A superstar singer and her overworked personal assistant are presented with a choice that could alter the course of their respective careers.
Tracee Ellis Ross can almost do no wrong in my book. Her flamboyant and unapologetic personality, coupled with talent and beauty, exudes a type of confidence that can only be born and bred during the incubation period of life. While most would argue that she chose a path that was pretty much laid out for her by her famous mother, Diana Ross, I’m inclined to believe that the path chose her and she welcomed it with open arms while the indelible mark it placed on her became inconceivably permanent.
In the film, Grace Davis (Tracee Ellis Ross) is a very accomplished singer who in her heyday, was a force to be reckoned with. While she still has a beautiful voice, all of those in her circle have come to realize that the times have changed and she is no longer the biggest draw in town. While many hint that a Vegas residency is certainly in her future, she has yet to come to terms with it and considers it a last resort. While her manager (Ice Cube) considers it an awesome no-frills setup where she can coast through until the end, Grace is convinced it is an acknowledgment of career suicide with partial resurrection for the legion of fans who still cling to her. Grace’s loyal and dedicated personal assistant Maggie (Dakota Johnson), has her own childhood dreams of being a record producer and while Grace overextends her with her unnecessary neediness, Maggie still finds time to dabble in it secretly. Maggie, who has wanted to be a record producer all her life, uses her spare time to secretly dabble in producing and upon a chance meeting with an admirer who challenged her to a musical-knowledge spinoff, she ends up producing for him and reignites his passion in music that was deferred through life circumstances.
On one of Grace’s biggest performance opportunities to prove herself worthy of her lifelong status, she gets caught up in a dilemma and forces Maggie to bail her out. When Maggie starts crumbling from the pressure, she comes up with a scheme to use her producer protégée to fill in the last-minute gap which blows up in her face, causes her to lose her job, but then leads to the surprise union between an estranged mother and son.
This film, in all its glory, highlights the overbearing sense of control from handlers as well as the lack of opportunities for those in the industry who don’t know how to navigate the landscape or possess the wherewithal to pursue their dreams. Tracee Ellis Ross does an outstanding job in her role as Grace Davis, and in effect, epitomizes every inch of her famous mother, Diana Ross’s musical voice, radiance, and physical as well as autonomous features. Both Tracee and Dakota Johnson did one hell of a job playing naive and fearless roles that seemed second nature for each of them and equally popular in using both their strengths and weaknesses to get what they wanted in life. Kelvin Harrison, Jr., Grace’s son, also did more with less, and instantly became a heartthrob without ever trying to in his role of being anything more than subtle in his completely unobtrusive role. Kudos to Director Nisha Ganatra for using an age-old storyline to reignite our compassion for the underdog, while demonstrating passion and purpose to remain significant in the roles of an over-the-top and under-the-radar Diva who were both headed in the same direction.
Now available on Digital HD and on Blu-ray and DVD August 11th
