Tommy (1975)

When someone uses “it was a product of its time” to describe something, what comes to mind?

A) it’s from a psychedelic or surreal decade like the 60s and 70s so it feels like a drug trip, or
B) this phrase is specifically designed to excuse something later generations would consider offensive but “back in the day” it was considered normal or commonplace

At face value, Tommy felt like the first option but the more I thought about it afterwards, the latter also seemed to apply.

Going into it, I knew nothing about it or The Who. Except for Roger Daltrey, they set the record for being the loudest band in the world and their most famous song is Pinball Wizard.
And that this movie existed…

So some initial thoughts after seeing it...

Am I glad I watched it?
Kinda…

Would I see it again?
Probably not- I’d classify this as one of those movies where seeing them once is good enough

Would I recommend it?
Eh… I don’t know. It would depend on the person? Maybe if you like trippy movies or 70s cult films like Rocky Horror, I could recommend this and obviously if you’re well acquainted with The Who. But that’s it.

TCM is a fun channel because they’ll have someone talk about the background information and other trivia before and after a movie airs.
I don’t know what happened on New Year’s Day but that didn’t happen. Would I have liked this movie better if it did?
Maybe… I still think it would’ve been helpful to know what I was getting into beforehand.

Which begs the question how I’d describe this movie to someone like me who has no idea what to expect.

For starters, it would’ve been helpful to know that this is a MUSICAL where 99.9% of the dialogue was singing.
I don’t hate the genre like most people who claim to hate people “randomly breaking into song”… but in this case it was so bizarre that it was like this. The first 5-10 minutes was all instrumental and when they started singing, I was grateful for actual words… until it dawned on me it was all going to be sung.
Second- it’s a rock opera (which I already kinda knew about this album- it invented the genre before Queen did it in 1975). But the long translation of this would be “you’re getting a movie where ‘plot’ is very loosely written around the music.”

Prince did the rock opera thing with his symbol album (aka the last album he released before he temporarily changed his name to said symbol) in 1992. He got grief from fans for numerous reasons over how it turned out but one notable one was the storyline not making sense. Particularly noting it made more sense before he added one shiny new song and removed some segue tracks to make room for it.
Any fan who has the right connections most likely had heard the “removed footage” and can confirm- the story still doesn’t make complete sense but the added context would’ve been helpful.
The “opera” is mostly a love story between him and the girl who’d later become his first wife. Some songs fit in the context of the opera and some don’t. What suffers the most is the anthem “3 chains o gold”- the original story is that he’s given these chains to protect from the assassins who killer her father and he’s later corrupted by their power. But without the removed footage, this very dramatic moment in the album comes out of nowhere, makes no sense and anyone who doesn’t know better would relegate it to be a “bohemian rhapsody knockoff”.

After seeing Tommy… hey, at least Prince sorta had a story even if it wasn’t explained very well.

Tommy sorta had a story too. It just wasn’t an enjoyable one- for the most part.

I’ll come back to part B of my initial comment.
I’m no expert but am I correct in assuming “blind deaf and dumb” is one of those phrases that’ve been outmoded because it’s now considered a slur? Similar to how “retarded” had been used since I was a kid in the 90s and it was outmoded in the mid 2000s for not just being politically incorrect but offensive. Through that lens I see some people from more recent generations taking exception to this movie on that alone.

But beyond the nonstop singing, my biggest problem was that Tommy was basically gaslit by his family for most of the movie. Then when he finally amounts to something of worth, he’s taken advantage of so his family can live a richer lifestyle.

He’s made the way he is because he was abused by various family members and his stepfather kills his actual father and he and his mom lie to him about it.
One could argue whether or not Tommy’s father (presumed to have died in the war) was actually there when his stepfather killed him. It could just as easily have been a metaphor for “Tommy saw his mom and stepfather sleeping together and it scarred him for life”. But the fact his mother seems to go along with her new boyfriend more than her own son after this happens is probably the most messed up part of this whole thing.

And yeah they both seem guilty about the whole thing so they keep trying methods to fix him. His stepfather takes him to Tina Turner, a prostitute known as the acid queen. And his mother takes him to what appears to be a cult that worships Marilyn Monroe, a scene ending with him kissing her feet like the parishioners before him and the statue breaks.
Both have imagery that can only be described as fucking bizarre. Particularly the Iron Maiden being injected with red fluid from syringes. And one time it opens and you see a skeleton being ravaged by snakes.
I’m generally ok with snakes but I’m not ok with needles so this scene was pretty disturbing.
This movie wasn’t quite the acid trip the Oliver Stone Doors movie was but it came close at times like that.

In our house, we use “this is spinal tap” as a punchline a lot. Mostly comparing other movies to it saying they weren’t as bad.
Spinal Tap was easier to handle but there’s barely one scene I’d consider memorable other than “crank it up to 11” and the album signing nobody came to.

Tommy is worth seeing for the Pinball Wizard scene alone… but very little else.
Elton John has a really cool cameo as the soon to be former pinball champ. Especially those shoes. They reminded me of a Prince quote (from a remix of the 1985 B-Side “Hello”) where he says “I wish you could stand in my shoes but they’re so high you’d probably fall over and die”. Those shoes were that huge, haha

So Tommy finds the one thing he’s good at and everyone loves him for it.
Somehow his senses are completely cured and he’s a normal person again… as if his childhood trauma was the one thing holding him back all these years and he could’ve seen, heard and spoke but simply chose not to.
Then for whatever reason, he gains a literal cult following. His family takes advantage of all that the same way certain religious leaders over the years have conned people out of money. (This movie came out before that whole affair with Tammy Faye and her husband but it’s hard not to see some parallels). Then in the end his followers turn on him, murder his family and he’s free to do whatever he wants.
That’s the one other bright spot in this movie- Tommy gets to find happiness after everything he’d been through and that’s what matters the most.
That’s why this movie was mostly a slog until Pinball Wizard- if you can get through the singing and “story”, you see a protagonist who deserves better. Once things start to get more upbeat and positive for him, it was more enjoyable.


But I can’t help but wonder what could’ve been if the writing had more common sense behind it, particularly the second half of the movie.
Maybe this is me overthinking things but I had two thoughts when Tommy got some autonomy back,
A) that he’d suddenly lose his pinball talents because his missing senses aided his ability to excel… not that I wanted that to happen but I half expected it and that would be why he suddenly lost his cult following
And B) something I hoped would happen but didn’t… him denouncing his family once he got his senses back. They’re the whole reason he was that way to begin with and he shouldn’t have forgiven them so easily

One final thing to note- there’s a little too much repetition with the songs. My mom will often complain about songs like “I could’ve danced all night” having too many choruses and going on forever.
This movie had one or two songs that did that- the final one in particular because half of its length played out in the end credits.
The other- “see me, feel me” and whatever else… ugh! Enough already, just stop! That song comes up at least two or three times in the whole movie.

And want to know the most ironic thing?
Earlier that day I looked up reviews on a movie playing on hbo that night. Google gave it 2 out of 5 stars and comments were vastly “I want that time back” and “I kept waiting for to get better and it never got any better”. So I passed on it.
In hindsight I probably should’ve looked this one up while I was at it, just to see what I was getting into. I don’t think it would’ve changed the fact that it’s probably going to be another movie that’ll stick with me for the wrong reasons. At least I can say it did get better as it went on. I just wouldn’t sit through it again.


One final edit after reading reviews:

• Glad to see I’m not alone in not getting this movie...
• More reviews need to mention all the singing and lack of dialogue
• Some people like it and one even said “you’re dead or at least comatose” if you don’t get what they got out of this movie. People should be feel like what they like but also respect those who don’t feel the same way. It’s like a quote I read somewhere “if they don’t get it, the journey wasn’t meant for them”
• It’s funny to me in times like these when I read comments berating the director for being “overindulgent”. It’s kinda up there about movies being too sentimental. Both are complaints I’ll read but I don’t see them myself. Still don’t get how being too sentimental as a bad thing…
• One funny comment that also reads true- “maybe someone from the 70s can explain it to me”- agreed but after all this reflection, I’m done and ready to move onto something better.

