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The Queen's Beauty Shop
"This movie was very exciting to watch because it features so many famous entertainers from the industry."
By Janee Wafer
Bille Woodruff’s comedy Beauty Shop is about Gina Norris (Queen Latifah), a passionate, hard working beautician and single mother. Norris leaves Chicago and moves to Atlanta so her talented daughter, Vanessa (Paige Hurd), can attend an outstanding music school. While in Atlanta, Gina finds a job in a southern salon. She shortly makes a name for herself and gets a gang of clients. Her boss Jorge Christophe (Kevin Bacon) is a rude and overbearing man who consistently criticizes her, but he made the mistake of taking credit for her work. With that, Gina storms out of the salon, taking a couple of stylists and loyal clients with her, and decides to open up her own shop. This is a rocky road to success, but with faith, a positive attitude and determination, no one can keep Gina down.
This movie was very exciting to watch because it features so many famous entertainers from the industry. To give you a heads up, you should look forward to seeing Adele Givens from Queens of Comedy, Alicia Silverstone from Clueless, Golden Brooks from the series Girlfriends, Alfre Woodard, Andie Mac Dowell, Keshia Knight Pulliam from The Cosby Show, Paige Hurd, teen comedian James Lewis known as “Lil JJ,” Kevin Bacon, and Djimon Hounsou-- and this is to name just a few! All of these characters brought a lot of attitude and comedy to the film. They played their characters as if they were actually living day to day as these people, which brought a real feeling to the film.
Also, it didn’t hurt that Queen Latifah’s acting skills were untouchable. She played her character, Gina, amazingly well by being comical and serious at the same time. As an actress Queen Latifah has recently been featured in Barbor Shop 2: Back in Business, Bringing Down the House, Chicago and Taxi, just to name a few. She was an executive producer for Bringing Down the House and The Cookout; and now, she is a producer for Beauty Shop. Queen Latifah is just a phenomenal woman; there is nothing that she can not do. She holds the title of rap’s first lady, and she has accomplished so much after having such a rough background. So, it was only natural for her to perform and produce Beauty Shop so well, given her many talents.
Director Bille Woodruff has directed many memorable videos for artists such as Jessica Simpson, Lil' Kim, Britney Spears and Usher. Most recently, Woodruff directed Universal Pictures’ Honey, starring Jessica Alba and Mekhi Phifer, which made $60 million worldwide. Practice makes perfect, and as Woodruff does more and more work his skills reach another level, as they did in this movie. And, directing Beauty Shop was probably more fun than stressful because he worked with a group of very talented veteran actors.
Overall this movie was well produced and written. This film was about a woman having a dream and making it a reality. She overcame many obstacles and still had success. What is more influential than that? I recommend this movie to anyone that needs a little inspiration and enjoys comedy, because your stomach will hurt so hard from laughing and you’ll also leave a little inspired.
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