Musical Mondays Week 47 Stage Fright

[Cameron H. 23786]

Hey, this movie has Minnie Driver! I love her! Wha...? Oh.

We watched:

[taylor anne photo 11311]

Minnie Driver sure is in a lot of musical based movies where she barely sings...

Anyway this movie was disappointing to me. I think AlmostAGhost said it best on Letterboxd that a slasher movie poking fun at musical culture is a great idea but it leans way too hard into the trying to be a genuine funny musical that it loses all the charm.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

Yea, the jokey side of this just sent the movie all wrong.  They were stupid jokes.  They undercut the tension. 

Also, the songs were bad. 

It appears that the distance between an inane camp play production is only a step or two away from freaking Broadway! 

I did like a few things, mainly I thought the lead actress was pretty good!  I wanted more Minnie Driver too.

I'd love for HDTGM to do this movie though, for sure.  I kept wondering what Paul, June & Jason would think.

 

[taylor anne photo 11311]

The camp song "We're Gay" was maybe the worst part of the whole thing. I mean not only just using Gay as a joke *eye roll* but in a musical that seems to let the actual music happen "naturally" within the story this was way too choreographed and stood out tremendously. Also, it's a fucking bad song lol.

[tomspanks 9039]

16 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

The camp song "We're Gay" was maybe the worst part of the whole thing. I mean not only just using Gay as a joke *eye roll* but in a musical that seems to let the actual music happen "naturally" within the story this was way too choreographed and stood out tremendously. Also, it's a fucking bad song lol.

Yeah, I hated that song.  I'm "gay" for liking musicals?  Fuck off.

Also hated the constant sexual assault on the lead character.  They could've just had one scene instead of a montage!

[taylor anne photo 11311]

1 minute ago, tomspanks said:

Yeah, I hated that song.  I'm "gay" for liking musicals?  Fuck off.

Also hated the constant sexual assault on the lead character.  They could've just had one scene instead of a montage!

God I know!!! The whole casting couch thing made me wildly uncomfortable.

[grudlian. 4725]

16 minutes ago, tomspanks said:

Yeah, I hated that song.  I'm "gay" for liking musicals?  Fuck off.

Also hated the constant sexual assault on the lead character.  They could've just had one scene instead of a montage!

All of this.

When I'm Gay started, I had to look when the movie was made. 2014 is way too late for people to be making lol, musicals are gay amirite??? I think they tried to play it off with the actually gay character comment on it but too little, too late.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

I turned it off as fast as I could once the credits hit, but am I not mistaken that they liked "I'm Gay" so much there was a metal version of the song over the credits?  Since the killer was all metal guy, what are they implying?  Yikes

[Cameron H. 23786]

I agree with all of this. 

I think this movie's biggest crime is it doesn't do anything particularly well. I even called the killer in the first scene (both of them), so the reveal wasn't even all that interesting. I was like, "Well, of course it was..."

Another thing that annoyed me was that a plot point seemed to be hinting at financial trouble for the camp, but that camp was pretty nice and filled to capacity. Maybe if it had been a little more run down or there were fewer kids? If you want me to believe that your camp is in financial trouble, I need to see that. And why was Meat Loaf's plan, "I'll get these summer camp kids to do a play and then it will get put on Broadway?" Outside of maybe a Disney Channel movie or Saved by the Bell, when would that plan ever seem reasonable? 

 

[grudlian. 4725]

Did anyone else assume the killer was Minnie Driver the whole time? When they revealed it was the other cook, it made sense. And they likely only had Driver for a day or two. It felt like they were doing this silly, over the top story then it was a conventional reveal. If you're going to be over the top, get crazy with a back from the dead killer.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I'll stay out of this one today.  Didn't watch it over the weekend like I'd meant to.  It's on the agenda for tonight.

[Cameron H. 23786]

I think my favorite joke during the movie was a poster for Les Producerables.

[Cam Bert 8145]

One of the other things that made me really uncomfortable with this movie that ties in with the sexual assault is the floating age question. The main girl, is ten years older since the opening so that puts her in her mid to late teens, but is the director guy suppose to be a teen as well? I thought he was staff which would put him in his twenties which makes his wanting to make out and sleep with teenage girls super gross. If he was just another camper why does he have deals with Meatloaf and why is he allowed to director and run the show every years. That combined with the casting couch stuff just made all of it feel very wrong. Then at the end the main girl is with the producer guy in a seeming couple-ish way. No thanks.

[Cameron H. 23786]

51 minutes ago, Cam Bert said:

One of the other things that made me really uncomfortable with this movie that ties in with the sexual assault is the floating age question. The main girl, is ten years older since the opening so that puts her in her mid to late teens, but is the director guy suppose to be a teen as well? I thought he was staff which would put him in his twenties which makes his wanting to make out and sleep with teenage girls super gross. If he was just another camper why does he have deals with Meatloaf and why is he allowed to director and run the show every years. That combined with the casting couch stuff just made all of it feel very wrong. Then at the end the main girl is with the producer guy in a seeming couple-ish way. No thanks.

