FisterRoboto
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Everything posted by FisterRoboto
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This is what happens when you aren't around on Mondays (i.e., me every week except this one)
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Also, the whole scene exists to show her as a self-important performance artist. I didn't really get how much of a parody of bad performance art it was supposed to be (because soooo much of the humor is lost in the film version), but ITSV, it's much funnier. And then there's this clip of Idina doing it (ignore the loud-ass audience): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9-zp6NhZWA I feel like the film is never sure if they should go big in moments like this, which is what makes it work on stage. Idina just fucking goes right over the moon with it, and it makes it really funny. But, again, I think it's one of those things where you can go that big on stage, and it's a lot harder to do on film.
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She wears a version of that jacket in the movie, but like the rest of the costuming, it just looks too pristine and - like you said - store-bought. (It still has the shower rings, though)
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Are we making this a thing? I'm 100% on board I didn't have a big problem with Dawson, other than that she's clearly older than her character (but that's a problem with the whole cast). As far as the character Mimi goes, I like her song "Out Tonight," but overall, I think she's just a lackluster character that's brought even further down by the stuff with Roger. As far as costuming goes, the film REALLY drops the ball. None of the people in the movie really look like poor artists. They look like hipsters that are trying to look that way. The costuming ITSV is much better, and everyone comes off looking more authentic for it. Roger is a great example. His costumes are kind of more elaborate, and it just made me wonder where he got the money for that leather jacket. THE BEST costuming, though? That goes to Angel's "Pussy Galore" jacket: She's straight up got shower rings on that bitch.
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That explains a lot! That's because he doesn't have a Heather to tell him to stop being a fucking man-baby.
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But there was the episode where he was a total dick to his mom and her new family just....because he's a dick.
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That's because he's actually...
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I wondered this, too. Because Benny shuts off the power. Maybe he was covering power for the building and then charging it as part of rent to everyone else? Some places do have utilities included in the rent, but I've always had to take care of my own electric bill. Maybe it's more common in NYC? I really don't know.
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Do you think he bought the building after....
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I thought it was going to be some sort of studio for digital installations. But they never really specify what it is, so....I think it's a safe bet that it is exactly Entertainment 720.
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It also made more sense why, like, everything was done on those metal tables. After the movie, I was like, "This should be called Tables: The Musical." But it's for economy on the stage, and it's done REALLY well because the sets are so barebones and efficient.
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I want to reply to every comment in this thread with "But in the stage version...!" But I'm refraining. Guys, I really loved the stage version. So if nothing else, I appreciate Cinco DeNino picking this and then Cameron for logging the stage version on Letterboxd so I realized it was available to watch a recording of that. Because that is definitely a new favorite.
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I LOVED Marks' narration in the stage version. Not only did it help with some of the story elements that seemed weak in the movie, it fleshed out his character so much better.
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Oh, a note about Tracie Thoms (Joanne). She's currently on the Netflix show Love. She plays the creator/producer of the show Gus works on, and it's a TOTALLY different role that she is wonderful in.
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I had the exact same reaction when I watched it the first time. When they were like, "We're not gonna pay last year's reeeeennnnnnt!" I was like, "Okay. Then get the fuck out of Benny's property." Also, the line "RENT RENT RENT RENT RENT" makes me laugh so hard. It's...silly. And speaking of the building, when they break back in, Joanne tells them that once they are inside, they are squatters, so Benny can't kick them out or call the police. They are still trespassing on private property, and he can still have them arrested or at least kicked out. (Again, handled much better in the stage version)
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This was the one time I thought Columbus used the medium well. When he hits his head, they go into the sequence where Maureen shows up, and there's all the other people dancing, and she keeps jumping from partner to partner. Then Joanne is like, "Are you okay?" and he snaps back to reality. That sequence wasn't in the stage production, and I think it would have been hard to pull off as well as in the movie. I wish they had made more use of the medium change, as it might have helped it feel less...off.
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Do ATM keypads have corresponding letters like (old-ass) phones? That was my assumption.