Theatrical Review: Wicked- part one

Date- Sunday November 24 2024
Party- 3 (my mom, sister and I)
Time- 10:30 (actual movie didn’t start until 10:51)

Duration- 141 minutes (plus 5 trailers)

Notable Cast-

Elphaba- Cynthia Erivo
Glinda- Ariana Grande
Prince Fiyero- Jonathan Bailey
Nessa- Marissa Bode
Boq- Ethan Slater
Professor Dillamond- Peter Dinklage
Professor Morrible- Michelle Yeoh
The Wizard- Jeff Goldblum 

A brief comment on the trailers

We’re definitely going to see Sonic 3 when it comes out… although I can’t be the only one looking at this trailer and thinking they ripped off Shadow’s backstory from the first Pokemon movie. Both Shadow and Mewtwo were created in a lab and went berserk so their creators no longer had control of them. I also learned recently how in the original version, Mewtwo went berserk because it’d befriended the clone of a girl and she died… Shadow happens to have a tragic backstory involving a girl named Maria.

Hopefully at some point we’ll see Moana 2 since we saw the original in theaters. I also hope I like it better than Frozen 2, which was a massive disappointment for so many reasons

Legend of Ochi- I have no idea what to think of this one. A girl befriends a small critter that had been hyped up as a monster until she came across it. And they become fugitives as a result. (According to Wikipedia, it's an original screenplay written by the director in their debut and she's returning the creature to its family)

The bad guys 2- I hadn’t seen the original so I guess it did well enough to warrant a sequel?

How to train your dragon- live action
This is just a teaser trailer but dang, it looks so much like the cartoon. Toothless looks remarkably realistic.

The Main Event

I’ll try to keep this as spoiler free as possible although if you’re familiar with the Wizard of Oz and seen enough of the trailers, you already have a pretty good idea of what to expect.

Per my own experience, I’d never read the book and I only knew what I knew about the musical because some of my family had seen it years ago. I did grow up watching the original Judy Garland movie so it’s as much a part of my childhood as fairytales and the Disney movies based on them. So much of my discussion of the movie will be viewed through a lens encompassing all of these things.

With all the talk and hype, I expected this movie to be good and it was. It was REALLY good. Vivid and stunning. All the roles were cast perfectly- and with something as big as this, they clearly took a lot of care with the casting choices.

It’s also roughly the length of a Harry Potter movie (somewhere over the 2hr 20 minute mark) and it was paced really well. I was enthralled enough that I never got bored or wondered if it was going to be over soon. The one small exception was the party scene where everything goes eerily quiet (except for the hushed laughter of the supporting cast) for a long 5 minutes… I kinda knew where it was going but it took way too long to get there.

I vaguely remembered hearing the backstory of Elphaba and her sister. How her sister is disabled and she was blamed for it or that she’s responsible for looking after her.

There’s so much talk these days about casting other-abled people in other-abled roles and they definitely got it right here. Not just for the actress playing Nessa but hiring a wheelchair choreographer to coordinate her dance scene.

Christopher Scott was the main choreographer. We’d seen his work on “so you think you can dance” a bunch of times and this was an upscaled version of what he already does so well. Maybe he’ll be launched into the same stratosphere Mandy Moore has been enjoying since she did “La La land.” One can only hope…

I knew the basic arc where Glinda and Elphaba would go from enemies to friends to something more complicated by the end of the movie but not the how or why.

From the trailers I figured that Elphaba is made the enemy because she finds out the wizard has no magic… but there’s a lot more to that.

But while I had a pretty good idea of how the movie would end (we all kinda saw that coming, let’s be real), I had no clue how it would start.

I should have expected it but I never expected my initial gut reaction. We start near the end of the wizard of Oz- the wicked witch is dead- and everyone is celebrating. And I was sad, close to bawling my eyes out. It’s one of those bizarre moments where you consider telling this to your past self and your past self thinking you’re crazy. I’m still wrapping my head around it.

At least 10 minutes go by before we actually get to the title screen and the story begin. It was a huge relief to finally get there cuz I didn’t want to feel that way for the whole movie.

The only other song I knew of, other than Defying Gravity (Glee gave me some fond memories of that song…), was Popular and I was curious where it would show up in the movie, the context and so on.

I didn’t know what to expect but the anticipation I had paid off. It was so over the top and fun.

This movie is easily the longest amount of time I’d purposely spent with Ariana Grande. I like maybe two of her songs (Into You, Dangerous Woman) and she had that one duet (Rain on Me) with Lady Gaga. Otherwise I skip her on the radio cuz her unintelligible high range annoys me… but I really liked her in this role. If she wins an Oscar, I’d be all for it. I heard numerous comments about Glinda doing a lot of hair flipping in the musical and she absolutely nailed the hilarity of that aspect of her character.

Another fun musical number was "Dancing through Life" when the Prince shows up and essentially encourages all the other students to be delinquents by ignoring their studies. And also to go to the supposedly forbidden ballroom for a dance… I almost feel like asking in retrospect, “is this Oz or Footloose?” Why was this ballroom forbidden?
(That set was one of a few I literally gasped when I saw it the first. Another was obviously the emerald city- that’ll never not be impressive to look at).

Probably the most fascinating thing about this movie- which will feed into my hype for the sequel- you never know what to expect from the characters. Will the ones you admire one minute be ones you turn your back on the next?

The biggest question mark for me at the end of this movie involves Prince Fiyero. He spends a fair amount of time with both of the girls, but something tells me whichever side he aligns himself with— things will become very interesting once that choice becomes clear.

Michelle Yeoh and Jeff Goldblum were both brilliant as always.
Ever since her meteoric rise into the mainstream in recent years, Michelle has been nothing short of brilliant in everything I’d seen her in. Plus I’m reading crazy rich Asians now and I can’t help hearing her voice in my head when her character is on the page.
Also, Jeff Goldblum has been a regular in our stratosphere of actors because of his work in Jurassic Park and Independence Day- I don’t think I’d ever seen him smile this much in my life. Even seeing him in the NBC special previewing the movie, it was like being around a new person. He must have really enjoyed his time with this movie but the same can probably be said for everyone who worked on this project.

In this version of Oz, there’s talking animals who work alongside the humans. One is a goat who touched history at Shiz University- another great performance from Peter Dinklage. The CGI with those characters is really well done.

Of course this wouldn’t be a pop culture phenomenon without a bunch of Easter eggs. I only spotted maybe a quarter of the ones they included… no joke, there was one obvious one where I didn’t make the connection until the movie was almost over.

And yes, after all the hype, Defying Gravity lived up to all of it. Of course I'll always been a little sentimental for Kurt and Rachel's "Glee" duet...

So much had been made from that final high note on the different cross promotion ads- and is likely the reason for those viral theater notices discouraging audience participation- but after so much anticipation, it felt like my heart shattering into a million pieces like fireworks. Reveling in the unadultered sense of freedom.
I knew Cynthia was good in Harriet and the accompanying song she was nominated for at the Oscars but DANG— if she doesn’t win all the awards for this movie (not just this moment but the whole thing), someone royally screwed up.

This theme in recent years, mostly from Disney, about rewriting the history of the villains. Giving them lengthy backstories or revising their relationship with their enemies. Maleficent I’m still hot and cold on and Cruella with Emma stone was really well done.
This movie will probably go down as the best version of this idea. And likely the one that inspired all the others since the book came out in the 90s.

 At the same time, part of me is probably going to keep trying to tie this story into the wizard of oz until I just can’t anymore. And it kinda terrifies me that I might never be able to watch the original movie with the same perspective again.
I’m open with reinterpretations of fairytales until I hit a plot point or something that doesn’t jelly my peanut butter or however that saying goes.

I don’t know the ending of the musical so all this is pure speculation on my part…

Until the sequel comes out next year, I guess I’ll be left wondering one final thing… will Elphaba continue to be vilified just because she has the “incorrect” perspective on things or will there be a point she becomes evil and beyond any sort of redemption?
Even if it winds up being the latter, the inevitable conclusion of her story might be easier for me to process but I have no way of knowing until we get there.
I pretty much always cry at the end of musicals anyway, even if it’s a happy ending, so if the end of this saga destroys me, it’s simply par for the course and I’ll just have to deal with it when the time comes.