That bugged me too. I mean the whole casting couch thing was bad enough without throwing in “and he’s probably preying on underage girls.” It’s not even that I mind if a movie goes there - like, if there’s a point to it - but like Tom said, it didn’t need to be so overt or last as long as it did. Everything could have just as easily been done through implication. By lingering on it, they were effectively fetishizing this thing that they’re supposedly condemning.

We’re not dumb, guys. We can see what you’re doing.

[Cam Bert 8145]

I know it kinda goes without saying but their "kabuki" version of the play has as much to do with real kabuki as nacho Doritos have to do with authentic Mexican cuisine.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

10 hours ago, Cam Bert said:

I know it kinda goes without saying but their "kabuki" version of the play has as much to do with real kabuki as nacho Doritos have to do with authentic Mexican cuisine.

I agree.  They didn't even take two minutes to explain how they were going to adapt the play to Japan.  And then they went ahead and called it Teatro Firenze anyway!

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

27 minutes ago, Cinco DeNio said:

I agree.  They didn't even take two minutes to explain how they were going to adapt the play to Japan.  And then they went ahead and called it Teatro Firenze anyway!

I meant to add that the Kabuki wasn't necessary to get the Opera Ghost into a white mask.  In fact, wasn't it against Kabuki to have the OG wear a mask instead of having his face painted?  Camilla had hers painted.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

23 hours ago, taylorannephoto said:

The camp song "We're Gay" was maybe the worst part of the whole thing. I mean not only just using Gay as a joke *eye roll* but in a musical that seems to let the actual music happen "naturally" within the story this was way too choreographed and stood out tremendously. Also, it's a fucking bad song lol.

I thought I heard the start of "Keep it Gay" from The Producers (or Les Producerables) when they started singing that part.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

So with the creepy director kid, I think since he's in the beginning "We're Gay!" song we're to assume he's like the oldest possible age you can be to go to this camp? He seems like 18 tops and the main girl looks 16 (???)

Obviously still creepy af but probably not the kind of creepy that we all got from it.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

How does the camp work?  Is it 2-3 months and the campers stay the whole time?  It didn't seem like the camps of my youth where different groups came in every week.  The production seemed to take place within a month.  At the first rehearsal the director told them to be off-book by Thursday.  If the rehearsal was on Sunday that gives them at most 4 days.  Then the "23 days to production" countdown clock started.

Someone further up mentioned how few people seemed to attend.  I noted that at the beginning when there were only 3 school buses.  Granted the buses could make multiple trips but I doubt it.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

2 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

So with the creepy director kid, I think since he's in the beginning "We're Gay!" song we're to assume he's like the oldest possible age you can be to go to this camp? He seems like 18 tops and the main girl looks 16 (???)

Obviously still creepy af but probably not the kind of creepy that we all got from it.

He's an overachiever.

[grudlian. 4725]

29 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

So with the creepy director kid, I think since he's in the beginning "We're Gay!" song we're to assume he's like the oldest possible age you can be to go to this camp? He seems like 18 tops and the main girl looks 16 (???)

Obviously still creepy af but probably not the kind of creepy that we all got from it.

The main girl was 26 in real life. I don't remember who the director was but, if it's whi I think it was, he was 29. I definitely didn't think many of the famous campers looked closed to the intended ages.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

1 minute ago, grudlian. said:

The main girl was 26 in real life. I don't remember who the director was but, if it's whi I think it was, he was 29. I definitely didn't think many of the famous campers looked closed to the intended ages.

Okay we can't say that because of someone's IRL age they are meant to be in their early 20s. I am only talking character ages here. And what's her face main girl is definitely supposed to be a high schooler.

[grudlian. 4725]

5 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

Okay we can't say that because of someone's IRL age they are meant to be in their early 20s. I am only talking character ages here. And what's her face main girl is definitely supposed to be a high schooler.

You're right. I was more commenting on you saying the girl looked 16. She could be meant to be 16 but she also works at the camp. I don't know anything about camps like this but aren't counselors and employees typically older? I figured she was supposed to be 18.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

10 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

You're right. I was more commenting on you saying the girl looked 16. She could be meant to be 16 but she also works at the camp. I don't know anything about camps like this but aren't counselors and employees typically older? I figured she was supposed to be 18.

Her situation is different because Meatloaf is basically her guardian and owns the camp so she got put to work. It's like Demi Lovato in Camp Rock (omg we should do that for MM one week lol), her mom is the head chef and is basically using her daughter as an extra set of hands.