Musical Mondays Week 24 Reefer Madness

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I have lots of notes so please forgive me for posting them all. There are lots of quirks I've noticed in my repeated viewings and I have to get them out of my head to make room for the next pick. (Also, I have my new pick already unless someone picks it before me. I struggled between Reefer Madness and two other movies so one of those two will be my next one. I haven't seen either and promise to not watch them until my turn comes back around.)

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I really enjoyed a lot of the clever lyrics/dialog in this movie. A couple of my favorite lines were:

 

"The wafers don't taste so great, they won't transubstantiate."

 

"You once had all the brains, now they're just carpet stains."

I liked Joan of Arc's "The many voices in my head tell me we have a special guest..."

 

ETA: Since that was one of Joan of Arc's "things" - multiple voices in her head. I liked the historical accuracy.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I am not sure if Christine Lakin looks like the Joanie on a Pony statue we have in Philadelphia.

ETA: I am impressed! It's very close, especially the top of the sword/mic.

 

Christine

 

Joanie

[SaraK 1980]

I am not sure if Christine Lakin looks like the Joanie on a Pony statue we have in Philadelphia.

ETA: I am impressed! It's very close, especially the top of the sword/mic.

 

Christine

 

Omg I can't believe I didn't recognize her. Step by Step was one of my favorite 'after school' shows.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

 

Omg I can't believe I didn't recognize her. Step by Step was one of my favorite 'after school' shows.

Her French accent screwed up the computer typing out the captions.

1) "Welcome to Club Celestaire" is actually "Welcome to Club Celestial".

2) "Unintelligible" is "by the brightest star in our heavenly firmament".

 

I loved how she sold "No Christian martyr works it harder." and was doing the "keep the applause coming" sign with her hands as she walked down the steps. Her dancing during the number is one of my favorite parts of the song.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

A couple more caption issues.

1) "Forsooth" became "for shouth"?!? and "yon" became "youn".

2) The main one that led me to look at all the captions is the lecturer at the end of "Reefer Madness". The caption says "Reefer madness drives me f***ing mad". It sounded close so I accepted it but repeated listening introduced doubt. It's actually "Reefer's made me crazy, barking mad". Quite a difference.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I will try and keep notes together but we'll see how it goes.

• I didn't recognize the Mary-Jew-Wanna lady at the beginning. It's Linda Boyd, Rose on a Candian show I liked called Republic of Doyle.
  

• She has the lots for the lecturer. When he sings "voraciously devouring the way things are today" the camera cuts to her heavily sighing/moaning.
  

• When she is pulled through the wall her shirt is unbuttoned to the waist but still tucked in. I can't figure out why. I see one of the men sort of tearing her shirt a little when she's bunched up with a group but it wouldn't explain the shirt still being tucked in. I noticed it from the side of my eye first and was like "Did I just see what I thought I saw?" She's wearing lingerie underneath so she's not nude but a straight-laced group like this would seemingly not go walking around with their shirts open to the waist. (Speaking of, KBell's bending fully over at the waist to set down the hot chocolate and offering a full view down her dress would be scandalous as well.)
  

• The able assistant Blumsack (captioned "Boomsack") is named after one of the stage show producers, Gary Blumsack.. The town of Steele Springs on a road sign at the end is named after another stage producer, Stephanie Steele.
  

• Blumsack made me laugh during "Mary Jane/Mary Lane" where he dances with one of the couples in the high school room. This can't be his first time seeing the presentation. Is he really this into it?
  

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

• I would have cut the Goat Man from the orgy scene. He's the god Moloch, referenced in another anti-marijuana propaganda piece. He makes the song longer and confuses the message. You smoke marijuana and you're OK with being anally raped by a Goat Man?
  

• I thought the zombies coming down the stairs were about to break into the Thriller dance when they did the leg lift/shoulder shrug at the top of the stairs.
  

• Besides the obvious 420 references (he house, the church and the clock after Ralph kills Sally) the DVD commentators mentioned the date on Mae's newspaper as April 20th.
  

• Contrary to the original movie I loved Mary turning the tables on Ralph during "Little Mary Sunshine". KBell's tongue waggle at Jimmy is wonderful on two levels. One, KBell does it perfectly and Two, it's great counterpoint to her earlier "That was your tongue!" exclamation of disgust.
  

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

• I admit I didn't care for Steven Weber. He seemed too light for the role and never had any real menace. I can't see Mae being afraid of him for very long, especially if they've been together for 20 years. (Not sure where I got that from.) Plus, if it really was Mae's house she had the power in that relationship and could have kicked him out whenever.
  

• There is one shot of Steven just before he threatens Mae near the end where he looked to me exactly like the 1936 movie's propaganda poster. I assume that's the reason for his look in this movie, to match the poster.
  

