.k.a "Patti Cake$"), an unlikely white girl with dreams of becoming a rap star. On the surface it’s pretty formulaic—Patti’s mother offers no encouragement and offers a bleak home life, Patti doesn’t look like popular girls and seems to only have a few friends, and her life is pretty much one heartbreak after another, but Danielle Macdonald manages to bring more to the role than it deserves, infusing the film with real emotion. Amid the strip clubs and strip malls, there’s something captivating about Patti and her life—somehow she rises above the despair and disappointment and becomes an unusual hero. I wish I enjoyed rap more, but the film is still worth seeing. [DVD]

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[2017. 109 min. Written and directed by Geremy Jasper. Starring Danielle Macdonald and Siddharth Dhananjay.]
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/patti-cake-2017