Also watched Parasite recently. I had avoided hearing what it was about, and it was not at all what I thought it was. But I really enjoyed it, especially when it went where it did. Fantastic film.
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Also watched Parasite recently. I had avoided hearing what it was about, and it was not at all what I thought it was. But I really enjoyed it, especially when it went where it did. Fantastic film.
I was the exact same. Just a beautifully shot movie with a great story.
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So I decided to have a Joel Schumacher marathon after his death a couple weeks ago, and just finished up with 8mm last night. I almost forgot how unsettling and f***ed up that movie is. It still holds up as a solid thriller with a terrific supporting cast. Peter Stormare steals every scene he's in as the creepy porno director, and Joaquin Phoenix and James Gandolfini are also quite good.
Lin-Manuel Miranda's much hyped musical about founding father Alexander Hamilton lived up to the hype, mostly. The songs are catchy and stick with you, the performances are excellent. Actors playing King George, Aaron Burr, George Washington and Angelica Schuyler especially. Jonathan Groff's spots as King George are amazing. "You'll Be Back" is impossible not to have in your head for days later.
It's not above criticism however. Story comes at you with breakneck speed, an entire life in a two hour musical is difficult, the ballads are a welcome break from the machine gun style of storytelling. The weakest singing and acting spots for me are continually with Lin-Manuel Miranda himself however.
Miranda's voice is lost at times. He has vocal power of an asthmatic mouse and his dramatic crying (which Hamilton does a lot) is to lower his voice and make a pouty face, like a child pretending to be sick. When he shares an emotional scene with Phillipa Soo it's clear who's the superior stage performer. You wish he would've created the musical and stayed behind the curtain.
So yeah, really enjoyed it. 7.5/10 if we need a rating? Would've been higher with a better lead.
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I enjoyed it but didn't love it across the board. Great performances, a few great songs that get reprised constantly because the rest weren't that strong IMO. King George was definitely the highlight for me.
My biggest criticism is that for 2 hours and 40 minutes I found a lot of it not that interesting story wise. They tried to raise the stakes and overly dramatise certain things that didn't impress me ("HAMILTON WROTE THE OTHER 51 ESSAYS!!!"), but maybe simply not being American hurts that for me?
Daveed Diggs, who played Lafayette & Jefferson and Leslie Odom Jr., who played Burr were the standouts for me, but most of the cast was excellent.
I agree that Miranda was probably the weakest of the major characters. Based on some of the comments I've seen, the actor playing Hamilton on Broadway now is much-stronger in the role.
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Yeah, Miranda was weak, but remember that he's not a performer first, he's a writer.
I had seen a touring production last year before seeing this one with Miranda, and even that guy playing Hamilton was a much better singer. However, I will give credit to Miranda for the rap/spoken pieces because I think he nails the cadence and emotion in those sections. I wonder if he might have been stronger in the other areas years ago when he first began. But whatever, it was his baby, he had every right to play the lead (although it does speak to his ego a little bit to not let a stronger performer have that role).
I think it's just such an excellent use of modern music styles to tell old stories, and it does bounce back and forth between traditional broadway styles and rap or Caribbean music. It helps to make history accessible and gets people interested in understanding their government and civics. It can only help to spark interest in most people who would otherwise never look at the subject twice. This is especially important for groups of minorities or immigrants who might view the founding fathers as stuffy white men and not relatable in any way. This is vitally important in a democracy for people to engage as much as possible in understanding their government and civics in general. I watched it a second time with the subtitles on in order to not miss a word that at times can be missed or misheard due to the rapid fire nature of delivery. After seeing it in that format I found the lyric writing to be absolutely exceptional, some of the best I've ever seen.
I think it's a brilliant piece of writing, but I will also agree that it isn't my favorite musical by any stretch. I find it a bit too jarring to go back and forth between some very emotional numbers and some straightforward history telling pieces, but it's a small grievance. It just interferes with the flow at times.
I'd give it a bit higher rating than a 7.5 of course (probably a 9). Not many shows are able to pull off what this one does, and I still think it's worth a watch for anybody.
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I give it a 9.5 as someone who is not a fan of that many musicals. LMM definitely not the performer Diggs or Odom Jr. is, but don’t think it detracts in any way. Some of the music is iconic IMO.
As I mentioned in the Disney + thread, I wish there weren’t so many cuts and angle changes and some long audience views would have been nice. That is about my only nit.
I was lucky enough to see it live but enjoyed it this way immensely too. It didn’t get this popular by accident. Looking forward to In the Heights when we can ever go to theatres again.
As an aside, my daughter was crazy into Hamilton for quite a while. Writing to some of the cast members, stage workers etc. She has some cool paraphernalia in her room as a result. So maybe all that colors my views a little.
Apparently, they do record every major Broadway show for archive purposes, but most aren't made available publicly. Since there was a significant bidding war for Hamilton, I wouldn't be surprised to see other big shows follow suit.
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Speaking of Daveed Diggs I hope this interest in Hamilton kicks up love for Blindspotting. I was late to seeing it and am upset I waited so long. Searching the thread I only found a couple mentions of it ages ago but I thought it was fantastic. Such a great blend of extremely heavy subject matter and comedy. “Criminally underrated” is thrown around a lot but this might be the first time I really mean it about a film.
Last edited by ResAlien; 07-10-2020 at 03:32 PM.
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