Filly Brown is a bad movie. Fine...Filly Brown is a really bad movie. It's an overly preachy, completely cliched, extremely frustrating film that should be shown to young filmmakers on how NOT to fail on your first or second try. This is the second collaboration between Youssef Delara and Michael D. Olmos. The first was an independent film from 2010 called Bedrooms. Olmos previously did a movie called Splinter (also with father Edward James Olmos) and Delara did nothing before partnering up with Olmos. With Olmos---it's proof that just because your genes run with a powerful actor doesn't mean that you can be a good (or even decent) filmmaker. With Delara...it's proof that even if you're really ambitious...you can still make a bad movie.
The film follows Majo (Gina Rodriguez) who assumes the rap name Filly Brown. She is an underground rapper who hasn't really made it big. When a record promoter named Big Cee (Noel Gugliemi) offers her a big contract...she hastily accepts. Of course...her father (Lou Diamond Phillips) and sister (Jenna Rivera, the musician who died in a plane crash December of 2012) know that Big Cee has something else in the works.
One of the big problems I had with the film is that we're supposed to believe that Majo is a rapper deserving of this big step up in the music world. However, as someone who listens to both old school and current rap...I can tell you Filly Brown is not anywhere near a good rapper. She stinks on the mic and when some plot turns come up 3/4 into the film...we are not at all surprised at what we're hearing. The film is also very boring. It meanders from scene to scene hoping for something to stick to the wall. Nothing does. There is no real plot beyond her record deal and the messages of the film get lost in translation over all the preachy dialogue.
The performances are alright, I suppose. However, that's all the good I can really say about Filly Brown. This is not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination. When veteran actors such as Phillips and Olmos can't find anything to do with your script...you know you have a problem.
(1/2 Star out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for language, some drug use and violence)
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