I’ll also be curious to see how Glinda’s role in all this changes. Will she simply accept the lie of public enemy 1 just to go along with everyone else? Or will she still regard her as a friend and be too protective of her image to admit that to anyone else?

Grade- a solid A

Will it win all the awards it’s supposedly going to be nominated for? Possibly… but I hope it wins the big ones just so I can say I was part of it. I’m not always lucky enough to see Oscar winners before they win, especially in the theater on opening weekend.

Grease (1978)

Introduction

As many great minds before have already said in some form- Grease is the quintessential 50s musical… that was filmed in the 70s.

One of those minds was internet personality Nostalgia Critic- except he ragged on Saved by the bell for being an 80s show filmed in the 90s.

Both of these also feature adults in their 20s and 30s playing teenagers… but I’m not here to talk about all that.

I’ve been meaning to write about this movie (among a few others, admittedly) a little while… but with the recent passing of Olivia newton-John, I couldn’t put it off anymore.

And this is going to be more of a discussion than a review so this might not be your cup of tea if you’re the type of person that doesn’t like hearing strong opinions about things.

Maybe a little too cheesy...?

For the sake of saving time, I’m gonna skip over the usual credits to cast and crew. And other than 3 members of the main cast, I hadn’t heard of any of the other people. Exceptions being Sid Caesar (one of Mel Brooks’ biggest influences) as the gym teacher and Frankie Avalon, who makes a cameo in Frenchy’s dream sequence.

I’m not one of those people who grew up with this movie so by the time I did see it, it was too late for me to develop that certain nostalgia for it. The kind where you can acknowledge a movie isn’t perfect but that doesn’t matter cuz you remember it fondly for the elements that meant something special to you growing up.

For me, I enjoy the movie when it’s on but I can’t honestly say I love it. The songs, as memorable as they are, the only songs I could use “love” to describe are the three solos and “beauty school dropout” (Frankie Avalon being the one singing it is reason enough to enjoy it even with all the cheesiness)

A lot of this movie is ridiculously cheesy… almost to the point that it makes me cringe. The 80s gets ragged on a lot by newer generations for its fashion sense and I’m not gonna disagree with that.
But with Grease… I dunno… it feels like one of those movies where it takes itself a little too seriously and everything about it contradicts that. Yet that’s one of the issues people had with Xanadu (another ONJ movie) and I enjoy it more than Grease… doesn’t mean it couldn’t do without some of its musical numbers.

Breaking up is much easier to do than staying together...

Grease has a lot of those old 50s fashions and sensibilities, but it takes some influence from the Frankie and Annette beach movie of the 60s. But at least with “beach blanket bingo,” I went in knowing it wasn’t gonna be anything Oscar worthy and that made it a bit more enjoyable.
It’s tempting to say that Danny and Sandy break up more times in one movie than your typical soap opera couple in any series’ duration. But something similar happens throughout Beach Blanket Bingo- Frankie and Annette get mad at each other a bunch of time over silly misunderstandings but those things are easily overlooked because they like each other too much to let anything get between them.
All that being said, the way Danny and Sandy break up every other scene gets exhausting about a while. It’s always over something he did and I agree he was in the wrong. But it’d be a little less frustrating if she implicitly explained what he did wrong so he’d know what not to do.

Are you a Sandy or Rizzo? Or both?

One thing that’s kinda interesting about this movie… looking at the dynamic between Sandy and Rizzo, I think it’s an easy assumption to make that all women that identify with one of these characters. Maybe some of them started as a Sandy and turned into Rizzo after getting burned one too many times. Or simply discovered that life comes easier when you’re not naive about it.

“Sandra Dee” is such an iconic scene in this movie from the clothes to the wigs and all the pop culture references of the time. It also burns me up every time I watch it… there’s absolutely nothing wrong with not wanting to smoke or drink. And why the hell are teenagers doing with any of that stuff? I never understood that. There are some things people just aren’t comfortable doing and that should be respected.
I guess it’s a testament to female friendships in general that Sandy doesn’t walk out on the slumber party then or doesn’t say to Frenchy that she doesn’t want to hang out with her friends anymore. It’s also classy of Sandy to be supportive of Rizzo when all those rumors are flying around- that’s cool.

I just know if that was me, I’d be so put off by Rizzo I wouldn’t want to hang out with the Pink Ladies anymore. I’m also a bit confused that Frenchy goes along with the “Sandra Dee” sequence at all… one second ago, she was holding her hair back when she was throwing up and the next, it’s perfectly ok to make fun of her.

If that makes me too touchy, then fine. But true friends would love you for who you are and respect those boundaries.

As cool as the makeover/"You're the one that I want" scene is, I’ve always been kinda been put off by it. Like Sandy has to smoke and drink and “put out” to get Danny to love her? He fell in love with her at the beach when she was unapologetically herself. She didn’t need to change anything about her. What kind of message are they trying to send here?

The argument has been thrown around that he changed for her as well. He goes through that funny sports montage just to become a jock for her. But when they met, he wasn’t a T-bird or embodying any sort of persona. He was a guy just like she was just a girl. His issue is that he cares too much about what other people think… so he’s always trying to be something to win people over or to keep his friends.

Both characters have their flaws but I think Danny has a few more flaws than Sandy.

It’s also kinda strange that he “turns jock” by graduation… at the point it doesn’t even matter anymore.

The bandstand scene

Another iconic scene is the American... excuse me... National bandstand scene.

But again, it has flaws and things I plain just don’t get.

I know the hand jive was a big thing back then, but then it morphs completely into something else where I’m asking myself “are they even doing the hand jive anymore?”

I didn’t grow up in the 50s, I don’t know what the heck qualifies for this contest, but it kinda feels like everyone went off script and the bandstand people stopped caring. Reminds me of the Charleston contest scene in “it’s a wonderful life” but aside from one or two other moves they threw in, it’s mostly Charleston.

Then they randomly throw in the wrench of Cha-Cha… my sister always points out how she wins the contest with Danny when she doesn’t even go to that school. The guy Rizzo was with didn’t go there either…

But adding her into the mix was just to get Sandy mad at Danny. I didn’t really get the point.

And Sandy being annoyed with Danny about thinking he and Cha-Cha were going together… why was that such an issue? It’s not like he said Sandy was the first girl he went with. There’s a lot about what happened at the beach that we never get the whole truth about. But even if she was some ex-girlfriend, it shouldn’t even matter anymore.

And why didn’t he just say point blank whether or not she was an ex? Instead of that what if hanging in the air.

It’s also a bit eyebrow raising that Marty is flirting with the bandstand host and he was flirting back. Never mind that the actress playing Marty was probably in her 20s, it still has that ick factor to it.

Despite all these issues, it’s my favorite choreography in this whole movie. It’s not perfect but the duets with Danny are super fun. John Travolta had some really cool moves.

Much ado about 50's slang

Then the final number… first, I wish there was a little more dialogue to wrap things up better. All we get is “tell me about it, stud” and “we’re graduating, what if we never see each other again?”

And the final song is just a bunch of random words that people said (supposedly… like I said, I didn’t live in the 50s) back in the 50s. Like “we go together like ramma-lamma-ding-dong” and a dozen other stupid phrases that mean nothing to me. It’s a fun melody and all that but I can’t get invested if I don’t know what they’re saying.

Then Danny and Sandy drive into the sunset with greased lightning and randomly fly away… the only other ending to a movie that’s more random is the end of Monty python and the holy grail. Just makes no sense. Some people have their theories about it- one of which kinda kills the buzz of the whole movie if you get one to even begin with. But to me, it’s like the writers ran out of ideas and didn’t think anyone would question the choice they made.