 

 

• The line "That bunch was high enough to take on the Marines AND the Navy" wasn't funny in 1936 and it's not any funner today.
  

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Glitches.

• Every time I hear Mr. Karchinsky say his name I hear "Karchinsky/i". The DVD commentary seems to bear this out. Yet he's credited as Kochinski.
  

• The mayor's wife faints after Mae tears out Jack's heart and the other lady is carried out on a stretcher. The mayor says "Good lord, man. You've sent Thelma into shock." Yet she's credited as Roxanne.
  

• The lip synching is a little off. I don't notice it too much but on a large screen it seems more obvious.
  

• I don't get Jimmy's line "I can't count the strangers with whom I have showered." The only person we see him showering with is his mom. I wasn't sure and it was hard to tell from comparing with the singing clams scene but the DVD commentary says it's his mom.
  

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Loves

• Robert Torti (Jesus) played Jack and Jesus in the L.A. stage production. I would have liked to seen that in the movie but I can understand them wanting to keep the identities separate. I think he would have brought far more menace to Jack's character.
  

• Loved Christian Campbell's reactions throughout the movie. For having played the role off-and-on for 7-8 years he got down all sorts of mini twitches, reactions and mannerisms. It really felt like he was new to the role instead of an old hand at it.
  

• The warden was played by the original stage show's lecturer. I liked his "Well put! Throw the switch." It is a little off-putting to then listen to the stage show soundtrack and hear him throughout. I'd rather have the off-putting than not being able to hear it at all of course.
  

• Can I audition for the role of Satan? The movie actor did such a good job they added him in more places. He got to fondle and "ravage" KBell and walked up the Club Celestial stairs with his hands firmly on two angels' asses and he gets to <spoiler alert> point and laugh at the viewers at the end.
  

• I love the cast coming together to sing Reefer Madness over the end credits. Ralph has one part where he sounds like he's actively smoking at the time and it lends a nice note to the lyrics.
  

• Loved the JESUS sign over The Last Supper table but I still can't figure out what is in the U and between J & E. Sometimes it seems like it's moving and other times not.
  

• Loved the "If Romeo has to run away then so does Juliet" line. Talk about not knowing the play!
  

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

No love from anyone for The Brownie Song and it's Xanadu-like cartoon (that spells things out a little more explicitly)?!?!

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

You go ahead and write as much as you like, Max! You know we love you too!

 

I’m super jealous you got to see The Disaster Artist already. I mean, it looks really good, but I’m glad you could confirm.

I haven't seen The Room yet. I've listened to the podcast episode but haven't bought the DVD. Should I before seeing The Disaster Artist?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I swear I planned to watch this Sunday and last night but I keep getting distracted by binging Bojack Horseman. I promise sometime this week I'll join up in the conversation!

In my opinion you'd do fine if you took it in stages. Maybe a half-hour or so each then just pick it back up when you can.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

I haven't seen The Room yet. I've listened to the podcast episode but haven't bought the DVD. Should I before seeing The Disaster Artist?

I would say it would help, just so you can experience just how imbued with madness it really is. It is no myth, The Room is reality.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

One thing that I found frustratingly lazy about this movie is how much of an anachronistic pastiche it is. The original Reefer Madness was a 1936 propaganda film, and the initial scenes of the musical stay true to that. But later in the film, you have homages to 1950s pop culture like beatniks and in a some of the musical numbers and dances. It's like they just decided to reference a bunch of "old, stuffy shit" and threw it in there. It felt like less of a satire of the dangerous lies America told itself about drugs in the 1930 as what Philip J. Fry might think the 1930s were like.

 

I know this is a movie with zombies and the god Moloch and everything, so asking for historical accuracy is downright silly on my part, but it got to the point where I was thinking, "what are we even making fun of?" I'm not asking for historical accuracy, just... more focused jokes. Something for the very talented cast to actually play to. The movie goes so big so soon, it has no where to travel to and its momentum is lost, which is part of why it feels so long. It's referencing one specific propaganda film, so I would have liked to have seen more focus from a film with such a singular reference point.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I would say it would help, just so you can experience just how imbued with madness it really is. It is no myth, The Room is reality.

How about reading the book?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

One thing that I found frustratingly lazy about this movie is how much of an anachronistic pastiche it is. The original Reefer Madness was a 1936 propaganda film, and the initial scenes of the musical stay true to that. But later in the film, you have homages to 1950s pop culture like beatniks and in a some of the musical numbers and dances. It's like they just decided to reference a bunch of "old, stuffy shit" and threw it in there. It felt like less of a satire of the dangerous lies America told itself about drugs in the 1930 as what Philip J. Fry might think the 1930s were like.

