Wonderful character development!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

Very entertaining. Alot of story lines, but if you can keep up, it's a great movie. Andre Benjamin delivers a dramatic music & acting performance. His music scenes were my favorite.

I saw Idlewild again last night .This is simply a top-notch production with dazzling performances, excellent production standards and very imaginative cinematography.The production numbers are quite simply unstoppable and the blending of the music of the period with the sensibilities of today works beautifully. Obvious care was taken to recreate the look and feel of the period and some of the shots and film sequences, most notably a love scene and a death scene were simply mesmerizing. Music numbers very definitely gave you a sleek music video sensibility coupled with festive dance moves in stop-action/clever editing beautifully enhancing this comedic drama that deftly approached racism, organized crime, father-son issues, love issues, a look at black life in a very difficult time resulting in poignant, entertaining film.I indeed admit that the script itself could have been more compelling but there is no denying the power of Andre Benjamin in this production. His performance is measured, believable, poised, and poignant. He has a more than promising future in films. He along with a top-notch cast including Ving Rhames, Terrence Howard, Macy Gray and Patti LaBelle give standout performances I can easily look at over and probably over again.This is an excellent and a most worthy representation of another dimension/time in African-American culture and a MUST for your collection if you want quality productions of African-American life.I highly recommend!

Two long-life best friends Percival (Andre Benjamin) and Rooster (Antwan A. Patton) works in a sizzling night club called "The Church". Pervical works in his father's (Ben Vereen) morgue by day and by night, he is the piano player at the club and Rooster is the club's flashy lead performer. But things are slowly changing, when Rooster's close friend gangster Spat (Ving Rhames) and Rooster's sleazy club owner Ace (Faizon Love) is killed by a vicious, double crossing gangster named Trumpy (Terrence Howard). Rooster is forced to take the club and he owns money to Trumpy. But Percival starts slowly falling in love with an very attractive, beautiful sing named Angel Davenport (Paula Patton). While Percival shares his songs with Angel, the club starts getting more attention. While Trumpy gets increasingly greedy and violent. Rooster has to find a way to bring back his life and his family together.Written and Directed by Bryan Barber (Who directed music videos for a living) made an ambitious, unique and fascinating drama set in the Depression-era. Surprisingly, "Idlewild" is not a musical. Despite some musical numbers, written and produced by OutKast. Benjamin is well cast in the lead as the lonely and shy piano player. Patton does an good job as Percival's friend. Paula Patton is lovely to watch, although her singing voice is dubbed. But it is Howard as the criminal-minded gangster, who steals the show.DVD has an sharp anamorphic Widescreen (2.35:1) transfer and an strong Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. DVD includes an deleted scene, an deleted song sequence and two music videos. Surprisingly, there is no behind the scenes featurette or an running commentary track by the filmmakers. "Idlewild" is an intentionally anachronistic movie. The feature has an strong visual presence, breathtaking dance sequences and an morality story. "Idlewild" is a very underrated movie with strong cinematography by Pascal Rabaud ("The End of Violence", "Paris, I Love You") and fine performances. If you haven't seen this film yet, it might surprise you over. Super 35. (****/*****).

My biggest problem is that I don't know what this was. Was this a musical that was too much of a movie, or a movie that was too much of a musical? The problem is you can't blend them. Either it is a musical or it is not- and if that isn't clear from the get-go, the suspension of disbelief will not exist within the work.From the very beginning of the movie I had a problem with the suspension of disbelief. I didn't like effect of the freeze frames with the expanding pictures during the credits. I didn't like the fact that they were still rolling credits after 16 damn minutes. And when the rooster on the canteen became animated, a little kid barely able to see over the dashboard borrowed a hearse and DROVE it, and another kid's sheet music became animated, I knew that it was about to be a LONG 2 hours...It was.Had the music/musical scenes been strongly to my liking, I suppose I could have enjoyed this movie as a guilty pleasure like Prince's "Graffiti Bridge". But the music was horrible. In fact, there was nothing upon which I could found a liking of this movie on any level. From a picture book full of dead people in coffins; Andre's ugly beard and mole; animated characters/musical scenes that just didn't fit- Such as Rooster speeding away for his life in a car and rapping; and two full hours of play time; this movie was simply an unlikable piece of work.And one last personal pet peeve: The so called "hit song" that Miss Sally B Shelly AKA Angel Davenport was singing that supposedly made her a star, and kept the club packed was.. AN EXTREMELY WACK SONG. Another failure of the suspension of disbelief to exist for me.Someone commented that this movie was like a African American "Moulin Rouge". Funny thing is that I did think of Moulin Rouge when I first saw the Church club. But Moulin Rouge was enjoyable (even though I never felt the need to see it more than once) primarily because it KNEW what it was- an over the top musical- and the music/musical scenes were VERY good with very strong and memorable songs. Idlewild was exactly the opposite. This movie had no idea what it was.... at the sad thing is, that this was the least of it's problems...