X

1984
R
Orion Pictures
2 h 9 m

1984
R
Orion Pictures
2 h 9 m

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.

Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola

Written By: William Kennedy, Mario Puzo, Jim Haskins, Francis Ford Coppola

1984
R
Orion Pictures
2 h 9 m

1984
R
Orion Pictures
2 h 9 m

The Cotton Club

Metascore Generally Favorable Based on 14 Critic Reviews

68

User Score Generally Favorable Based on 8 User Ratings

8.0

My Score

Hover and click to give a rating Saved

Where to Watch

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.

Directed By: Francis Ford Coppola

Written By: William Kennedy, Mario Puzo, Jim Haskins, Francis Ford Coppola

Where to Watch

Critic Reviews

Metascore

Generally Favorable Based on 14 Critic Reviews

57% Positive
8 Reviews

43% Mixed
6 Reviews

0% Negative
0 Reviews

All Reviews
Positive Reviews
Mixed Reviews
Negative Reviews

Critic Reviews

Metascore

Generally Favorable Based on 14 Critic Reviews

57% Positive
8 Reviews

43% Mixed
6 Reviews

0% Negative
0 Reviews

All Reviews
Positive Reviews
Mixed Reviews
Negative Reviews

Chicago Sun-Times

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?

By Roger Ebert FULL REVIEW

Washington Post

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.

By Paul Attanasio FULL REVIEW

TV Guide Magazine

Lavish, interesting, evocative but strained and self-conscious, The Cotton Club is all watchable curiosity.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto)

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]

By Jay Scott FULL REVIEW

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.

By Richard Corliss FULL REVIEW

The Cotton Club never seems to go anywhere, so that we are caught up short when it seems to have gotten somewhere. Then it's over, finished in Hines' blaze of glory, and a few minutes later one wonders what one has seen. It's big and colorful and terribly thin. [14 Dec 1984, p.E18]

By Bill Cosford FULL REVIEW

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

See All 14 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

User Score

Generally Favorable Based on 8 User Ratings

88% Positive
7 Ratings

13% Mixed
1 Rating

0% Negative
0 Ratings

User Reviews

User Score

Generally Favorable Based on 8 User Ratings

88% Positive
7 Ratings

13% Mixed
1 Rating

0% Negative
0 Ratings

There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.

Details

Production Company Zoetrope Studios, Producers Sales Organization (PSO), Totally Independent, Robert Evans Company

Release Date Dec 14, 1984

Duration 2 h 9 m

Rating R

Genres

Tagline It was the jazz age. It was an era of elegance and violence. The action was gambling. The stakes were life and death.

View All Details

Awards

Academy Awards, USA

• 2 Nominations

Golden Globes, USA

• 2 Nominations

BAFTA Awards

• 1 Win & 2 Nominations

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