shallowness (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shallowness) wrote2024-12-03 08:15 am
shallowness) wrote2024-12-03 08:15 am
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Movies I saw in November
I saw no films in the cinema in October – a particularly horror-obsessed month. But in late November, I went to see Blitz, and as the reviews said, it was somewhat old-fashioned, except from a Black British perspective. There’s also modern FX bringing the scale of the Blitz to life, and some handheld camera work that is sometimes immersive, sometimes baffling. It focuses on one family, as 9-year-old George decides to jump off the train evacuating him from London to go home, which starts off as a Boys Own adventure, then goes a bit Dickensian. His single mother Rita (Saoirse Ronan, as good as you’d expect. Also, she sings. I didn’t know she sang!) tries to carry on without him, until she finds out he’s gone missing. The kid has a presence.
Mark Kermode said he thought this was aimed at adolescents, which explains the broad characterisations. You’d want to have a think about how your twelve year old would react to seeing a film about a child facing things no child should experience, I imagine, because much of this really happened (and similar is happening in parts of the world now.)
I only heard about at the end of last week, but I badly want to see Your Monster (it sounds idtastic in a way that would appeal to me, but with emotional intelligence), however it wasn’t showing anywhere near my neck of the woods.
Instead I went to see Wicked part 1, I haven’t seen the show (nor read the book), but I’ve acquired a lot of knowledge about it over the years, and heard a lot of various versions of the songs. Take a bow, Jon M. Chu and everyone involved, I expect production and costume design to get nods at the Oscars. I loved the scale, the old-school nods to ‘The Wizard of Oz’, but the translation from stage to screen was really good, like with the talking animals.
(And what an interesting bit of hypertextuality is going on. I have a few copies of Baum’s Oz books that I guess I must revisit, because were there talking animals in his original vision?)
I don’t think I’d fully realised that so much of it would be a school story (every time someone said Shiz, it was a little bit funny.) Elphaba was so very much the swotty outcast that I took her to heart immediately. Swotty outcast forced on perky and blonde narcissist becoming best friends with an added third for a love triangle – no wonder it’s spoken to so many people over the years. Add to that the moral struggle and the uncontrolled magical power vs. powerlessness, oh, and how it speaks to social exclusion vs. alpha status in popularity stakes! I mean, I kind of think the whole deconstruction of wickedness and good is a bit too clever-clever.
Right now I feel I can’t remember any song that might appear in part (act) 2, it feels like there’s plenty of story left to tell, though it's hilarious that the film's length is longer than the whole show's length. It doesn't drag, but you might want to visit the toilet before going in to see it.
Performance-wise, I was BEAMING whenever Erivo sang. I thought Grande did a good job, particularly with the comedy and physical stuff. I was most wary of her coming in, because she’s had so little acting experience, while Tony-winner Erivo was brilliant in ‘Harriet’. I must say I could hear Chenoweth whenever Grande sang, and despite all the work she’d obviously done to sing in this style, she isn’t quite Chenoweth. I dunno, is it the way Glinda is written with all the trills? Whereas it felt like Erivo was giving us her own version of Elphaba (and although Menzel is the ur-Elphaba, other singers have done notable versions of ‘Defying Gravity’.) But Erivo had purity and power, and just a little bit of soul in her voice, and nailed the part when she wasn’t singing too.
They didn’t cast Michelle Yeoh or Jeff Goldblum for the singing, but he was very charming, and when she turned all strict, she was spot on. Him off Bridgerton was fine, very flexible!, although when Elphaba was singing about Fiyero as a boy, I snorted. I was able to suspend disbelief for Grande and Erivo as girls (Erivo was particularly good at expressing Elphaba’s insecurity physically), but come on, it’s been a lot of years since he started to shave. I felt that, although they met first, we needed just a little more Elphaba/Fiyero before the UST/love song. This was one of the few things where I thought they needed to work a little harder because of the medium.
