Miscellaneous Movie Musings the Sequel

[innerSpaceman]

Three Movies.

Warm Bodies. A completely charming RomCom take on the zombie genre. Really sweet, not too dumb. Completely worked, which I think is quite an achievement. Nicholas Hoult, an adorable teen zombie with an inner mind quite alert and self-aware, is trapped in a zombie body that can only grunt and shamble - until he falls in love with a human girl, becoming more human in the process. The only quibble is Hoult is way cuter as a zombie and becomes kinda less attractive as he becomes more human. But that's a quibble without a complaint. The movie is adorable and funny, and you should go see it. (Besides, I have personal experience proving it's easier to be a cute zombie than a cute boy.)



Bernie. Jack Black's finest hour as an actor. Yeah, not a particularly high bar - but this under-appreciated film is quite remarkable. And in a more perfect world, Black would have received some serious acting nominations for major awards. It's the bizarre true story of an East Texas mortician who becomes a community superstar and gets involved in a co-dependent relationship with the town's bitchy rich widow, played by Shirley Maclaine.

Alas, the good times eventually end, the bitchiness returns with a vengeance and Shirley makes Jack her lackey pet. But not before she's already entrusted him with power of attorney over her huge fortune. In a spat, Jack shoots Shirley in the back four times, killing her. But most bizarrely - and TRUE - he successfully conceals her death for NINE MONTHS.

Jack Black is insanely awesome as the title character. Do yourself a favor and rent Bernie.




Lastly, I finally got around to seeing Les Miserables.

What a frelling mess!


I fault the source material, and not necessarily the film. There was nothing particularly wrong with "nasal cam," as the close-up-heavy style has come to be derisively known. Also, I can't find too much fault with the decision to have all the music sung "live" and not lip-synched to prerecorded vocals. It was fine for most of the cast and arguably added an urgency and drama to the proceedings.

Much has been made of Russell Crowe's inability to sing - all too sadly true - but not enough has been made of his inability to act. He conveyed far too little menace or obsession as the intractable pursuer Javert. A very weak link in a wobbly chain.

And that's because, as a piece, and despite its vast success, Les Miserables sucks as a musical, or as anything. It's boring. The "songs" such as they are, reek of interstertial meandering and sing-songy inbetweeny droning on. There are only two what could properly be called Songs - one is a misconceived, poor-man's Sweeney Todd rip-off that is the show's only legitimate "number," but falls flat and stands out like an unwelcomely sore and third thumb. The other is a nice enough song, sung by Anne Hathaway as Fantine - - but it's absurd that she's sweeping all the awards and will likely win the Oscar for her 4-minute performance.

She's fine. But Best Supporting Actress? Pulease! She's in the film for 10 minutes, and has one song - albeit the only decent melody in the entire long piece. Yes, she sings with a swollen red crying nose. And she dies. Give her the Oscar!


I think the problem with the piece is its basically four vignettes (and Hathaway indeed features strongly in one of them), that become increasingly less interesting as they progress. Not the preferable arc of a story. Hugh Jackman is fine in the lead role as Jean Valjean - but his character completely disappears for the 3rd vignette and he hasn't really had much chance to cement his character by then - as each vignette suddenly stops and flashes forward by 10 years or so ... and it left me feeling I kept getting cut off just as I was getting to know him. Then he reappears for the last vignette, but it's too late. His whole arc has been choppy and then he comes back after being gone for a whole segment of the story. Just weird.

But an even bigger problem with the piece is, of course, the music is horrible. That's a bad thing for an operatic piece where 95% of it is sung. Yet it's also a common trap of opera, where there's too little tunefulness and too much sing-songy droning. I think Javert and Valjean each had a couple of what could be called songs - but I really couldn't tell when they started or ended. The whole piece seemed to be droning on in a vaguely musical vein of low-key dirge - except for two actual songs - as I said, one horribly ill-conceived, and the other inexplicably Oscar-bait.

Despite the purportedly epic scope of the 40-year story, it was ultimately boring. It would have been ok if it were depressing, or emotionally resonant in any way. But it was just dull.


Again, mostly due to the source material. The filmmaking was really ok. Yeah, I know it's a widely beloved piece. But it sucks. I'm a gay man, and I know musical theater. Quasi-Operas are a bit more difficult, but there are good ones and bad ones. Les Miserables is one of the worst. I can't believe this is nominated for best picture. It's a decent version of one of the worst musicals ever conceived. Do yourself a favor and skip the movie ... read the book.