Written and Directed by: Timothy Scott Bogart
Cast: Jeremy Jordan, Caylee Cowan, Michelle Monaghan, Peyton List
Spinning Gold is a film about Neil Bogart on his path to becoming the owner of Casablanca Records. The film is a straightforward biopic beginning with Jeremy Jordan as Neil Bogart, explaining that the story will take you through his life and what he set out to do versus what he ultimately accomplished.
The film overall requires you to care about Neil Bogart, because for most of Spinning Gold he is the only character of importance. The rest of the cast play more of a supporting role and can be broken into three groups. The first group is those who Neil works with, the second is those who Neil loves, and the third is the recording artists Neil produces records for.
I would have preferred a film with the third group being the primary cast, but all these characters are really only cameos appearing in one or two scenes. Despite that, when this portion of the cast does appear their scenes are great.
One great scene stars Ledisi playing Gladys Knight. In this scene, Neil is looking to recruit Gladys to his record label. As the two talk, it does feel like there is genuine chemistry between the two and both of the actors are at their best, because both cast members are singers in real life. I do feel the portrayal of some characters was either irrelevant or mishandled, but aside from this, I found Spinning Gold to be a lot of fun.
As this movie began I thought I wouldn’t enjoy it. However, it was quite the contrary. I really cared about the story placed before me and constantly hoped for a happy ending for Neil Bogart. I believe this story was so heartwarming and caring, because Neil Bogart’s children are behind the production.
The movie is written and directed by Neil’s real-life son. This really shines through as the film progresses and becomes less of a story and more of a character study.
Jeremy Jordan also manages to play Neil as genuinely charming and sweet. Most times when you get a character like Neil, it is played as cutthroat or heartless, but that was not the case in Spinning Gold. The film is at its best when Neil and his team are making deals and signing new artists.
You can see the promise of fame and fortune gleaming in everyone’s eyes in each scene. You get an enjoyable journey as well, because for most of the film Casablanca Records is over a million dollars in debt. This really allows the audience to become invested in how Casablanca will fair by the end.
It’s a journey that makes the audience route for the underdog, an experience I did not expect.
I also had the privilege of seeing the film with an audience who were greatly impacted by this era of music. Those in the audience who enjoyed KISS, Donna Summer, Gladys Knight, and the Isley Brothers really enjoyed the callbacks to the music and the “making of” aspect of Spinning Gold.
Additionally, there is a portion of Spinning Gold that explains why, sonically, the music was so enjoyable to experience. This is a premise I felt could have been explored for the entirety of the film but was still very impactful for what we got.
Aside from the music, Spinning Gold manages to tell a very compelling love story centered around Neil Bogart and Beth Bogart (Monaghan) …. and Joyce Biawitz (Lyndsy Fonseca). I don’t want to give too much away, but each actor really gave their all for this story and made it work.
This is a testament to these actors, because with a 137-minute runtime, there is quite a bit of time occurring between each moment of the love story. I’ll also just say it now, I want to see Lyndsy Fonseca in more movies. She was easily the best actor in the film and really stole every scene she was in.
Overall Spinning Gold is a heartwarming story about success, failure, and getting back up again. If you are willing to go to the movies and hear a story, Spinning Gold is a fun time at the movies. I would give it 3.5 out of 5 stars.