But the chorus were great, and Chenoweth and Menzel’s cameos darling. Some of the songs are not classics, but they were all performed with vim, and more of them were hits than in many recent movie musicals. I loved the wheels used in Fiyero’s song and the Sound of Music reference in Elphaba’s first big song. ‘Popular’ was a blast, and there much to enjoy visually in the Emerald City song. The duets between Elphaba and Glinda worked well, from the song about loathing up to ‘I Hope You’re Happy’ into ‘Defying Gravity’, when the SFX and gargantuan cloak helped make for a big finish. But of course, the momentum all came from the story and the most special thing was Erivo’s voice.
Elphaba was so sympathetic, blamed for things that were not her fault by her ‘father’ (I kept expecting some sort of reveal about her biological father to explain the green; at one point, I almost wondered if he would be the Wizard, except that made no sense). The fact that the first person to love her was the nanny bear led to her allyship with the talking animals (are they such a big deal in the show? How do they generally manage that on stage?) Add to that that her relationship with her (half)-sister is loving but complicated, plus the fact that she’s a Special One with more magical power than she knows what to do with (so she’s basically Harry AND Hermione). So, the reveal that the Wizard wasn’t all that, and that he was behind the beastification of the animals (bring your own subtext, I thought of 'Animal Farm' and resistances against The Man and how Oz is a peculiarly American fairy tale, so when the Wizard talked about bringing the practice of creating enemies to shore up your power from home, I did think of the Orange Showman) totally changed our heroine’s life.
I did get snarky when Elphaba’s glasses (with the coolest bridge I have seen in my life!) disappeared after the makeover. Makeovers do not make your eyesight improve and I do not think they had contact lenses in Oz!
So, what Elphaba does now that she knows the truth about the wizard and Oz will presumably be most of part 2. Also, I want to see how she makes peace with the flying monkeys, having seen their suitably gruesome origin story. (Will they learn to talk?) The framing device, although it set up the themes and Glinda’s character beautifully, did then bring an oddly tragic twinge to what’s meant to be an empowering musical. We know what Elphaba’s vision means, we know that the oppressive definitions of Good and Wicked will remain in place.
In short then, this is pretty great – Erivo is brilliant, Grande good (heh) and the number of good songs are pluses. I can see myself trying to go to see it in the cinema again, and I haven’t felt that pull since Dune part 2. Also, nobody sang in the screening.
Mark Kermode said he thought this was aimed at adolescents, which explains the broad characterisations. You’d want to have a think about how your twelve year old would react to seeing a film about a child facing things no child should experience, I imagine, because much of this really happened (and similar is happening in parts of the world now.)
I only heard about at the end of last week, but I badly want to see Your Monster (it sounds idtastic in a way that would appeal to me, but with emotional intelligence), however it wasn’t showing anywhere near my neck of the woods.
Instead I went to see Wicked part 1, I haven’t seen the show (nor read the book), but I’ve acquired a lot of knowledge about it over the years, and heard a lot of various versions of the songs. Take a bow, Jon M. Chu and everyone involved, I expect production and costume design to get nods at the Oscars. I loved the scale, the old-school nods to ‘The Wizard of Oz’, but the translation from stage to screen was really good, like with the talking animals.
(And what an interesting bit of hypertextuality is going on. I have a few copies of Baum’s Oz books that I guess I must revisit, because were there talking animals in his original vision?)
I don’t think I’d fully realised that so much of it would be a school story (every time someone said Shiz, it was a little bit funny.) Elphaba was so very much the swotty outcast that I took her to heart immediately. Swotty outcast forced on perky and blonde narcissist becoming best friends with an added third for a love triangle – no wonder it’s spoken to so many people over the years. Add to that the moral struggle and the uncontrolled magical power vs. powerlessness, oh, and how it speaks to social exclusion vs. alpha status in popularity stakes! I mean, I kind of think the whole deconstruction of wickedness and good is a bit too clever-clever.
