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What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

Doctor Strange

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,245
Location
Hudson Valley, NY
Went with my daughter (the other musical theater fan in the family) to Les Miz yesterday. We both found it amazing and frequently wrenchingly moving... Totally operatic in its summoning of big emotions. Anne Hathaway's performance is utterly heartbreaking: she's a lock on a Best Actress nomination. Sterling work by Hugh Jackman and the rest of the cast (even Russell Crowe, who's being savaged in many reviews for not being up to the singing requirements - I thought he was just fine as Inspector Javert: suitably rigid, implacable, and self-righteous).

Full disclosure: I saw the musical on Broadway back in the eighties and HATED it. (Though I have always liked Hugo's novel and the various dramatic films derived from it.) I think the difference in my response now (apart from being 20+ years older) was due to the film's intimacy and sung-live-on-set,-not-to-prerecorded-score technique. You are right there, in extreme closeup, with outstanding actors, really feeling the emotions. It's nothing like the more remote live theater experience - far more relatable. That said, the clunky moments are still there (e.g., "Master of the House" still sort of works as comic relief, but the too-broad performances by Sacha Baron Cohen and Helena Bonham Carter - who seem to have wandered in still in costume/character from Sweeney Todd - seem overdone), and it's awfully hard to care about most of the revolutionaries in the last act. Some of this is due to the complex plotting of Hugo's original story, and some to the musical adaptation, but not all of the songs/characters work.

That said, we still both cried our eyes out, and remained ferklempt and overwhelmed for hours afterwards... There's no question that the film will work this way for many people, but be a tough slog for many others - and I don't even think it's a matter of whether or not you dig musicals or this particular musical. It's just so nakedly emotional, and utterly lacking in modern snark and irony, that it's not for everybody.
 
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2jakes

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,680
Location
Alamo Heights ☀️ Texas
"Hail the Conquering Hero" (1944) On TCM…It's a wonderful movie …! Does anyone know of a place like that now ?
I 'm talking about the houses & the neighborhood in town with no freeways or malls. I grew up in such a town.
Just daydreaming…but I sure miss it ! ;)
 

Chasseur

Call Me a Cab
Messages
2,494
Location
Hawaii
Duvivier's 1930 silent movie adaptation of Zola's Au Bonheur des Dames.

Some wonderful visuals in the film and some great shooting inside the Galleries Lafayettes.

GALERIES.jpg
 

Stearmen

I'll Lock Up
Messages
7,202
Hippies Are Stupid

Watched some of Easy Rider. James is right, Hippies are stupid! There they are in the Commune, no water, crops dying, then Dennis and Peter go over the hill, and swim in that nice stream, with all the water you could ever want. Move the crops!
 

Gregg Axley

I'll Lock Up
Messages
5,125
Location
Tennessee
The Black Cat is a great one.

I watched Indestructable Man with Lon Chaney Jr. Without the MST3K people making comments, this would have been a bad one.
 

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