The Cotton Club

Name: The Cotton Club
Genre: Drama, Crime, Music
Released: December 14, 1984
Duration: 127 min
Rating: 68
Cast: Allen Garfield, Bob Hoskins, Diane Lane, Fred Gwynne, Gregory Hines

1984

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Generally favorable reviews based on 14 Critic Reviews

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Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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8.0	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 8 Ratings

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The Cotton Club

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Movie Details & Credits

Orion Pictures | Release Date: December 14, 1984 | R

Starring: Allen Garfield, Bob Hoskins, Diane Lane, Fred Gwynne, Gregory Hines, Gwen Verdon, James Remar, Lonette McKee, Nicolas Cage, Richard Gere

Summary: The Cotton Club was a famous night club in Harlem. The story follows the people that visited the club, those that ran it, and is peppered with the Jazz music that made it so famous.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola

Genre(s): Drama, Crime, Music

Rating: R

Runtime: 127 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Roger Ebert

Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club is, quite simply, a wonderful movie. It has the confidence and momentum of a movie where every shot was premeditated -- and even if we know that wasn't the case, and this was one of the most troubled productions in recent movie history, what difference does that make when the result is so entertaining? Read full review

Rita Kempley

Francis Ford Coppola magically recreates the era, its movies and its music, in this razzle-dazzle celebration, some fact and some fiction. Read full review

Paul Attanasio

In the way it deemphasizes its script and consciously undercuts its star, Cotton Club adventurously questions the formulas of Hollywood; its success in doing so without a hint of boredom or pretension augurs a whole new way of making movies. It's the most entertaining art film of the year, the kind of movie you can't help smiling along with. Read full review

Jay Scott

Cotton Club lacks the resonance of The Godfather; it's similar stylistically, but everything is coarsened, caricatured. What Coppola has achieved, however, is what Sergio Leone was after in Once Upon a Time in America when he tried to celebrate America by recycling the cliches of its gangster films. [14 Dec 1984]

Empire Staff (Not Credited)

The film's period settings and spectacular on-stage showbiz set-pieces are fabulous, its meandering script much less so. The thing feels like a movie with its heart ripped out. Read full review

Richard Corliss

The Cotton Club is not a bad film, just a bland one; not inept, just inert. Given its garish production history, one rather expected The Cotton Club to sing with hot-jazz desperation. Instead, we get the mediocre craftsmanship of a pit band in Vegas. Read full review

Staff (Not Credited)

The narrative is a mess despite the simplistic twinning of tales, and - worse yet - keeps interrupting the heart-stopping hoofing. Read full review

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User Reviews

Valjean24601

Sep 27, 2019

Una película infravalorada en la que brilla la dirección de Coppola mientras que el buen hacer de Gregory Hines y Diane Lane salva los muebles de la mediocre actuación de Richard Gere.

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DawdlingPoet

Nov 26, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This is quite a stylish watch - its dark and gritty, with a bit of a film noir feel to it, although its obviously in colour but its very much gangster centered, with some scenes taking place in really quite literally dark conditions, which make it a little hard to ascertain exactly whats going on. Needless to say, there's a fair amount of violence present - bloody violence. There is, as you may expect, quite a lot of jazz music present, as we see the various performers who played sets in the titular club, including those by non-whites and indeed I felt sympathy towards those artists who had issues being allowed in to the club, where their invited to perform, considering their not allowed to enter as a paying customer. I noticed the irony of the name of the club and what it represents to non-Whites (i.e. slavery).

The musical sets feature some reasonably slick choreography and reminded me a bit of the film Cabaret I suppose.

Also needless to say, there is some moderately strong language present, including numerous instances of racial slurs. This film is set in the late 1920s, so racism is very much rife and this film certainly doesn't shy away from that. There are also some slurs towards Jews (anti-semitism?) by the local gangsters.

Acting wise, I found it interesting seeing Richard Gere and Nicolas Cage playing characters in this film. Richard Gere certainly looks very fresh faced in his role as Dixie Dwyer. Also present is Bob Hoskins, who makes me think of Roger Rabbit since that film must have been made only a few years later I suppose, although that film is certainly more family friendly than The Cotton Club.

Overall I enjoyed this film and I would recommend it to others.… Expand

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