 

I know this is a movie with zombies and the god Moloch and everything, so asking for historical accuracy is downright silly on my part, but it got to the point where I was thinking, "what are we even making fun of?" I'm not asking for historical accuracy, just... more focused jokes. Something for the very talented cast to actually play to. The movie goes so big so soon, it has no where to travel to and its momentum is lost, which is part of why it feels so long. It's referencing one specific propaganda film, so I would have liked to have seen more focus from a film with such a singular reference point.

You want focused and coherent? What are you, high? (Or maybe they were when they wrote it.)

 

Seriously, though, I like this description. It tried to fit 10 lbs. in a 5-lb. joint and it just spilled everywhere.

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

You want focused and coherent? What are you, high? (Or maybe they were when they wrote it.)

 

Seriously, though, I like this description. It tried to fit 10 lbs. in a 5-lb. joint and it just spilled everywhere.

Ack, now I'm doubting myself. I think of something like Top Secret, which is amaAaAaAazing, and it's definitely a pastiche of everything from WWII spy movies to Beach Boys songs. That's part of the point... but maybe that's why it works in that film? It gets actual jokes from having a "French Resistance" in a post-WWII... Germany. That's funny, and the film knows it. Plus, I think the most successful parody films take their characters seriously and we root for them, whether that's Val Kilmer and co. in Top Secret or Gene Wilder in Mel Brooks films. In Reefer Madness, characters can die, get sentenced to death, or sell their souls to the Devil and it doesn't really matter. The jokes have no payoff because the narrative has no weight, therefore the setups have no weight therefore the punchlines have no impact. Does ANY of that make sense?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Ack, now I'm doubting myself. I think of something like Top Secret, which is amaAaAaAazing, and it's definitely a pastiche of everything from WWII spy movies to Beach Boys songs. That's part of the point... but maybe that's why it works in that film? It gets actual jokes from having a "French Resistance" in a post-WWII... Germany. That's funny, and the film knows it. Plus, I think the most successful parody films take their characters seriously and we root for them, whether that's Val Kilmer and co. in Top Secret or Gene Wilder in Mel Brooks films. In Reefer Madness, characters can die, get sentenced to death, or sell their souls to the Devil and it doesn't really matter. The jokes have no payoff because the narrative has no weight, therefore the setups have no weight therefore the punchlines have no impact. Does ANY of that make sense?

No, but that's common after head injuries. (Sorry, that was a quote from While You Were Sleeping.) It makes a lot of sense because Top Secret! works to make sure the jokes still "fit" as you said. They start out normal then go absurd. Reefer Madness is bonkers from the start. Once Alan Cumming looks up from his newspaper it's ON! He's the ringleader in a Cirque du Soleil of politics, commentary, singing and dancing. When I was considering this pick I hesitated because the politics are so front-and-center yet the commentary is not just about the present moment or when the movie was made in 2005. In my opinion keeping it in 1936 when FDR was president took right-or-left out of it and just made it a large film about not trusting anything an "authority figure" hands down, especially one from the government with blatant appeals to authority, heritage shaming ("Where did you matriculate?") and such.

 

I admit having Alan act so many parts (I think the DVD commentary said 10 or 11) took me out of the movie somewhat. It's hard enough suspending disbelief sometimes when a famous actor fills one role but then he keeps popping up in his own movie. I also think that's a story beat for the movie (although I'm not sure it could have been done on the stage). It seems like the lecturer is just self-aggrandizing and getting his own jollies by acting so much in his own cautionary tale. He can't fully believe what he's shoveling if he's having such a grand time doing what he's supposed to be preaching against.

 

As I just wrote this I suppose it's also a "flaw" that the lecturer is no longer a high-school principal but from the government. That's another place where the musical overall loses focus or tone. By promoting the lecturer to the Federal Bureau of Narcotics (headed by Harry J. Anslinger - who the movie high school is named after) you bring the entire amorphous government into the proceedings. How can you keep focus when you have a piece with so many moving parts and competing agendas & interests? The movie's message of "Don't trust the government" falls flat when there are parts or people you should or could trust.

[Cameron H. 23786]

Another thing I didn’t really care for was the song “Tell ‘Em the Truth.” Frankly, the song is probably the weakest in the whole film, and considering it serves as the climax of the movie, that’s pretty inexcusable.

 

Also, I didn’t really care for Jimmy getting a stay of execution. By ending this way, the movie is breaking its own rules. The whole point of the thing is that pot will turn our children into unrepentant, little sociopaths. If the “in real life” townspeople see Jimmy redeemed and Mary Lane happy in heaven, it makes absolutely no sense for them to give into their hysteria and riot in the streets. For them to react that way, it should have ended - at best - with him realizing the error of his ways but FDR arriving just a bit too late.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Another thing I didn’t really care for was the song “Tell ‘Em the Truth.” Frankly, the song is probably the weakest in the whole film, and considering it serves as the climax of the movie, that’s pretty inexcusable.

