Rock pioneer Richard Penniman — known to the world as the flamboyant Little Richard — deserves better than this hemming-and-hawing TV biography; it’s the dramatic equivalent of a cover version rather than the original. Smack dab in the middle of a 1957 tour of Australia, Little Richard (Leon Robinson) decides to quit show business. To the shock of his family and entourage, he can't shake the feeling that God is calling him to a higher vocation. As this film travels back and forth in time, we witness Richard’s far-from-idyllic childhood as the son of sharecropper Bud Penniman (Carl Lumbly), who couldn't abide his son's effeminacy. Although an embarrassment t...
Released:
2000
Rated:
n/a
Length:
120 mins