Tag: Drama

100 Years of Movie Musicals: Applause (1929)

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Title: Applause
Release Date: October 7, 1929
Director: Rouben Mamoulian
Production Company: Paramount Pictures
Main Cast:

  • Helen Morgan as Kitty Darling
  • Joan Peers as April Darling
  • Fuller Mellish Jr. as Hitch Nelson
  • Jack Cameron as Joe King
  • Henry Wadsworth as Tony
  • Dorothy Cumming as Mother Superior
  • Mack Gray as Slim’s Brother
  • David Holt as Jack Singer

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

This early example of the “backstage” musical genre tells the story of Kitty Darling, a fading burlesque star who tries to save her convent-educated daughter April from following in mom’s footsteps.

My Thoughts:

Applause is a melodrama set in the world of the burlesque theater in which a mother hopes for a better life for her daughter, much like Mrs. Warren’s Profession and Stella Dallas. Dancing star Kitty Darling sends her daughter April away to a convent school until the age of 17, when she’s called home at the instigation of Kitty’s controlling paramour Hitch.  The underlying themes of this movie are the love of mother and child, and “men are awful.” The latter is strongly illustrated in a scene where April endures street harassment.  Even the sailor Tony, who is keen on showing he’s “not like other guys” is kind of a creep (and he uses a slur against Italians to boot).

This is not a traditional musical as all the song and dance is simply the performances on the burlesque stage.  The songs are not memorable beyond the fact that it gives a glimpse into that era of performance. Opening two years after The Jazz Singer, Applause is technologically advanced as a film, not just because it’s fully a talkie, but uses sound design and effects.  The direction is fluid, and there are even some scenes shot on location.  While not a masterpiece, this is definitely a big step forward for the movie musical.

Rating: ***1/2

Anniversary Year Movie Review: Ménilmontant (1926)

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All throughout this year I will be reviewing movies celebrating an anniversary years.  Happy 100th birthday to Ménilmontant!

Title: Ménilmontant
Release Date: January 2, 1926
Director: Dimitri Kirsanoff
Production Company: Lobster Films
Main Cast:

  • Nadia Sibirskaïa – La jeune soeur
  • Yolande Beaulieu – La soeur aînée
  • Guy Belmont – Le jeune homme
  • Jean Pasquier – Le père

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A pair of sisters leave the country for the city after their parents are slaughtered in a mysterious axe murder.

My Thoughts:

This film starts with a visually-striking (and very modern-feeling) sequence in a man murders a couple with an axe.  The couple’s two orphaned daughters end up moved to the Parisian neighborhood of Ménilmontant, where most of the film takes place.  They each end up seduced by the same cad with tragic consequence.  The impressionistic film eschews title cards and a straightforward narrative instead offering a series of emotional vignettes.  The film is also intercut with shots of everyday scenes in Paris, creating a time capsule of the time that I am a sucker for.

Rating: ****

100 Years of Movie Musicals: The Jazz Singer (1927)

~ Liam ~ 1 Comment

Next year marks the 100th anniversary of the movie musical, and to celebrate I’m embarking on a two-year project to watch 100 movie musicals from 1927 to the present!

Title: The Jazz Singer
Release Date: October 6, 1927
Director: Alan Crosland
Production Company:  Warner Bros. Pictures | The Vitaphone Corporation
Main Cast:

  • Al Jolson as Jacob “Jakie” Rabinowitz (Jack Robin)
    • Bobby Gordon as Jakie Rabinowitz (age 13)
  • Warner Oland as Cantor Rabinowitz
  • Eugenie Besserer as Sara Rabinowitz
  • May McAvoy as Mary Dale
  • Otto Lederer as Moisha Yudelson
  • Richard Tucker as Harry Lee
  • Yossele Rosenblatt as himself

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A young Jewish man is torn between tradition and individuality when his old-fashioned family objects to his career as a jazz singer. This is the first full length feature film to use synchronized sound, and is the original film musical.

My Thoughts:

The Jazz Singer is a straightforward melodrama about Jakie Rabinowitz (stage name Jack Robin) whose Jewish immigrant father raises him to be the fifth-generation cantor at their synagogue.  But Jakie is more drawn to singing the popular music of the time.  Father and son have a falling out and Jakie leaves home to find fame on Broadway.  But when his father falls ill, Jakie must taking his father’s place as cantor for Yom Kippur service or opening night for his first big show!

If this movie came out a year or so earlier, or a year or so later, it would probably be forgotten.  But as noted in Wikipedia “it is the first feature-length motion picture with both synchronized recorded music and lip-synchronous singing and speech.” I appreciate that for a movie from 1927 when Jewish immigrants were far outside mainstream American culture that this movie treats Jewish culture and traditions respectfully.  I also like the location shooting in the Lower East Side and on Broadway that give brief glimpses into both sides of Jakie’s world in 1920s New York.

