525,600 Minutes
I wonder how many blogsposts in the past month or so have been titled that?
I got to see a movie last night, and since I was feeling a real need to be "entertained," I chose Rent. I didn't want to go completely mindless, but I really wasn't in the mood for heavier fare like Syriana. Also, since Randy is waiting until he returns to the states to see Harry Potter, I likewise must practive this form of marital continence.
It probably won't surprise you that I have never seen Rent on stage. When I would have had the opportunity it had become so blasted popular I figured there had to be something wrong with it. I mean, I considered it soooo mainstream despite the "edginess" it supposedly had. I also have always wanted to be too cool for musicals, but alas, that can never be. When we did live closer to New York, we saw Chicago and Cabaret on Broadway as well as the Fosse review. I had also seen Chicago in Louisville a few years before. When I first heard that Chicago was to be made into a movie, and the casting of it, I was determined that the movie was going to stink I would never see it no way ever. I was hooked with the trailer, and went on to see the movie SEVEN times in the theater.
So, despite my trying to posture otherwise, I like musicals and really do wish there were more movie musicals. Check that---more good movie musicals. Rent qualifies as good in this category, but not beyond that. Chicago, on the other hand, really is a good movie, musical or no.
I actually broke out in chills in the opening number, which is the cast, standing on a stage in an empty theater, singing "Seasons of Love." I understand that in the stage version of Rent this song doesn't appear until after the intermission, but for the movie it was an amazing way to start. The movie takes place in the course of the year, and this song really establishes that framework. I also really liked the "Light My Candle" sequence and caught myself singing it to myself this morning (except for the part about having the best ass below 14th street). There were a few times the movie dragged a little, but not to the point of making lists in my head of other things I needed to do ( I was close, though, during the Maureen performance art protest thing). Some of the lines are fantastic; I almost wish there were some occasion in my life where I can use "There will always be a girl in a rubber suit" as an excuse for something.
Rosario Dawson surprised me in a good way. I still have a crush on Jesse L. Martin, now made even stronger despite the fact he spent most of the movie kissing a man.
One funny thing I noted to myself, particularly during La Vie Boheme, a collage of "edgy" "bohemian" Lower East Side, uhhh, "edginess." It comes across to me as dated, more of an homage. I mean, in 2005, look who won the Benny versus the old crowd battle. Do you know how much those apartments are going for these days? And just some of the "shock factor" may have worked on the Long Island housewives and New Jersey high school students that would take their bus trips to see Rent in the mid 1990s (and possibly find it liberating and inspiring), but on someone so completely jaded as me, what I think is, "Oh, look how cute. Those kids are singing about m-------bation again." (I bleeped that so that you can't google that word and find my blog. No more pervs!!!)
But I did enjoy the movie, for what it is worth.
And now, off to the TV room to convince th eboys they want to watch my favorite movie of all time.
I got to see a movie last night, and since I was feeling a real need to be "entertained," I chose Rent. I didn't want to go completely mindless, but I really wasn't in the mood for heavier fare like Syriana. Also, since Randy is waiting until he returns to the states to see Harry Potter, I likewise must practive this form of marital continence.
It probably won't surprise you that I have never seen Rent on stage. When I would have had the opportunity it had become so blasted popular I figured there had to be something wrong with it. I mean, I considered it soooo mainstream despite the "edginess" it supposedly had. I also have always wanted to be too cool for musicals, but alas, that can never be. When we did live closer to New York, we saw Chicago and Cabaret on Broadway as well as the Fosse review. I had also seen Chicago in Louisville a few years before. When I first heard that Chicago was to be made into a movie, and the casting of it, I was determined that the movie was going to stink I would never see it no way ever. I was hooked with the trailer, and went on to see the movie SEVEN times in the theater.
So, despite my trying to posture otherwise, I like musicals and really do wish there were more movie musicals. Check that---more good movie musicals. Rent qualifies as good in this category, but not beyond that. Chicago, on the other hand, really is a good movie, musical or no.