—

A few other adjacent topics:

Ages ago, they did a reality show “you’re the one I want” where they’d cast a Sandy and Danny for a Broadway version of Grease. I don’t remember much about it other than the fact I was adamant that a blonde played Sandy. There was a brunette in the final 3 and she might have won… like I said, don’t remember.

On Glee, they did a musical of "Grease" somewhere in the middle of the series after most of the main cast had already graduated. (And people stopped caring about the show so much)

Shy homely Marley (played by future SuperGirl actress Melissa Benoist) won the main role, as it should be. Meanwhile, mean girl Kitty was cast as Patty Simcox, much to her annoyance. (Her reaction was essentially "who the eff is Patty Simcox?"… I honestly didn’t know who she was either. I’d seen the movie at least once prior to Glee. Seeing the movie after Glee did it, I found out. She was kinda like the yearbook girl from Romy & Michelle but a lot more annoying).

And Santana (played by the late Naya Rivera) was perfectly cast as Rizzo cuz she was the residential bitch on Glee I couldn’t stand. Rachel isn’t a perfect angel, but it always bugged me that Santana was the school bully Rachel could never get away from.Sure, she did help her out once or twice in big ways, but she could've done it without so much attitude.

Then FOX (following in NBC’s footsteps) did a live musical of Grease with some good casting. Aaron Trevit from Les Mis was good as Danny. Vanessa Hudgens was amazing as Rizzo. She played Gabriella in high school musical (a movie that’s been regularly compared to Grease) so it was kinda cool seeing her being the anti-Sandy in another lifetime. The live broadcast was the same day her dad passed away and she did really well in those circumstances. And her solo number was easily one of the biggest highlights of the show. It got huge applause from the in-studio audience and she broke character long enough to thank them with a grateful smile.

I just wish they’d cast anyone but Julianne Hough as Sandy. She played a similar character in Rock of Ages so it felt like a lazy casting choice on their part. Plus I was under the impression Taylor Swift was playing Sandy… she might not have had the vocal range to play the role, but she’s still perfect for that role. She’s sweet and wholesome and so many people have given her a hard time for it.
What is so wrong with wholesome that people feel the need to tear others down because of it? I’ll never understand that.

I hate her song “Call Me Maybe” with a passion, but Carly Rae Jepsen was really good as Frenchy. It was also really cool that the original Frenchy played the waitress character that gave her advice back in the movie. A nice little full circle moment.

I also gotta say- it is so sweet that John Travolta and Olivia stayed close friends all these years. Both of their lives went in very different directions, but their adage could easily have been "We'll always have Rydell High."

I'm not sure if I'm the only person who thinks this... but every time I see the animated sequence in the opening credits, part of me really wishes that was the movie we got instead of the live action version. Something about the animation was so iconic of that time period, all those little details. Plus, the title song being sung by Frankie Valli... what's not to love? 

Xanadu (1980)

Typically when I do these movie posts, I open with a bunch of credits: actors, directors, writers, composers, etc. But this is one of those cases where I don't find it necessary. 

The framework of "Xanadu," essentially is Gene Kelly (in his last movie), Olivia Newton-John, and Michael Beck (in probably his best known movie- for better or worse) featuring music written by E.L.O. (Electric Lights Orchestra).

The first time I heard anything about this movie was when we vacationed in New Orleans in summer 1999. We were shopping in a record store and my dad found the soundtrack. I think he said that he'd been looking for it a long time and finally found it. (I found the soundtrack for the Lion King sequel there as well... sure, its songs weren't as memorable as the Elton John work from the original, but dang, I loved that movie)...
So we'd listened to the soundrack a bunch of times before I'd even seen the movie. One of those listens, I distinctly remember was when we were driving to my uncle's funeral. "Don't Walk Away" is already a sad song in its own right, but the circumstances made it a little more emotional.
Years later, we finally found the movie at FYE... and I figured since it's turning 40 this year, it was worth a revisit. 

I didn't find out until much later that "Xanadu" was quite infamous as being one of the "worst" movies ever made... so bad that it got the distinction of the Golden Raspberry... The Razzie Awards pick the worst of the worst in movies every year. Prince even got a few himself- for the song "Sex Shooter" and his directing in "Under the Cherry Moon"... and of course the "Twilight" and "Fifty Shades" franchises have gotten hammered by them as well... 
I'll call movies however I like, but I sometimes feel like critics are too harsh on certain movies. This isn't to say any of these examples are perfect, but how harsh can you be to give a movie a special award for being really bad? 

A few years back, Internet personality Nostalgia Chick did a review on this. Looking at the opening credits, showing various aircraft flying around the Earth as the opening credits roll, she's like "Gene Kelly, Olivia Newton-John, E.L.O.... and a spaceship, oh, so it's about aliens?!"... it's not about aliens. One scene she nit-picked about in terms of "bad filmmaking" was "Suddenly" where Sonny and Kira are skating around a studio full of props-- and they skate around a scene of palm trees three or four times and the camera angle doesn't change once.

I imagined that if people had an issue with anything, it was the whole Muse storyline, especially when Sonny finds out Kira is a muse and tries to get her back and Zeus and Hera kept forgetting the difference between measures in time- a moment or forever- and when she says how they learned about "feelings" in some class they took in school... 
yeah, some of that dialogue is a bit cheesy and ridiculous, but I loved the whole concept about the muses inspiring people and the possibility of one falling in love with the person she's inspiring. 

The movie runs about 96 minutes... and the majority of that is musical numbers. The soundtrack has 10 songs and each of them got at least 5 minutes of screentime. Admittedly, there were a couple they could have done without because they didn't add a lot to the plot. Sonny and Kira spend so much time together throughout the movie and a bunch of them involve songs. "Suddenly" and "Don't Walk Away"-- the latter is a really beautifully drawn Don Bluth animated sequence, but it really comes out of nowhere and makes no sense (Nostalgia Chick might have labeled it a "big-lipped alligator moment"-- which is a running joke for a movie scene that's thrown in randomly, adds nothing to the plot, and is never mentioned again).
"All over the world" is used for a makeover/costume/dress-up montage. It's meant to be fun, but it verges on bizarre in a couple of spots- particularly when a bunch of extras are wearing spiderweb fishnets and there's a dude who thinks he's Spider-Man (seriously, what's with that guy?)

How the other songs were incorporated into the movie... "Magic" was the big hit on the 1980 Billboard charts, but it only really serves as background music for when Sonny and Kira have their first conversation. 
"I'm Alive" is the first production and it starts the movie with a BANG-- all the muses come alive from a mural in Venice Beach. They're also multi-racial, something that so many people want to see in movies nowadays, but wasn't nearly as appreciated back then because this movie was considered a commercial disaster. But yeah, what a scene that is-- it still gets me to this day. 
"Whenever You're Away" is a really cool dance duet between Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly-- trivia says that he choreographed it himself and his condition was a closed studio and only having a handful of people on set. Very classy. 
There's also this killer duet between a 40's big band and 80's rock band. And guess what-- the two songs fit together perfectly by the end. Seeing them come together in the movie- that's a really cool moment. I remember first hearing the song and preferring the 40's version because the 80's version was more like heavy metal and I'm not a fan of the genre. But then the song started to get going and the intensity of it mellowed a little bit. 

The craziest part of the movie overall was that it came out in 1980... the decade had barely started, yet it featured a lot of fashion and musical trends that would go on to define it. Like it or not, it influenced what the decade would become known for. 

Xanadu doesn't get referenced very often, but it's kinda funny whenever it surfaces... 
in Goldmember, the last Austin Powers movie, they're at the club and they're doing a roller skating scene that's reminsicent from the end of that movie.
And in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang," RDJ and Val Kilmer are watching a VHS tape and they're looking through the cast list to see who's in it. RDJ asks "Who's Michael Beck" and Val Kilmer is like "oh he was in Xanadu with Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton-John"...

in the trivia, it said that while the movie was panned, it's gained cult status and is popular among gays... Val Kilmer's character in that movie was gay, so I can't say that's too surprising he knew that. 

