Bullet Points: September Rayne

I enjoy all kinds of action movies, but get a kick out of movies with a low budget and a cast of relative unknowns. The most recent movie I saw that fits this criteria is the 2017 action drama September Rayne. Will September Rayne get showered with praise, or will I rain on its parade? Only one way to find out.

• Purple Rain – When a movie opens with six domino mask wearing women robbing a party full of men, I am pretty much guaranteed to sit through the rest. So what if the action is poorly choreographed and the fight scene is underwhelming, it is awesome to see these women take control. One of them, who we later learn is the titular Rayne, shoots a man in the leg. We later learn the women are a gang who rob and steal but shooting is new to their repertoire. 
• November Rain – The group of women includes Rayne, Jade, Chyneh, Baby Girl, Big Fun and November. First of all, I don’t know if those are all given names or nicknames but they are top notch and descriptive. Second of all, why do we have a month in the title of the movie and a character with a different month name? Ooh, everybody needs some time on their own, ooh, don’t you need some time all alone. We see the women discussing the trouble of living in Chicago… and holy shit, things got serious. I wasn’t expecting a socio-economic discussion on poverty, violence and life in Chicago.

• Blame It on the Rain – September Rayne likes to throw in a flashback or two, and it is helpful to see how these women got where they are. A flashback of young Rayne and her mother sticking up a John in a hotel room wins the grossest flashback of the day, maybe even the week. It has a deadly ending for Rayne’s mother which leads to meeting her friends at a school for troubled girls. There is a discussion on post-traumatic stress and medication and what a serious movie September Rayne is trying to be. Thank God, for the flashback where Rayne first meets her friends. Dropping the r-word on those girls was a bold choice, Rayne.
• Fool in the Rain – Another gang of women kill a politician, maybe that talk about Chicago was right, in order to set up Rayne and her friends. This gets the police involved and we are introduced to an attorney trying to set the women straight. More likely it is time for some strong empowerment discussion and the trouble of using derogatory terms like bitch, especially in the female African American community… hold up, I am not here to write a sociology thesis. God dammit, September Rayne, stop making me think and just let me have the action. At least September Rayne is smart enough to know that if they have a scene in a parking garage, there needs to be a shootout.

• Here Comes the Rain Again – The truth comes out about why the second gang is trying to frame our gang (not The Little Rascals). Turns out it all comes from the time in the school for troubled girls and things are definitely going to get bad. Luckily, Rayne meets up with the guy she shot at the beginning of the movie and they begin a romantic relationship. I suppose when you mother is a prostitute that dies when you are young, you never learn about the common ways to meet men.
• The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly) – The finale is action packed, at least compared to the rest of the movie. We learn all about the connections of what happened and why throughout the movie and there is a pretty big twist. Will everyone make it out alive? That is for you… wait a second, why is there only 15 minutes to go in the movie and just now some of the characters looked right at the camera and started talking directly to me? Am I dreaming or did that just happen?  I love it!

September Rayne is just the kind of movie I want to see when I look for low budget action movies. The cast is not filled with household names, the action is cut up and not shown well and the sets sometimes can be comical. However, when the story is good, and damn it if the story in September Rayne isn’t too serious, it all comes together because the filmmakers, cast and crew are making a movie not with box office receipts in mind but because they have a story to tell. Kudos to writer and director Cassandra Bell for bringing her vision to the people. While not quite as impressive, I will bring some September Rayne Bonus Bullet Points to the people.

• Favorite Quote – “A honest politician in Chicago?”
• Technical Question – Is it easier to digitally place the words and letters on the paper held up during a police mugshot versus printing out a unique paper? I only ask because when the women couldn’t hold the paper still it moved but not the lettering placed on screen.
• Soundtraxx – The hip-hop soundtrack is very fitting in September Rayne, but CTB will be most happy to know the attorney quotes T-Pain in his seminal work “I’m N Luv (Wit a Stripper)”.
• Favorite Poster – The Garfield “I Hate Mondays” poster in the laundry room brought a smile to my face.