3 reasons why you’ll like the movie Patti Cake$

Lesbian News featured the wonderful indie movie Patti Cake$, placing it prominently on our magazine cover for this month’s issue— as well as getting an exclusive interview with its star, Danielle MacDonald.

After all, what’s not to like about the story of a spunky young woman who wants to get out of her dead-end life by rapping the hell out of it?

Check out the trailer here to see what we’re talking about:

Now, if you’re used to watching mainstream movies and you need more reasons to watch this award-winning flick, here are three more as we compare it to a trio of mainstream movies:

Underdog and Patti Cake$

If the story of Patti Cake$ strongly reminds you of the rapper Eminem’s own underdog movie, 8 Mile, don’t worry: while there’s a lot of similarities, there are also a lot of differences.

For one thing, while Eminem’s character– Jimmy “B-Rabbit” Smith, Jr.– is considered trailer park trash, at least he’s male and has the privileges that go with it (including getting the girl).

MacDonald’s plus-sized Patricia Dumbrowski not only has to overcome economic issues of being poor but also of being a young woman who doesn’t fit into society’s parameters of fitness and beauty.

However, Patricia takes all the hits life has to give her and turns them around to make it work. How’s that for an underdog story?

Girl power and Patti Cake$

The movie Pitch Perfect was such a hit that it spawned a sequel, with its story of a group of girls who sing a capella trying to win a national competition.

We got the same girl power vibe from Patti Cake$, especially as MacDonald also reminded us of the always-funny Rebel Wilson as the defiantly-named character, Fat Amy.

With the same flair and panache, MacDonald shows us what would have been if Fat Amy was the star of the show– and it’s inspiring as well as funny.

(On a side note, it’s interesting that both MacDonald and Wilson both hail from Australia. What’s with them Australian big girls who’re ready to tug at our heartstrings, eh?)

Making music and Patti Cake$

Okay, we’re not exactly big fans of the struggling-music-writer/singer movie Coyote Ugly. However, this was the example we thought of when we were thinking of original music.

Like this movie and 8 Mile, MacDonald’s Patricia tries to create new music that would make her stand up with the help of friends like an Indian-born pharmacist-come-R&B crooner/hype man and a noise rocker calling himself Basterd the Antichrist.

The advantage of watching Patti Cake$ though is that it has a great story with solid characters that you’ll empathize with. (And the music is waaaay better, too.)

So, need more reasons to watch Patti Cake$?