With pretty much every song, I remembered where they fit in the movie... but I completely forget about "Suspended in Time"... maybe because it's not an E.L.O. number. It's ONJ's "Hopelessly Devoted" moment in the movie. 
Geesh... so much good music, but my eyes welled up a bunch of times... nostalgia, but also there's some emotional moments in this thing. It may not be perfect, but it's still sad to see it end, but it's also nice that's a happy ending. 
Bleck- I can be such a sap sometimes... no matter how old I get, that's something that's never gonna change whether I like it or not. 

Theatrical Review: Frozen 2

Date: Saturday November 23 2019
Time: 11:50am
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)

Writers/Directors: Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee
Songwriters: Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez

Cast:
Returning
Anna- Kristen Bell
Elsa- Idina Menzel
Olaf- Josh Gad
Kristoff- Jonathan Groff
Pabbie- Ciaran Hinds
King Angnarr- Alfred Molina
Queen Iduna- Evan Rachel Wood
Newcomers
Mattis- Sterling K. Brown (Randall from "This is Us")
Ryder- Jason Ritter
Yelena- Martha Plimpton

Duration: 103 minutes (+8 trailers)

Write-up:

Some Mild Spoilers Going Forward on both movies...

Opening Comments

I really haven't been that excited for many movies this year. This was one of the few that I had to see and was very glad to the weekend it came out. My dad actually suggested us getting our tickets on Fandango and it worked out really well. The theater wasn't completely full, but full enough where it might have been difficult to get a reasonable seat (reasonable meaning not in the front section with your neck craned backward).

The three of us saw the previous movie together so it was only fitting that we continue that tradition.I didn't fully go into my thoughts on the original Frozen just because I didn't want to give anything away. But like so many people, I got swept up in the magic of it. 
Consequentially, I was maybe one of the few that were thrilled when "Once Upon a Time" announced in a season finale that that was their next direction. I loved the actors they had for the characters. Especially the actress who played Elsa. It annoys me that whenever they have the Disney park characters, Elsa is always wearing this huge white wig with the braid. It just doesn't look natural. "Once" definitely got it right. 
I also liked that they added to the mythology of the story, explaining how they found the gloves that limited Elsa'a powers and how she had an aunt who had the same powers as her that was estranged from the family. Plus they factored in Emma Swan's magic and how she was nervous about not being able to control it. Great for character growth, but it only lasted until the next season began. 
There was a critcism about this movie about Elsa losing the confidence she gained in the previous movie... Emma Swan has probably had more regressions in confidence than anyone I know. She has it one second and then something new comes up and she's immediately back to square one. Honestly. I'm the same way myself because nothing ever stays permanent. I wish I could just "let it go" and never have any doubt in my head again. 

Ok, moving on... trailers...

Coming Attractions 

...real quick... the movie time was 11:50... the trailers didn't start until 11:58 and the trailers went on until 12:18... OMG... I'll say it again, if I wanted to see commericals, I'd just stay home. Theaters are so annoying with all delay before the actual movie starts.

There weren't many trailers that got my interest, honestly.

Call Of The Wild
I saw an ad on the right side of a YouTube video I was watching. I just saw that Harrison Ford was in it. Then this trailer started... right away... can we address the fact that the dog is fake? Completely animated! I looked up the trivia of the movie and they didn't explain why they did that. I mean, is PETA cracking down so you can't have live animals in movies anymore? It's just not normal, especially this dog's expressions. Too human. Plus, the model is based on an actual dog who is the same mix of breeds as Buck is in the book. That part is true to form, but still... somehow I get the feeling this movie is gonna bomb. 

Little Women
This actually looks real good. I mean, this has Saorise Ronan and Emma Watson. What's not to like? (Except maybe Meryl Streep playing their wet blanket of an aunt). I'd never read the book, but we have it in the house, so I really should get around to reading it... for whenever this movie comes out on HBO. But I really hope it's a good movie because I like the look of it. 

Trolls World Tour
I already wrote about this in another post...

Cats
Along with Star Wars, we're probably going to be see this one as well. I have an aversion about the original Broadway production after seeing (and being kept up at night by) it on PBS's Great Performances. The animation looks kinda weird, but I'm all for a fresh look aesthetically and also a reworking on the original Andrew Lloyd Webber score. 

Scoob!
Other than some bits and pieces of the characterizations being too modernized for my liking, this looks like it'll be a fun watch. It's so crazy to think that Scooby-Doo has been around for 50 years. But I guess they can't do any worse than the previous live action versions where there was an overemphasis on gross-out humor. I guess they couldn't have called it "When Shaggy Met Scooby" cuz it's also about the Mystery Gang getting together :P 

Soul
Another interesting looking movie... not sure if the execution is going to fall in line with the intention behind it... it's getting a lot of hype because it's the first Pixar movie with a black lead. Can't we just celebrate diversity without being so on the nose about it? It feels like fulfilling a campaign more than feeling natural. 
Anyway, Jamie Foxx is a jazz musician about to get his first break, but then he falls down a manhole and he turns into a soul... hence the name... and souls are the embodiment of what each person is deep down. Cool concept for sure. It's too bad he probably won't spend that much time human in this movie. 

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
Not much to add with this... just gotta wait for the movie to come out...

Onward
They had to squeeze in another Pixar trailer apparently... two brothers get 24 hours with their father, but when they bring him back via magic, they only manage to bring him back from the waist down. Also, the characters are all elves and monsters. I can't get over the "from the waist down" thing... to me, this screams "they've run out of ideas"... yes, even more than doing a Frozen sequel... 

Haha, nice seque... I didn't even plan that. It just happened. 

The Main Event

First off... this was a great audience. The kids were quiet except laughing at the right times and clapping at the end. Mostly they just laughed at Olaf, but that's totally fine.

Now I'm not sure how to proceed.
For starters, I guess I can say that the first movie is still better in a lot of respects. But this movie had a lot of merit too. One review that was in the paper complained that this got a theatrical release and other people have said that this movie proves that Disney is very close to running out of ideas.

The only negative I can vouch for is the songs... 
Even the first time I heard "Into the Unknown" on Dancing With the Stars, I was underwhelmed by it. In the movie, it makes a little more sense because we have context. And Elsa gets two diva moments. I liked "Show Yourself" a little bit more, but neither is "Let It Go." I still remember when they occasionally played that on the radio and it was such a treat :P Unlike most of the general public, I never got sick of that song. I just wish I could sing it without some emotion taking me over... I'm very strange with certain songs. My tear ducts just activate for no good reason. 

I'll give them this: the credits version of "Into the Unknown" was actually really good. I griped so much about Demi Levato doing "Let It Go"... honestly, nobody can do that song, but Idina Menzel... but this credits version was by Panic at the Disco! I knew that voice sounded kinda familiar and I thought at the time it was Patrick Stump from Fall Out Boy. Maybe I'm a bit more familiar cuz he guest starred on a Taylor Swift song.
They also encored "All is Found"... that's one of the highlights of the movie, this song. It's a lullaby by their mom in a flashback. Kinda reminds me of something from Lord of the Rings, but more indictative of the setting of this movie. 

My favorite song was by Kristoff- "Lost in the Woods." If I didn't know any better, I'd think either Peter Cetera or Richard Marx wrote it. It just screams 80's pop power ballad :P I'm a sucker for this sort of thing, but I also really liked the lyrics and how they flowed. 

The lowlight for songs... it's kind of a sad part in the movie and Anna sings about how she needs to do "The Next Right Thing." Why did this need to be a song? Couldn't she have just had a monologue or something? As if things weren't low enough at that point, it was kinda painful to get through because the lyric writing is just so weak. Almost like they gave up trying.

Ok, all the negatives are done... 

Story time...
The gates of Arendelle are still open and Elsa is free to use her powers whenever she chooses. Kristoff is thinking of proposing to Anna-- you can kinda guess where this is going... I knew I did. Olaf has matured a little bit, which is an interesting concept. The idea of a snowman aging and learning and such. 
Then there's this mysterious voice only Elsa is hearing and she has to follow it. This quest leads the sisters to the Enchanted Forest from their own bedtime stories. Their grandfather wanted to broker a treaty with its locals, the Northuldran, a native tribe who lives with magic, but a fight breaks out without warning and their father was able to escape with help.

