tomspanks

IIRC, having Spike Lee's name on the movie was supposed to increase exposure of Passing Strange, which was a critical darling on Broadway, but wasn't a hit with theatergoers. I was fortunate to see this on stage and the theater was barely half full. After the show, Stew came back to address the audience. He asked us to stay for a few more minutes and fill out a survey/questionnaire about the show - things like how did you hear about the show, how likely are you to recommend the show to others, etc.

It was a movie entirely made of red (blue?) herrings

Oooh, sounds neat.

@Cam Bert I forgot to ask you, did you ask for extra of those red pickle things for lunch?

Do you own this?

Ok, so I'm still annoyed about this timeline gimmick in the movie. Fine, they don't want to spoon feed us by telling us the year (other than the Ohio Theater signs). Then why not change the hair styles or something? Cathy's hair remained exactly the same for the entire 5 years. Anna Kendrick. She's one of us.

That's what I mean, it doesn't translate well. Also, I just don't like that song. Damn it, I forgot to add that he said: "you realize that "know" is a great twist/ending to a song about not saying "no."

Wait, I'm such a Jamie. I lied, I do remember a hook, from "Nobody Needs to Know." But that's because it's used at the end of the Hamilton song "Say No to This" and I've listened to that soundtrack too many times. LMM says:

Oh and speaking of his letter, that reminds me of another thing that annoyed me about him. In Cathy's case, we could literally see her talent on screen as an actress, but in that guy's case, he's the one who tells us he's gonna be the next Philip Roth or something and all we had to go by was that divorce letter and his Shmuel story? During the Shmuel song, btw, I'm pretty sure I blacked out and was brought to consciousness only when he turned on the Christmas lights.

He was not very likable, that's for sure. His worst offense - to me - was when he stopped suddenly in the bike lane without a hand signal. Obviously he's satan.

Here you go! I took a ss. I hope she burns it.

I'm late to the party, but it took me 3 days to get through this movie! It felt soooo long; I couldn't believe it was only 90-ish minutes. And I'm so glad I read about the timeline/structure of the movie - otherwise I would've been so confused. Even with knowing the timeline gimmick, I was confused at times about what was going on and when. I didn't think the 2 leads had a lot of chemistry on screen - but I don't know how much of that is due to the songs feeling so flat. There isn't a hook I can recall from the soundtrack. Oh, in the beginning of the movie, I paused on the closeup of the Dear Cathy letter and the contents made me cringe - and this guy is supposed to be a writer? But, but, later, we find out the letter is the lyrics to a song! Unghhhhh, no thanks. However, I did like the orchestration of the music - very cello/bass heavy. And finally, I don't understand why the guy couldn't go to parties by himself? Pull up your grownup panties (and boy did we see a lot of his underwear) and stop dragging your wife to places against her wishes!

Paimon has failed you

I watched it on Hulu. I think it's still available.

Oh I’m so pleased Minding the Gap got a best doc nom. It was one of my fav films this year overall, not just in the doc category. The rest of the noms in other categories...meh. Doesn’t exactly make me excited to watch the oscars this year.

Good luck! I'm sorta dreading the day when I have to tackle decluttering my physical books, but I already know a lot of them don't spark joy anymore, lol.

Don't forget:

And that's why she had that dream sequence of letting him go? Because he sucked in bed?

I’m not sure! He did pin her

Thanks for ruining flavorless ice cream for me

I liked the little brother's dance even more than Helen's! Ok fine, I think I was projecting too much and was hoping she got to knock boots before getting written out of the movie completely. And would it be better or worse if every romantic rejection ended with your crush pushing you down a slide?

She was cosplaying Ariel, right?

I knew that "wetback" was a slur, but wasn't familiar with the origin of the word, so I started googling shit and came across this article. It's a bit long, but an interesting read, especially about the political climate of the time. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/flower-drum-song-whitewashing-operation-wetback-message-1961/#! R&H had "lifelong interests in issues of social and racial justice, especially regarding ties between the United States and Asia." For real? Gene Kelly directed the Broadway production of Flower Drum Song Cam Bert mentioned this, but I had no idea that Juanita Hall was an African American actress In 1954, the INS launched “Operation Wetback" The original ending of FDS was more confrontational Re: Helen - I kept waiting for her to pop up at the wedding ceremony at the end! I can't believe we never get a resolution to her character after Wang Ta leaves her apartment. Also...did Wang Ta and Helen sleep together or did he only pass out? I liked her dream dance sequence a lot! As usual, even in her dream, Wang Ta was the blandest part of the dance.

I also didn't think it was as racist as I was expecting it to be. Seriously, I was bracing for super racist moments. I think the most uncomfortable I felt was when they started doing chop sueeeeeey for one of the songs? I think System of a Down did it better

I was looking through the musicals available on Amazon Prime and this one caught my eye. I saw the Rodgers & Hammerstein in all caps, but this musical was unfamiliar to me. Not that I'm a R&H expert, but I think almost everyone is familiar with their hits like Sound of Music, South Pacific, King & I, and Oklahoma. Plus, Flower Drum Song featured an almost all Asian cast, which I didn't expect for a movie musical from that time period. Yeah, it's dated , but overall I thought the music was alright, almost kitschy. Never knew I Enjoy Being a Girl was from this musical. I wish the main leads, Mei Li and Wang Ta, were more interesting - they were both rather bland and I have no idea why or how they fell in love. Did Wang Ta even have a song? And what was the point of Helen, other than to throw a wrench into Mei Li and Wang Ta's relationship? I would've been happy with more Linda, Sammy, and Wang Ta's little brother.