 

Also, I didn’t really care for Jimmy getting a stay of execution. By ending this way, the movie is breaking its own rules. The whole point of the thing is that pot will turn our children into unrepentant, little sociopaths. If the “in real life” townspeople see Jimmy redeemed and Mary Lane happy in heaven, it makes absolutely no sense for them to give into their hysteria and riot in the streets. For them to react that way, it should have ended - at best - with him realizing the error of his ways but FDR arriving just a bit too late.

Agreed on both points. Apologies for hijacking the posting earlier with all the notes but I am passionate about this one. Not sure if I mentioned it but the whole story is also undermined by having Sally drive the car! In the original movie <spoiler alert>Jimmy does a hit-and-run, not even slowing down. In the stage show he hits the old man and then sings a song about it. ("Dead Old Man" is the first song written in 1997 when the composers considered making this musical. It was scrapped for the movie but serves as the production company name in the opening credits.) In the movie it's Sally driving the car so why does Jimmy feel guilty for anything, certainly as much as he does and turns things around in "Mary Jane/Mary Lane"? It makes no sense. Everything after "Listen to Jesus, Jimmy" is completely undermined.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Speaking of undermining, I thought of several things from my notes.

• Mae tells Jack not to shoot Ralph because firing "that bean shooter" will bring the police right back. If she hadn't stopped Jack then Ralph and Sally (not to mention Jack) might still be alive. Yet a little bit later, after Ralph has killed Sally Jack fires several shots to bring down the crazed Ralph. I suppose Mae could be OK because it's now obvious Ralph is beyond saving. However, the police never show up again! Her earlier warning was for naught and indirectly responsible for several murders.
  

• When Jack and Mae leave to get Ralph some food, the clock winds from around 3:40 to 4:20 and they return with Chinese food (babies?). Only about 40 minutes for Ralph to kill Sally and dismember her. Jack hunts and shoots Ralph then Mae has her epiphany and murders Jack. She pulls out Jack's heart, wraps it in newspaper (why?) and notices the time is now 6:00. All this took 80 minutes?!?!
  

 

ETA: I changed to bullet points because I can't get the fancy numeral formatting to work.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Agreed on both points. Apologies for hijacking the posting earlier with all the notes but I am passionate about this one. Not sure if I mentioned it but the whole story is also undermined by having Sally drive the car! In the original movie <spoiler alert>Jimmy does a hit-and-run, not even slowing down. In the stage show he hits the old man and then sings a song about it. ("Dead Old Man" is the first song written in 1997 when the composers considered making this musical. It was scrapped for the movie but serves as the production company name in the opening credits.) In the movie it's Sally driving the car so why does Jimmy feel guilty for anything, certainly as much as he does and turns things around in "Mary Jane/Mary Lane"? It makes no sense. Everything after "Listen to Jesus, Jimmy" is completely undermined.

I meant to add in the original movie Jimmy never has consequences for the hit-and-run because Mary covers for him. However, Jack meets Jimmy at the cafe and tells him the victim died (even though he didn't - so even the song Dead Old Man is an undermining). Jack tells Jimmy to never tell about him and Mae or Mae's apartment or Jack will turn Jimmy in for the hit and run. I suppose even making Jimmy a composite of two people started the undermining process since the storylines and characters get confused.

 

Also, in this movie Mae gets away with murder! How does she explain the absence of the gentleman who fingered Jimmy in the first place?!? I'm sure he would have been called as a witness in Jimmy's trial. She probably said he escaped to Tiffin Falls, 420 miles away. In that day and age it would be like he was on the other side of the world. :-)

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Speaking of undermining, I thought of several things from my notes.

• Mae tells Jack not to shoot Ralph because firing "that bean shooter" will bring the police right back. If she hadn't stopped Jack then Ralph and Sally (not to mention Jack) might still be alive. Yet a little bit later, after Ralph has killed Sally Jack fires several shots to bring down the crazed Ralph. I suppose Mae could be OK because it's now obvious Ralph is beyond saving. However, the police never show up again! Her earlier warning was for naught and indirectly responsible for several murders.
  

• When Jack and Mae leave to get Ralph some food, the clock winds from around 3:40 to 4:20 and they return with Chinese food (babies?). Only about 40 minutes for Ralph to kill Sally and dismember her. Jack hunts and shoots Ralph then Mae has her epiphany and murders Jack. She pulls out Jack's heart, wraps it in newspaper (why?) and notices the time is now 6:00. All this took 80 minutes?!?!
  

 

 

I'm an idiot. To my original point Ralph would still be dead but things would have been different for everyone else (probably not for the better I suppose).

 

Also, by stressing 80 minutes I was trying to wonder at things taking twice as long for a lot less action. Ralph killing and (at least) beheading Sally only took 40 minutes. Jack shooting Ralph, Mae killing Jack with the garden hoe and her pulling his heart out took twice as long.