Right now I feel I can’t remember any song that might appear in part (act) 2, it feels like there’s plenty of story left to tell, though it's hilarious that the film's length is longer than the whole show's length. It doesn't drag, but you might want to visit the toilet before going in to see it.
Performance-wise, I was BEAMING whenever Erivo sang. I thought Grande did a good job, particularly with the comedy and physical stuff. I was most wary of her coming in, because she’s had so little acting experience, while Tony-winner Erivo was brilliant in ‘Harriet’. I must say I could hear Chenoweth whenever Grande sang, and despite all the work she’d obviously done to sing in this style, she isn’t quite Chenoweth. I dunno, is it the way Glinda is written with all the trills? Whereas it felt like Erivo was giving us her own version of Elphaba (and although Menzel is the ur-Elphaba, other singers have done notable versions of ‘Defying Gravity’.) But Erivo had purity and power, and just a little bit of soul in her voice, and nailed the part when she wasn’t singing too.
They didn’t cast Michelle Yeoh or Jeff Goldblum for the singing, but he was very charming, and when she turned all strict, she was spot on. Him off Bridgerton was fine, very flexible!, although when Elphaba was singing about Fiyero as a boy, I snorted. I was able to suspend disbelief for Grande and Erivo as girls (Erivo was particularly good at expressing Elphaba’s insecurity physically), but come on, it’s been a lot of years since he started to shave. I felt that, although they met first, we needed just a little more Elphaba/Fiyero before the UST/love song. This was one of the few things where I thought they needed to work a little harder because of the medium.
But the chorus were great, and Chenoweth and Menzel’s cameos darling. Some of the songs are not classics, but they were all performed with vim, and more of them were hits than in many recent movie musicals. I loved the wheels used in Fiyero’s song and the Sound of Music reference in Elphaba’s first big song. ‘Popular’ was a blast, and there much to enjoy visually in the Emerald City song. The duets between Elphaba and Glinda worked well, from the song about loathing up to ‘I Hope You’re Happy’ into ‘Defying Gravity’, when the SFX and gargantuan cloak helped make for a big finish. But of course, the momentum all came from the story and the most special thing was Erivo’s voice.
Elphaba was so sympathetic, blamed for things that were not her fault by her ‘father’ (I kept expecting some sort of reveal about her biological father to explain the green; at one point, I almost wondered if he would be the Wizard, except that made no sense). The fact that the first person to love her was the nanny bear led to her allyship with the talking animals (are they such a big deal in the show? How do they generally manage that on stage?) Add to that that her relationship with her (half)-sister is loving but complicated, plus the fact that she’s a Special One with more magical power than she knows what to do with (so she’s basically Harry AND Hermione). So, the reveal that the Wizard wasn’t all that, and that he was behind the beastification of the animals (bring your own subtext, I thought of 'Animal Farm' and resistances against The Man and how Oz is a peculiarly American fairy tale, so when the Wizard talked about bringing the practice of creating enemies to shore up your power from home, I did think of the Orange Showman) totally changed our heroine’s life.
I did get snarky when Elphaba’s glasses (with the coolest bridge I have seen in my life!) disappeared after the makeover. Makeovers do not make your eyesight improve and I do not think they had contact lenses in Oz!
So, what Elphaba does now that she knows the truth about the wizard and Oz will presumably be most of part 2. Also, I want to see how she makes peace with the flying monkeys, having seen their suitably gruesome origin story. (Will they learn to talk?) The framing device, although it set up the themes and Glinda’s character beautifully, did then bring an oddly tragic twinge to what’s meant to be an empowering musical. We know what Elphaba’s vision means, we know that the oppressive definitions of Good and Wicked will remain in place.
In short then, this is pretty great – Erivo is brilliant, Grande good (heh) and the number of good songs are pluses. I can see myself trying to go to see it in the cinema again, and I haven’t felt that pull since Dune part 2. Also, nobody sang in the screening.