The majority of the “talking” parts of the movie are the musical numbers with just a couple of spoken word conversations, the rest is a silent movie with title card.  While Al Jolson was a popular performer of his era, I’ve listened to a lot of music from the 1920s and Jolson’s style is just not that appealing to me in comparison.  Which leads to the problems of cultural appropriation.  The film is called The Jazz Singer, but while informed by jazz, Jolson’s style is merely contemporary pop music.  And the even more unfortunate trend of the time was to wear blackface for singing “jazz” which we see Jakie do for his act in the Broadway musical revue.  Even more unpleasant, there’s an entire scene of Jakie putting on his blackface makeup while considering his own Jewish heritage which is an awkward analogy at best, and harmful at worst.

With this as the first movie musical, it can only go up from here!

Rating: **

 

365 Movies in 365 Days: Good Will To Men (1955)

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This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title: Good Will To Men
Release Date: Dcember 23, 1955
Director: William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
Production Company: MGM Cartoon Studio | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Main Cast:

  • Daws Butler – Elderly Choirmaster

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A group of young mice is in the ruins of a church, practicing singing for an upcoming service. After singing an adulterated version of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,” the mice wonder about the last line, “Good will to men.” One of them asks the choirmaster, an old mouse, “What are men?” The old mouse explains that they all killed each other off by building bigger and more destructive weapons, first guns, then missiles, then bombs.

My Thoughts:

In a future where humanity is destroyed by nuclear war, mice – who’ve apparently adopted Christianity – gather in the ruins of a church to celebrate Christmas.  An elderly choirmaster tells the young mice in the choir about humankind and how we eliminated ourselves.  It’s as dark and harrowing as it sounds!  Honestly, I’m surprised this got made in the 1950s and yet Hanna and Barbera didn’t get called before HUAC.

Rating: ***1/2

Book Review: Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

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Author: William Shakespeare
Title: Romeo and Juliet 
Publication Info: New York, New York : Penguin Books, 2016. [originated in 1597]
Summary/Review:

What can I say about Romeo and Juliet?  I studied it in class in junior high school, high school, and college.  I’ve watched multiple movie adaptations.  I saw a stage production last year at A.R.T, and then last summer my own child child starred in an excellent youth production as Benvolio.  I want to say that reading Shakespeare in chronological order that it’s very evident that the Bard’s writing style has improved and this is his first classic.  But is that true, or is it just because I’m so much more familiar with this play than the others I have read?  Regardless, I feel that at it’s heart this play perfectly encapsulates the failures of human communication, the lack of which leads to six bodies on the stage by the end of the show.  I also realize that there are even more penis jokes in this play than I’d previously noticed.

Rating: *****

I’m reading every Shakespeare play, one per month, in chronological order.  Here’s my progress thus far:

  1. The Two Gentlemen of Verona
  2. The Taming of the Shrew
  3. Henry VI, Part 1
  4. Henry VI, Part 2
  5. Henry VI, Part 3
  6. Titus Andronicus
  7. Richard III
  8. The Comedy of Errors
  9. Love’s Labours’ Lost
  10. Richard II

365 Movies in 365 Days: World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime (2020)

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This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title: World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime
Release Date: October 9, 2020
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Production Company: Bitter Films
Main Cast:

  • Julia Pott – Emily
  • Jack Parrett – Young David

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A hidden memory sends David across the far reaches of time and space to solve a deadly mystery involving his time-traveling future selves.

My Thoughts:

The third, longest, and to date final installment of World of Tomorrow series changes protagonists to David, the supposed love of Emily’s life.  David goes to the ends of the galaxy removing parts of his personality as he goes along to find a message left for him by an Emily clone which ultimately leads him into an Inception-like time travel murder plot.  This is the darkest of the three films and is not leavened by the child’s voice of young Emily. It was a bit too much for me, but still magnificently animated.

Rating: ***

365 Movies in 365 Days: World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts (2017)

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This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title: World of Tomorrow Episode Two: The Burden of Other People’s Thoughts
Release Date: September 22, 2017
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Production Company: Bitter Films
Main Cast:

  • Julia Pott – Emily
  • Winona Mae – Emily Prime
  • Jesse Cilio – Dial Up

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

Emily Prime is swept into the brain of an incomplete backup clone of her future self.

My Thoughts:

Emily Prime once again receives a time traveler, this time Emily 6, a back-up clone who was never fully linked to Emily’s identity.  She decides to merge consciousness with Emily Prime leading to an adventure within Emily 6’s mind visiting memories they both share and Emily 6’s memories of her best friend and sister Emily 5/Felicia.  It’s an even darker and heartbreaking story than it’s predecessor.