When the characters get into the forest (after some interesting commentary from Olaf as they trek there in Kristoff's new sled... some of it is relevant so pay attention), they find that the Northuldran and some of their comrades from Arendelle had been trapped there for 30+ years. One of them was Mattias, their father's guard.
In an attempt to catch them up on the last several years, Olaf kinda gives them a one-man show summarizing the events of the first movie. (This was maybe the best part of the movie :P especially his comment about Hans "surprise, I'm the bad guy!"... seriously, I'm still annoyed how that came out of nowhere. Any normal Disney movie drops subtle hints, if it isn't already inherently obvious. All Hans ever said was that he was 11th in line for the throne of his kingdom...)

But it's almost like an abridged version of Avatar: The Last Airbender. There are 4 elements that need to be tamed or quelled. One of them takes the form of a cute little lizard. He looks like he could be a distant cousin of Pascal, Rapunzel's chameleon from "Tangled." But they never name him in the movie... Olaf calls a gust of wind "Gale," but they never mention that the lizard's name is Bruni (according to IMDb). 
Despite various objections from Anna, Elsa has to make the rest of their journey alone. The two of them find out where her powers came from and also some things about their parents. 

I guess you could say they were creative in deciding who the bad guy was... but at the same time, I'm still annoyed that Elsa makes this huge journey and finds out the truth via flashbacks and visions. You expect to meet someone after going through all this trouble... granted, the great reveal is compelling and shocking (unless you're really on top of things). But maybe the way it was conveyed could have been done better. 

One thing I will say for the movie overall... I was invested from the first second up until the end. Heck, there was a point where the final conflict was just put to rest and everything was resolved... I just went "crap, that means the movie's almost over."
Sometimes I wish that movies lasted 10 minutes longer so we can revel in the happy ending instead of just getting it and it's "Later, by!" 
Especially movies like this where I just get caught up in the world and I love the characters. Elsa is totally my spirit animal. Makes me wish I could dye my hair that shade of platinum blonde. I just need snow powers and a better singing voice. I'm decent, but I don't have that good of a range. 

What'd I give the previous movie... I gave the original movie an A+
It was pretty near perfection, even with the whole Hans thing.

This movie... not so much... but I still enjoyed it a lot. 

Grade: A-

It was definitely worth waiting all this time for it, but they still could have done some things a lot better.

Theatrical Review: Mary Poppins Returns

Date: Saturday, December 22 2018
Location: Cinemark Theater in Stroud Mall
Time: 11am
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)

Director: Rob Marshall (of Pirates of the Carribean and Into the Woods fame)
Writers: David Magee, Rob Marshall and John DeLuca (screenplay), P.L. Travers (for Mary Poppins book series)
Composer: Marc Shaiman

Notable Cast:
Mary Poppins- Emily Blunt
Jack the Leery- Lin-Manuel Miranda
Michael Banks- Ben Whishaw (Q in the latest Bond films and the voice of Paddington)
Jane Banks- Emily Mortimer (I know her best as the voice of the heroine in "Howl's Moving Castle)
Ellen- Julie Walters (Mrs. Weasley is back!)
Cousin Topsy- Meryl Streep
Wilkins- Colin Firth

Write-up:

Opening Remarks

This is one of those movies we'd been looking forward to all year and for me at least it was worth the wait. My sister says she really liked it, but she wasn't speaking as enthuastically about it as I did afterwards. And my mom thought it was a little too depressing and dragged in places. 
The theater was mostly empty when we got there and by the time it started, at least a dozen other people showed up. But it wasn't a terribly enthusiastic audience. The two of me (my sister and I) wanted to cheer and clap after a bunch of the musical numbers, but it was so silent in the theater we were only comfortable softly clapping to ourselves. Nobody even cheered at the end and I felt like this movie warranted that. 
Was it as good as the original? No. The original is such a classic and Julie Andrews is so adored in this role that it's hard for anyone to do it that same level of justice. But I thought it was a nice homage to the original film and will help introduce a new generation to it. Hopefully those who hadn't seen the original will do and those who hadn't seen it in years will become more inclined to revisit. I know I will have to... I think the last time I saw it was on TV a couple years ago... they tend to show it this time of year on ABC, which is one of the many apparatuses owned by Disney these days... 

Trailers: 
...and we're back to the stand-by 7 trailers...

Breakthrough- this movie brought me in immediately on the fact the mom is being played by Kate from "This is Us"- it's based on a true story where a teenage boy is playing with his friends and falls through the ice and faith alone is helping to keep him alive. Looks like a bit of a tearjerker (well, obviously) but it looks like it'll be a good movie overall

Detective Pikachu- the first time my sister is seeing the trailer and I'm not even sure what she thinks of it. I know she asked for (and got) the game for Christmas and has watched the walkthrough on YouTube a number of times already. 

A Dog's Way Home- my sister run out of the theater so she didn't have to see the trailer again... we love dogs, but we hate dog movies because they're ALWAYS tearjerkers. And the dog almost always dies at the end.

The Secret Life of Pets 2- I still hadn't seen the first one and it's been on TV a bit over the last week (let's just say we have other plans so we keep missing it). This one is another teaser, this time about the cat trying to wake up its owner and the one thing that does is her hacking up a hairball. Then after the title, she's on the sofa dealing with catnip and talking to the little white dog

Where'd You Go, Bernadette?- I'm not quite sure where this movie is even going, honestly... it's about a mom who suddenly has this urge to do something and just disappears and I guess it's about finding her... I really can't make heads or tails of it.

Dumbo- after a bunch of teasers, I think this is the first proper trailer we've gotten of this movie. I'd seen the original maybe once and it was years ago. And it's a pretty rough movie to get through... I still don't quite like the fact that this movie revolves around the people trying to take care of Dumbo and make him a star to help save the circus, when in the animated version the humans are the bad guys that took away Dumbo's mom because she was hurting people (they started it- stupid kids teasing poor Dumbo)... it looks like in this version Danny Devito is the ringmaster and there is some homage to the pink elephants scene, although I don't know if it'll be a full song and dance number... I remember Nostaglia Critic naming that scene one of his top 11 nostaglic mindf**ks cuz it's one of those things that doesn't make sense when you're a kid and there's usually drugs involved. 

The Lion King- omg, cannot wait for this one... and also can't wait to get more than just a teaser trailer of this cuz it looks like it's gonna be AMAZING. The one thing they've got right for sure is James Earl Jones as Mufasa. Nobody can top that. 

So I made a note on my phone, where I record all these trailers for these posts...there are 7 and I don't write the post for a couple days after... it'll be too easy to forget if I don't write them down... this was 17 minutes of previews... and the movie time is slated for 11... the movie itself should START at 11, not the trailers and millions of commercials... if I wanted to see commercials, I would have stayed home :sigh:

Ok, moving on...

The Main Event

One thing before the movie starts, we get a greeting from Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda to thank us for seeing the movie, to enjoy it and have a good holiday. I thought that was kind of a nice touch.
The opening is pretty nice where we see a lot of paintings of scenes from the movie as the overture plays with all the songs to come in the movie. 
It should be noted that all of the songs are brand new, no encores from the first movie, but certainly a bunch of references to the original. 

The bad news first- the movie starts with a bit of a double-whammy... the second generation of Banks children (Michael's children) lost their mom a year ago and now the bank is threatening to repossess their house unless they can play the loan in full. And for the adults, grown-up Jane and Michael (the kids from the original movie), their quest is to find the certificate that their father owned shares in the bank. And the three children, Anabel, John and Georgie want to help as well. But then Mary Poppins shows up and her job is to help them to remember how to be kids... because they'd done so much growing up after their mom passed away.

It's a Disney tradition that we've all gotten pretty sick of at this point... the moms are always dead or die in these movies... seriously, what the hell... but on the other hand, if they were going to do the widower angle, they did play it right. The big issue with the house is that Michael's wife took care of all the finances and he's not sure how to take over. Now, had they gone the other way and said it was Jane's children and her husband had passed away, it'd be more typical... the husband doing the finances and the wife not knowing what to do about them... this kinda paints the deceased Mrs. Banks in a strong female role and it certainly shows how times have changed. 