I actually broke out in chills in the opening number, which is the cast, standing on a stage in an empty theater, singing "Seasons of Love." I understand that in the stage version of Rent this song doesn't appear until after the intermission, but for the movie it was an amazing way to start. The movie takes place in the course of the year, and this song really establishes that framework. I also really liked the "Light My Candle" sequence and caught myself singing it to myself this morning (except for the part about having the best ass below 14th street). There were a few times the movie dragged a little, but not to the point of making lists in my head of other things I needed to do ( I was close, though, during the Maureen performance art protest thing). Some of the lines are fantastic; I almost wish there were some occasion in my life where I can use "There will always be a girl in a rubber suit" as an excuse for something.
Rosario Dawson surprised me in a good way. I still have a crush on Jesse L. Martin, now made even stronger despite the fact he spent most of the movie kissing a man.
One funny thing I noted to myself, particularly during La Vie Boheme, a collage of "edgy" "bohemian" Lower East Side, uhhh, "edginess." It comes across to me as dated, more of an homage. I mean, in 2005, look who won the Benny versus the old crowd battle. Do you know how much those apartments are going for these days? And just some of the "shock factor" may have worked on the Long Island housewives and New Jersey high school students that would take their bus trips to see Rent in the mid 1990s (and possibly find it liberating and inspiring), but on someone so completely jaded as me, what I think is, "Oh, look how cute. Those kids are singing about m-------bation again." (I bleeped that so that you can't google that word and find my blog. No more pervs!!!)
But I did enjoy the movie, for what it is worth.
And now, off to the TV room to convince th eboys they want to watch my favorite movie of all time.
Comments
As much as I liked the stage version, though, I really don't feel a real compulsion to see the movie. I just don't see the point of it...and certainly not 10 years later. Much of it has to come across as soooo dated. "When you're living in America/ at the end of the millennium" -- uhhh, yeah. Even the cultural references, yellow Ryder trucks and such, are dated. It wouldn't be so bad that it's dated if they weren't trying so hard to be edgy.
Your take on it is a nice counterweight to the opinions of my two aunts, who actually hated it to the degree that they walked out about halfway into the movie. They really didn't like a lot of the overall "themes," and they also wanted more of a traditional musical -- songs sandwiched in between scenes with dialogue. Rent is almost entirely sung, and they hated that aspect.
The only 2 original cast members not in the movie were the orginal Mimi, who was pregnant at the time of casting, and the original Joann, who thought she was too old looking to play Joann. That was funny to me because of all the characters, Joann could be a little older. On the other hand, despite the awesomeness that is Mrs. Taye Diggs, she did not look young enough for the part. She looks great, but great 34 year old, not 25.
And that was another major change to the movie that was different from the stage version: the addition of dialogue. The movie was not completely sung, like an opera, and that really helps a movie. That would wear on you without an intermission. And the scripted dialogue was a little better written than the lyrics, because of course it didn't have to rhyme.
They also took out "Contact", which has been amusing for me, not having seen the play but being aware of the general themes and happenings of it, to read about out there in comboxes and Amazon.com reviews.
Also unlike the play, they commit to the movie taking place mostly in 1990, which then makes some of the lyrics anachronistic, like "Thelma and Louise" and the "ryder truck" reference. I also wondered about the AZT break--in 1989. I don't think there were a lot of HIV positive folks on it as it had only been approved for preventive measures in 1990. It was approved for AIDS before that, but the AZT break might not hve been a reality until at least the early 1990s.
Funny, too, that you would mention waiting until the DVD came out. That also weighed on my decision to see Rent instead of Syriana. I figured Syriana would be more character and dialogue driven, like Traffic, and if I wait until the DVD comes out for that my experience of the movie wouldn't suffer so much. And a few times when I was watching Rent the Movie, I noted a few scenes where I thought to myself about what would have to cropped out to fit my screen on the TV.
Of course, then again, there is the letterbox.