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I woke up with that song in my head this morning. It's grown on me (I blame it on the stage version). I still HATE "I Should Tell You," though. I like "La Vie Boheme" (but it took the stage version to really win me over on it), but I absolutely loved "The Tango Maureen," "Take Me or Leave Me," and "I'll Cover You" the first time I heard them. "I'll Cover You" is my favorite by far, and when Tom starts signing the reprise at the end, I was all tears. I also had a problem with the dog getting killed, but as someone who is usually furious with dogs being killed as plot points, it somehow didn't bother me as much. I think part of it was it happening off-screen, and part of it was that Angel is so fucking great in every other way that I forgot about it until Benny brought it up in the Life Cafe. Totally agree. Like, you're able to say, "Oh yeah, I was young and stupid once, too." But also, the stage version isn't THAT age appropriate. I think they just looked younger. Mimi is still in her 30s, but she looks a lot younger.
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Yes! He's 100% less terrible. It's worth pointing out that - with two exceptions - this is the original Broadway cast. The original Mimi couldn't be in the movie because she was pregnant, and the original Joanne felt she was too old.
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Nah, I was unclear. When I said I had an opposite reaction, I meant to the movie itself. I didn't really like it that much (although I did like it more than when I watched it a few months back), but the stage version kind of made me appreciate it more. I mean, there are still major missteps in the movie, and Columbus makes some strange choices, but after seeing the stage version, I have to wonder if there's a good film version that can be made. This is musical is clearly meant to be performed in front of an audience. There are things like Maureen's demonstration where I was just like, "What the hell am I supposed to do with this?" in the movie, and then in the stage version, I thought it was hilarious. As far as I know, they are reading the exact same lines, and Idina is incredible, so it's hard to blame the writing or the performance. So I think the difference is that the stage version - like all live performances - is a transactional experience. The performers play off of the audience, and they instinctively know how to cater a performance to the audience. So, I think I gained some respect for the movie after seeing everything in the stage version, but it really still makes me wonder if there's a version of this movie that could be anywhere near the stage version.
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I had the opposite reaction, and I'll try to get into it more later when I have more time, but I thought a lot of things fell really flat in the movie. There are things I truly love about it (e.g., Tom and Angel, "The Tango Maureen"), but there were many others that just felt off. It wasn't necessarily that those things were bad; it was just that they weren't quite GOOD. Then I watched the stage version (if anyone else hasn't seen it, it's available for free in its entirety on YouTube), and it solved every single problem I had except one. The only thing I didn't like better in the stage version was Angel and Tom. I think Jesse L Martin and Wilson Jermaine Heredia are so fucking perfect (especially the latter) that seeing others playing them really threw me for a loop. The one thing that still made me crazy, though, is super small and stupid, but I'm going to bring it up anyway. So, this musical takes place over the course of a single year. They start on Christmas Eve 1989 and end on Christmas Eve 1990 (the stage version didn't give dates that I remember, but since we're talking about the movie, they definitely say the years). No one knew Angel until Tom brought her into the mix. He has to introduce her to Mark and Roger when he finally makes it to their place, and one would assume that if she had known Maureen, she would have known Mark and Roger, too, given how often all these people are together. At Angel's funeral, Maureen says, "so much more original then any of us...you'd find an old table cloth on the street and make a dress...and next year, sure enough - they'd be mass producing them at the Gap." How the fuck would she know? She met Angel one year earlier. Is this meant to be hyperbole? Or is it just because Maureen is full of shit in general? Because she clearly didn't know Angel long enough to see this happen.
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Musical Mondays Off-Week 7 (Cinco DeNio's Pick)
FisterRoboto replied to Cameron H.'s topic in How Did This Get Made?
Does this mean you and I are going to get an inexplicably large loft that we don't have to pay for?- 143 replies
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I also did not realize "Hell Toupee" was a pun until Paul read it out loud. I kept reading it in the other threads and thinking "That's a stupid name," but I get it now...
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I forgot how much I like the Nic Cage song, even if it's not my favorite segment.