This watch was of the 6-episode televsion series currently streaming on the Criterion Channel. I'm very tempted to bump it up to 4 stars. Still too much time was taken up by impressions, but there are emotion resonances here that never surfaced in the first three films of the series.
The acting in Don't Play Us Cheap is community theater and Oscar worthy. The set design is cheap and magical. The songs are cliché and brilliant. The camerawork is clumsy and extraordinary. The dialogue is banal and poignant. One moment I was cringing in disbelief and the next I was transported to cinematic heaven. There is more honesty in one minute of Don't Play Us Cheap than there is in the whole 129 minutes of La La Land. The lyrics…
