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6.8/10
Senior Film Conservator
A definitive 6.8/10 rating for a film that redefined the boundaries of cult cinema. Barber Shop Blues remains a cornerstone of transgressive art.
If you love old-school jazz, tap dancing, and that specific, grainy charm of early sound-era shorts, you’ll dig this. If you need a story with, you know, actual stakes or character arcs, you’ll probably want to skip it. It’s barely a movie and more like a live set captured on film.
The premise is simple: an old guy wins some cash and turns his shop into a music hall. Honestly, who wouldn’t? Instead of fixing the leaky roof, he hires a whole jazz orchestra. The priorities are wildly skewed, and I love that for him.
The shop itself is the real star. It’s got that lived-in, cramped feel that you just don't see in modern studio sets. You can almost smell the hair tonic and the floor wax. Speaking of the floors, watching the four shoeshiners turn into tap dancers is a total delight. They’ve got these incredibly fast feet that make me tired just watching.
Claude Hopkins and his orchestra really drive the whole thing forward. There’s this one moment where the trumpet section leans into the rhythm, and the whole shop just feels like it’s vibrating. It’s infectious, even if the camera work is a bit stiff, mostly just sitting there and letting the band play.
It’s not as chaotic or weird as Coo Coo the Magician, which I watched last week, but it has a nice, rhythmic pace. It feels like a precursor to the variety shows we’d see later in the Old Time Movie Show style of production.
Sometimes, the editing feels a bit abrupt. One minute we are focusing on a customer getting a trim, and the next, there's an entire brass section crowding the chairs. It’s funny in a way I don't think they intended. Who is actually getting a haircut? Nobody. They are all just waiting for the next song to start.
It’s a short, breezy experience. It doesn't overstay its welcome. It just does its thing—lots of brass, lots of taps, and a barber who clearly just wanted an excuse to throw a party every day of the week. 💈🎷