The songs weren't quite as memorable as "A Spoon Full of Sugar," "Feed the Birds" or "Let's Go Fly a Kite"... but they had that same sense of fun and feel like they come from the same songbook. A number of the scenes do harken back to the original. And of course the characters do as well.
Best place to start is the Leeries- the people in London who light the streetlamps at night and snuff them out in the morning. They fulfill the role the chimney sweeps do in the original movie. Their song about tripping the "Light Fantastic" may not be "Chim-Chim-erie" but it lends itself to the Leeries doing an outrageously fun dance number including bike tricks and parkour. 
Of course a lot of people complained back in the day about how bad a Cockney accent Dick Van Dyke did for Bert the Chimney Sweep and the accent Lin-Manuel Miranda does is sorta in line with that. Then again, I've never been to that part of London so I can't judge what is or isn't a good Cockney accent. (Being a part of "My Fair Lady" in high school certainly doesn't make me an expert.. even if I had been cast as Eliza or even had a line or two). But the man behind "Hamilton" was brilliant in every scene he was in. He made this movie fun and he always lit up the screen when he came on. Of course I know of "Hamilton" but had never seen it and I really hadn't gotten to experience him outside of him writing songs for "Moana"... but the dude is brilliant. 

Emily Blunt may not be Julie Andrews and nobody can really touch her in this role (or any she had done over the years for that matter), but the important thing in the end is that she fulfills the role these kids need in this trying time. I just thought to myself how crazy it is how far she'd come as an actress. I first saw her as Emily in "The Devil Wears Prada" and I'd since seen her in a bunch of other roles. She proved she had a flair for musicals in "Into the Woods" and this is just more of that. 

Another homage to the original, of course, is everyone being transported into an animated world. Instead of a painting on the street, it's the paint job on a priceless vase that the children cracked in a fight. The penguins make a comeback, but they're comic relief more than anything else. Among the musical scenes, they had a Vaudeville performance where Mary Poppins and Jack talk about how "The Cover Is Not the Book"... and it's kind of about not judging a book by its cover.
A message that does wind up coming back into reality... one thing I will say about this movie was how every detail is important and if you pay attention, you can see what's coming before it arrives. That's always a fun touch. 

Meryl Streep is mentioned among the cast... because she's bloody Meryl Streep. Even if she only has five minutes of screen time, she always gets billed on the first page of the cast list. Not to say she isn't great in this movie- her character is fun and memorable. (Not to mention Rob Marshall did the same trick with Johnny Depp in "Into the Woods"- putting on the first page of the cast list even though he doesn't last more than 10 minutes on screen). They take the vase to her to fix because she can fix anything, but she says she cannot because it's the second Wednesday of the month and on that day for 3 hours, the world "turns turtle"... flips upside down. To me, this felt like a homage to that scene in the movie where two men are floating on the ceiling because they're laughing so much. But then they get depresssed and manage to right themselves. They do the reverse here where she realizes that she loves "turning turtle" and it's all about looking from another perspective. 

Not sure how more I can say without giving too much away about the movie... it's definitely worth a watch, though.
I'll also say that another good homage they did to the original... the tuppence Michael wanted to give to the bird lady in the original movie do wind up going to good use... I thought that was particularly important because "Feed the Birds" was a scene Walt Disney himself REALLY wanted to stay in the movie because it was his favorite. 
For me, it was the one scene in Mary Poppins I really didn't like... it was dank and depressing and as a kid, I didn't really understand the point of it. I think because it was one time in the movie where it stopped being a kid friendly movie and became more adult. But as a kid, I also did not watch a lot of live action media whether it was on TV or in movies. I always preferred animation, which is probably why I didn't really like Mary Poppins all that much. But as I've gotten older, I'm gotten to appreciate it a lot more. I also really need to see the rest of "Saving Mr. Banks"... I really liked however much I saw of that movie and I still need to see how it all ends. 

At some point, I'll have to see both movies- Mr. Banks and the original Mary Poppins and write about both of them...

One more thing... it's a trite random comment... the Banks' use a lot of the same names as they did Peter Pan... the Darling children are Wendy, John and Michael. The Banks children are Jane and Michael... and in the sequel, they use the name John as one of the children... were there not a lot of names around back then in London? 
I would understand if Peter Pan (the J.M. Barrie story) predated Mary Poppins by a lot of years, but... I don't know if that commonality annoys me or not... 
Jane was the name of Wendy's daughter in "Return to Neverland" but that came out LONG after any of these movies (or the books they were based from) came from... 

Reading the trivia, Julie Andrews did turn down a cameo (there were some others, I'll say that much) and she also gave her blessing to Emily Blunt to succeed her... that's so great to hear, especially after Angela Lansbury said she didn't approve of them remaking "Beauty & The Beast"... it's not as good as the original, but I liked it a lot. Also Emily Blunt played the character, purposely, much closer to how she appeared in the books, so I thought that was a nice touch.

And also forgot... it was great seeing Julie Walters on screen again, it's been a while... she was so lovable as the Banks' housekeeper.

Grade: A
(not practically perfect... but it came pretty dang close, at least I thought it did... whether or not it's Best Picture material like the original, not quite... I'd rather "A Star is Born" sweep all the awards)

Theatrical Review: La La Land

Date: Saturday January 28 2016
Time: 1:10pm
Party: 3 (my mom, sister and I)

Writer/Director: Damian Chazelle (of "Whiplash" fame... I still don't want to see that movie)
Composer: Justin Hurwitz (also of "Whiplash" fame- you know how directors like to work with the same composers a lot of the time)

Duration: 2 hours and 8 minutes (+3 trailers)

Cast:
Sebastian- Ryan Gosling
Mia- Emma Stone
Keith- John Legend
JK Simmons

Awards and Nominations [as of January 28th]:
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best picture (comedy/musical)
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best comedy/musical actor- Ryan Gosling (still think it should've been Ryan Reynolds- but it was one of the best moments of a kinda unpleasant Golden Globes... Meryl Streep's speech pretty much ruined it]
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best comedy/musical actress- Emma Stone
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best Director- Damian Chazelle
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best Screenplay- Damian Chazelle
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best Original Score- Justin Hurwitz
GOLDEN GLOBE- Best Original Song-
nomination-OSCAR- Best Picture
nomination-OSCAR- Best Actor- Ryan Gosling
nomination-OSCAR- Best Actress- Emma Stone
nomination-OSCAR- Best Director- Damian Chazelle
nomination-OSCAR- Best Cinematography
nomination-OSCAR- Best Costume
nomination-OSCAR- Best Film Editing
nominations-OSCAR- Best Song- "City of Stars" and "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)"
nomination-OSCAR- Best Production Design (used to be called "Art Direction")
nomination-OSCAR- Best Sound Editing
nomination-OSCAR- Best Sound Mixing
nomination-OSCAR- Best Original Screenplay- Damian Chazelle
nomination-OSCAR- Best Original Score- Justin Hurwitz


Write-up:

Introduction

It's been a LONG time since we've gone to the movies to see an award nominated film upon knowing it was nominated for a Best Picture Oscar. The last time was when "Les Miz" came out. Once I got lucky and saw "The King's Speech" and "The Artist" and both of them won Best Picture. Both were at the downtown community theater and both happened to be Weinstein Company films. ("The King's Speech"- we saw the day OF the Oscars. But after seeing "The Social Network," I kinda wished Jesse Eisenberg and "The Social Network" won Oscars instead of "The King's Speech" and Colin Firth... just so the Oscars can go non-traditional for a change).

Anyway... "La La Land" swept all the Golden Globes they were nominated for. Best Actor and Actress, Best Director, Screenplay, Score, Original Song, and of course, "Best Comedy/Musical"... one much more worthy of the category than "The Martian"... yeah, we're not letting that one go anytime soon :P I will have to review that at some point because I did enjoy that one a lot.

