This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.
Everything that’s interesting about this feels like it’s just a sample of a better movie that was left on the cutting room floor - this sort of feels like the Sparknotes of a movie. But idk, maybe it’s because I just got over COVID and I was missing the theater but I had fun. This gets silly, but in a way that mostly works. “Ma’am, the stall exploded,” is an objectively funny line.
It’s also a real testament to the…
Remarkable. A thrill to watch three actors at the top of their game. Gray’s quiet, focused direction is thrilling at times - the way the camera stays on an unlit window for an uncomfortable additional beat, or how he frames Phoenix’s character when he’s out of his element in a five star restaurant. By the end it feels like you’re watching a really stellar adaptation of a great American tragedy.
I suppose, if I had a slight nitpick, it’s that…
As a documentary, it’s remarkably edited but also a little misguided as to what it’s trying to be about. Is it about the passionate fan base? Is it a close analysis of the text? Is it just a fun behind the scenes movie? It’s hard to say, but it’s fun if you love the musical.
I’m of the belief the 2016 Deaf West revival improved upon the original by adding subtext about accessibility to education, but the songs here are…
Maybe it’s because they truly don’t make them like this anymore, but every viewing makes me more and more passionate about my hot take that this is top tier Fincher. It’s just so perfectly constructed, I love how every single element introduced in this script ends up playing another role at some point. Remarkably efficient in the way it raises the stakes and keeps things moving in and out of the titular room. And Fincher’s obsessive attention to detail is…
Better than I remembered, and it certainly gets better as it goes along. I’ll be honest, I could not recall what this movie was about if my life depended on it prior to this rewatch, and the first twenty or so minutes had me thinking I was in for a punishing second viewing. But things pick up somewhat, where even if I didn’t exactly like what I was viewing, I wasn’t bored. The filmmaking and especially the cinematography are quite…
So much meaner than I remembered. I think it’s aged poorly in many respects, but it’s sort of a fascinating artifact in the way few films from this year are. The filmmaking is kinetic and always interesting, and this feels bleak in a way that’s at least interesting. Not a great film, but in a year with many duds this at least offers itself to discussion well.
Truly punishing. I suppose its vaguely fascinating to watch as a study of popular entertainment in the 1930s, but I found this deeply annoying from start to finish. The kids are all deeply unlikable and the dramatic momentum is nonexistent. This is a very long 85 minutes, to the point I wondered if I had the runtime wrong.
There’s a recurring sound effect of children laughing which made my boyfriend scream “ENOUGH! ENOUGH! MAKE IT STOP!” It’s that kinda movie.