Rating: ***1/2

365 Movies in 365 Days: World of Tomorrow (2015)

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This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title:  World of Tomorrow
Release Date: January 22, 2015
Director: Don Hertzfeldt
Production Company: Bitter Films
Main Cast:

  • Julia Pott – Emily
  • Winona Mae – Emily Prime
  • Sara Cushman – Simon

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

A little girl is taken on a mind-bending tour of her distant future.

My Thoughts:

A grim, strange, and wonderful animated film features a small child visited by a clone of herself from the far future.  They travel together through the “outernet” exploring memory, identity, and existential questions.  The characters have a child-like drawing style and they’re set against remarkably rich backgrounds with bold colors and mid-century designs.  And little Emily (voiced by Hertzfeldt’s  4-year-old niece) is adorable!

Rating: ****

Movie Review: Merrily We Roll Along (2025)

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Title: Merrily We Roll Along
Release Date: December 5, 2025
Director: Maria Friedman
Production Company: RadicalMedia | Sonia Friedman Productions | No Guarantees Productions | Chocolate Factory Productions | P-Cat Productions | Stephen Sondheim Trust
Main Cast:

  • Jonathan Groff – Franklin Shepard
  • Lindsay Mendez – Mary Flynn
  • Daniel Radcliffe – Charley Kringas
  • Krystal Joy Brown – Gussie Carnegie
  • Katie Rose Clarke – Beth Shepard
  • Reg Rogers – Joe Josephson

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

Franklin Shepard is a talented Broadway composer who abandons his theater career and all his friends in New York in order to produce films in Los Angeles. The story begins at the height of his Hollywood fame and moves backwards in time, showing snapshots of the most important moments in Frank’s life that shaped the man he is today. A live recording of the 2024 Tony Award-winning Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and George Furth’s musical, filmed at the Hudson Theatre in New York City

My Thoughts:

It’s rare for hit Broadway musicals to get filmed for public consumption, much less for that film to get a theatrical release.  But I’m grateful that Merrily We Roll Along got this treatment.  The Stephen Sondheim musical famously flopped when it premiered in 1981, but over the decades it’s earned greater appreciation – and revisions – through various restagings.  In 2023 the show returned to Broadway in a production that won the Tony Award for  Best Revival of a Musical among others.  It helps that the cast includes Jonathan Groff (one of the most popular performers on Broadway), Lindsay Mendez (whose Broadway pedigree includes a turn as Elphaba in Wicked), and Daniel Radcliffe (who has escaped typecasting of being a superstar child actor by choosing to appear in an interesting variety of projects).  The supporting cast and ensemble are also terrific.

This pro-shot film stands out from others in that it’s almost entirely in close-ups and mid-range shots that provide a level of intimacy with the actors that one would never get in a theater.  In fact, since we never see and rarely hear the audience and there are few shots of the entire stage, it almost feels like it’s not a play at all.  This approach is divisive as I’ve seen some people who love it, and others who hate it.  I can understand the latter point of view as the film misses some staging and even at times doesn’t show the person who is singing.

But I personally enjoyed the film as it is.  For one thing, we can see a lot in the facial expressions of the actors.  This is particular true of Groff whose face shows more interiority than we’d expect of his shallow character, especially when he’s being ripped by both of his closest friends early in the show.  As the characters age – or de-age – twenty years over the course of the story, the nuances of the actors bring out their changes over time.  Groff once again stands out for the youthful optimism in the final number that makes it more heartbreaking that we see him as a cynical sellout in his 40s.  Radcliffe is also excellent as the neurotic Charley and his performance of “Franklin Shepard, Inc.” is a standout of a show with a lot of great numbers.

Rating: ****

365 Movies in 365 Days: Patriotism (1966)

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This year I’m trying to watch one movie every day of the year, with the provision that the movie be no longer than 36.5 minutes long. I’ll be selecting movies randomly from this list that’s already way too long, but I still welcome suggestions for short films.

Title: Patriotism
Release Date: April 12, 1966
Director: Yukio Mishima
Production Company: Yukio Mishima Production
Main Cast:

  • Yukio Mishima – Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama
  • Yoshiko Tsuruoka – Reiko

Synopsis (via Letterboxd):

Two characters on a Noh stage dramatize the rite of love and death of Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama and his wife Reiko.

My Thoughts:

The film depicts two characters, a lieutenant and his wife, as they make love and then commit ritual suicide. Both are filmed with the same sensuality.  This film is highly regarded but it left me cold.  Reading a little about the creator’s conservative/ultra-nationalist beliefs that inform the film made me understand why.

Rating: **1/2