MOTD: Hairspray
Oh yes oh yes. Finally finished my first draft of the ol' essay so it means I have time enough to watch a movie every day...or a new TV pilot...whatever I want to write about. I know I was down on this whole program, but seriously I have nothing else to talk about. Unless you want to hear about how much I don't want to read Charlotte Lennox's "The Female Quixote" ?
Anyway, so yes, I chose to watch a fairly well filmed in theater internet version of "Hairspray".
What does it have going for it?
- I love John Waters. I've seen the original a handful of times and I almost once spend 200 dollars to own a boxed set of every movie he's made. I think he's hilarious and the Hairspray era of his filmmaking was when he was at his best
- It's based on a musical that won a lot of Tonys. I trust the Tonys. The book is by the people who did the music for the South Park movie...that's good too.
- Great cast. I can't argue with most of the casting choices. Some unknowns but every other one in my head going in fit the role nicely...except for Travolta...but we'll get into that later.
- I grew up at a school where musicals were the biggest thing next to cheerleading and making out with boys so...yes...they have my attention.
What's against it:
- Directed by the Director of "The Pacifier"
- Travolta
- Amanda Bynes' voice/"acting" (Ian sat through our "What I like about you" marathon...he'll tell you)
- Musicals lately are LAME. lame lame lame. The last one I liked was Chicago and even that was pretty vanillla. I think I was blindsided by Richard Gere's old-timey voice.
So throw that all in a pot and you get--
Meh.
Well better than meh. But worse that "Take me down to the odyssey I'm converted!!!!"/secretly listening to it on my itunes.
The casting was great, the singing was great, Brittany Snow came close to being as awesome as she was on Nip/Tuck as a white supremacist, Michelle Pfeiffer was close to Debbie Harry, Cameos from John Waters AND Ricki Lake!!!
But there was something missing and that something was Waters' trademark sass.
Waters is subversive because he shows that things are ugly and weird but in an exciting and joyous way...that's not here. Nobody's really ugly (think Divine/Harvey Firestein vs. Travolta), Nobody's really THAT fat and nobody is above mildly amusingly racist.
I'm willing to give the playwrights the benefit here as well. I think it's all about the PG rating. There were some little drops of good jokes completely paved over by the direction (and sometimes choreography wtf?) and clearly long boring places where there was probably some joke on Broadway. Musical comedies rarely dip below PG-13 and there was a distinct tang of whitewash marring this whole affair.
Oh, and I've decided I'm kind of attracted to Amanda Bynes so I'm over my hatred. Call me?
Anyway, lets say Two and a Half. Out of I don't know how many. Two and a Half is just a summation of my feelings.
Go see this instead:
Tomorrow : Perhaps something new...perhaps I'll tell you about Terminators and Bionic Women on TV
Cam
Oh yes oh yes. Finally finished my first draft of the ol' essay so it means I have time enough to watch a movie every day...or a new TV pilot...whatever I want to write about. I know I was down on this whole program, but seriously I have nothing else to talk about. Unless you want to hear about how much I don't want to read Charlotte Lennox's "The Female Quixote" ?
Anyway, so yes, I chose to watch a fairly well filmed in theater internet version of "Hairspray".
What does it have going for it?
- I love John Waters. I've seen the original a handful of times and I almost once spend 200 dollars to own a boxed set of every movie he's made. I think he's hilarious and the Hairspray era of his filmmaking was when he was at his best
- It's based on a musical that won a lot of Tonys. I trust the Tonys. The book is by the people who did the music for the South Park movie...that's good too.
- Great cast. I can't argue with most of the casting choices. Some unknowns but every other one in my head going in fit the role nicely...except for Travolta...but we'll get into that later.
- I grew up at a school where musicals were the biggest thing next to cheerleading and making out with boys so...yes...they have my attention.
What's against it:
- Directed by the Director of "The Pacifier"
- Travolta
- Amanda Bynes' voice/"acting" (Ian sat through our "What I like about you" marathon...he'll tell you)
- Musicals lately are LAME. lame lame lame. The last one I liked was Chicago and even that was pretty vanillla. I think I was blindsided by Richard Gere's old-timey voice.
So throw that all in a pot and you get--
Meh.Well better than meh. But worse that "Take me down to the odyssey I'm converted!!!!"/secretly listening to it on my itunes.
The casting was great, the singing was great, Brittany Snow came close to being as awesome as she was on Nip/Tuck as a white supremacist, Michelle Pfeiffer was close to Debbie Harry, Cameos from John Waters AND Ricki Lake!!!
But there was something missing and that something was Waters' trademark sass.
Waters is subversive because he shows that things are ugly and weird but in an exciting and joyous way...that's not here. Nobody's really ugly (think Divine/Harvey Firestein vs. Travolta), Nobody's really THAT fat and nobody is above mildly amusingly racist.
I'm willing to give the playwrights the benefit here as well. I think it's all about the PG rating. There were some little drops of good jokes completely paved over by the direction (and sometimes choreography wtf?) and clearly long boring places where there was probably some joke on Broadway. Musical comedies rarely dip below PG-13 and there was a distinct tang of whitewash marring this whole affair.
Oh, and I've decided I'm kind of attracted to Amanda Bynes so I'm over my hatred. Call me?
Anyway, lets say Two and a Half. Out of I don't know how many. Two and a Half is just a summation of my feelings.
Go see this instead:
Tomorrow : Perhaps something new...perhaps I'll tell you about Terminators and Bionic Women on TV
Cam
posted by Cam at 10:22 PM
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