Trailers

I found it kinda interesting that all three trailers were for female-forward movies.
The first was "Certain Women" starring Laura Dern and Kristen Stewart. An IFC film that is running the festival circuit. I don't really know what to make of what it's about.
Next- "Julieta"- which was foreign language, maybe French or Greek. I couldn't tell, but it looked like it was about a same sex female couple. Why that garnered an R rating, it's hard to tell from the trailer. But the context seemed weird... almost like it was a mother falling in love with her daughter.
Then there was this Amazon series "Love & Friendship" based on the Jane Austen novel. It looks like something I'd like to watch if it ever came out on DVD. (We don't do Netlfix, Amazon or streaming in our house... except the occasional YouTube and Hulu).

The Main Event

We get to know our two stars pretty well early on in the movie.
We learn that Mia (Emma Stone) is a struggling actress trying to make it into the business  and Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) is trying to break through in his own business-- jazz music.

The two of them meet in a rocky place (a traffic jam of all things... neither of them are in that opening dance number at all for whatever reason), bump into each other randomly a couple other times, and somehow they get together.
Then things start to happen in their careers, more ups and downs, their relationship is tested... we have our typical Hollywood romance with all the trimmings and some musical numbers thrown in to keep up the heart rate.

Characters and Actors

This is the third time these two have been cast together in a movie and were romantically involved. It's great for the actors, of course, to go in knowing each other this well, so they don't need to work on their chemistry too much. Although at first, I didn't really feel that chemistry. I didn't buy into them as a couple. Maybe because he was a little unlikeable at first. But when they had their stumbles, I just wanted so badly for them to stay together.

I'm still teary-eyed thinking about it, but that's not the only reason why I was a complete mess when the movie ended.

I really hadn't seen much of Ryan Gosling. I think he was in "The Big Short" (which I kinda don't remember much of because it was so damn hard to follow). I saw "The Notebook" just like everyone else (but it was such a tearjerker that it was hard to forget what he and Rachel McAdams brought to the movie). And I saw him with Emma Stone in "Crazy, Stupid, Love." I liked him a lot in that movie (but the movie went downhill when the truth came out... that Steve Carell is her dad and suddenly he's not jazzed about them as a couple).

Yikes... I guess I have a problem with a lot of Ryan Gosling movies, but it's not entirely his fault. It's just how they're written.
Sebastian is an interesting character for him, something a little different. I read an article about he's one of those characters who are so into music and their playing and composing that the rest of their life kinda suffers because it's life vs. art and choosing one over the other. He had some comments on jazz that had me thinking about the genre like I never had before. I mean, Prince did some great jazz and "The Rainbow Children" has some great jazz aspects to it, but the overall message of the lyrics gets in the way of that.

All Mia had to go by at this point with jazz music is Kenny G and elevator music. But Sebastian takes her to a club with some really good jazz musicians and shows her how it's supposed to sound.
It's also a little ironic, considering the way his career eventually does take off.

Mia is the girl that all of us can relate to. She wants so badly to make her dream a reality, but keeps hitting all these stumbles. Lots of auditions that just don't go anywhere. Then she's caught in this whirlwind romance with Sebastian, who she leaves her current boyfriend for (why they had to write she was already in a relationship really made no sense).
Of course, Emma Stone I've loved since "Easy A" and this is another shining moment for her. Particularly her final audition where she sings "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)."

Music and Sound

From the get-go, I knew I was going to be excited about this movie. The opening traffic dance scene was parodied on the opening of the "Golden Globes" (that nobody liked for whatever reason... we all thought it was great). I think anyone who's been stuck in traffic in LA wished that something like that happened if only as a way to pass the time.

The music was so great and there were so many great songs. I almost want to run out and buy the soundtrack.
Another bit of irony: the music sorta helped make up for a technical issue we kept having.

I don't know what was going on with our particular theater that day, but the sound kept having problems. The volume on the voices was quiet and, even worse, muddled. We were in a theater with maybe half a dozen other people (all older than the age of 50) and they took turns going to the concession stand to get someone to fix the sound.
After a while, it just got exhausting to mentally try to stay engaged in the movie and keep track of what was going on. Again, it's lucky that there was a lot of music, so there was less dialogue, but that excuse could only go on for so long.

For the record, the sound started out muddled in the trailers and we had to get it fixed at least 4 times.

Maybe that's why I didn't like "City of Stars" so much. It was hard to hear it, but compared to some of the other numbers, it didn't get me particularly excited. Maybe I was too busy thinking about how unfair it is that this movie got two songs nominated for Oscars. Obviously, they can't both win.

Additional Comments and Spoilers
Yeah, what really got me was that the movie just had a sad ending....

All the movies do this where things are so great for a couple in a romance, but then it all falls apart and the rest of the movie kinda does. Emma Stone helped me get me through it because I wanted to see how her character fared and how her one-woman show (that her relationship with Sebastian inspired her to write-- since it was something she used to do as a kid).

Why is it that people who both are in the entertainment business never stay together? That seems true in real life as well. Nearly every notable Hollywood couple has broken up after long marriages (Robert Downey Jr.'s seems the safest in this aspect because his wife isn't an actress, she's a movie producer and a damn good one).

Anyway... I think I'm going to be mad at John Legend for a while because it was his fault that our protagonists broke up.
Granted, Mia pushed Sebastian to consider the proposal from Keith (his character's name) to join his jazz band. But then they have some stupid fight about it. He's going on tour with them and he misconstrues her comments. She asks if this is something he really wants because the music isn't exactly the kind he introduced her two. He thinks she's saying that she was happier when he was struggling like her because it made her feel better about herself.

We see one performance of it and she seems taken aback by it. It starts out kinda cool and such, but then it just gets way too big and flashy. It teeters more towards R&B than jazz and Sebastian seems like he's in the background more than being part of this team. (At least when he was part of an 80's cover band-- not a bad one by any means-- he could walk away after a couple gigs with no problem).

I would have preferred to see Mia's one-woman show performance than that. We never get to see it, which I was disappointed about. I didn't even know what it was about.

Back to the positive... Mandy Moore did some really great choreography for this movie and I loved the fantasy aspect of it.

A couple of cool little parts: Emma goes by a mural on the jazz club where she sees Sebastian perform for the first time. On it, it had a bunch of old Hollywood stars sitting in theater. Among them, Charlie Chaplin, Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. And there are a few nice references to "Rebel without a Cause" including the movie itself and the two stars going to the actual planetarium from the movie.

I think I'll be getting this movie on DVD as soon as it comes out. Possibly the soundtrack as well. And I'm going to watch it a bunch of times.
Either way, it'll be nice to be able to hear the entire movie without interruption.

How Many Oscars?

I don't see them running away with every award, not counting the whole bit about them having two songs nominated.
The film editing had a few rough patches for me that I didn't like. They show place cards saying the names of the season we're in, but they came about abruptly some of them.

I want badly for Emma Stone to win Best Actress, but considering who she's up again (Meryl Streep doesn't always win... but maybe with her Golden Globes speech they might give her another trophy so she'll have another soapbox moment none of us in my house want to hear again), it's not likely.
Ryan Gosling isn't a shoe-in for best actor either. I see Casey Affleck as a more likely candidate and Denzel, you can never count out.

So I think they'll get at least 10. Take away the acting categories, one song and probably costume (they were nothing out of the ordinary, I don't think).
I want it to win Best Picture simply because I saw it. I go to a movie that's nominated, of course I want it to win. But I wanted to see this even before all the accolades came out. I just heard whispers about it being a great tribute to old Hollywood musicals with a modern twist.

Grade: A
(despite what Saturday Night Live said, the movie was kinda slow in the middle and the ending... even then, I don't think I'd give this a perfect A+).

Odd Side-Note

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R4T0Nc4jig

It's hard for me to hear "La La Land" without thinking about this song by Jax from "American Idol." Her finishing third was one of the most crushing moments I experienced on the show. She'd gone through so much since then, including a bout with thyroid cancer, but she's doing much better now. She also released an EP that I should at least listen to on iTunes.