Musical Mondays Week 52 Idlewild

[Cameron H. 23786]

It’s cool to take a picture of your dead lover if they are really SpottieOttieDopaliscious, right?

We watched:

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

This movie was IdleWILD, am I right?  Hello?  Is this thing on?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Seriously, I liked this movie.  Very glad AlmostAGhost streamed it because the group chat helped me make sense of it.  I might have bailed a few times otherwise and taken it in chunks.  In the middle it seemed like the musical Chicago with musical numbers strung through by a bare plot but it got more emotional as it went on.  Good pick!

[EvRobert 1684]

What is it about musicals and gangster films that seemingly go so well together? It's like chocolate and peanut butter. I really enjoyed rewatching this film (if I was to guess, I'd say I hadn't seen this in 11 years or more and reconnecting to the world of Idlewild, GA. Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said that Idlewild was seemingly an "African-American Moulin Rogue" an you know what the comparison kind of fits. Between the anachronistic music (which I think really works in this consider that the roots of hip-hop and funk can be found in the African-American jazz sound). What struck me is how...young I guess the leading cast is. The veteran African-American characters are killed off (or run away) leaving some very hungry characters to fill their place(sometimes figuratively sometimes literally), be it Ving Rhames' Spats or Patti LeBelle's Angel.

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 hour ago, Cinco DeNio said:

Seriously, I liked this movie.  Very glad AlmostAGhost streamed it because the group chat helped me make sense of it.  I might have bailed a few times otherwise and taken it in chunks.  In the middle it seemed like the musical Chicago with musical numbers strung through by a bare plot but it got more emotional as it went on.  Good pick!

This was essentially my take (although I watched it alone and *did* bail a couple of times  ). It’s not that it was bad. It’s parts were all solid, but not the sum of the parts. Honestly, I found the plot to be kind of dull. Take out the music, and occasional visual flair, and the plot was a pretty basic Prohibition Era drama. Everything was pretty predictable. I mean, who at this point isn’t like “That’s going to stop a bullet” when a character is handed a Bible?

It also didn’t help that André and Boi play most everything so unflappably low energy. Aside from the music, I never really felt like they were in it, and consequently, I was never really in it. It’s not that it was bad, but my focus kept wandering as I watched.

[EvRobert 1684]

19 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

This was essentially my take (although I watched it alone and *did* bail a couple of times  ). It’s not that it was bad. The sum of its parts were all solid, but I found the plot to be kind of dull. Take out the music, and occasional visual flair, and the plot was a pretty basic Prohibition Era drama. Everything was pretty predictable. I mean, who at this point isn’t like “That’s going to stop a bullet” when a character is handed a Bible?

It also didn’t help that André and Boi play most everything so unflappably low energy. Aside from the music, I never really felt like they were in it, and consequently, I was never really in it. It’s not that it was bad, but my focus kept wandering as I watched.

Yeah they do kind of play everything as just going through the motions (it does seem like I liked it more but I'm also a sucker for gangster/prohibition movies that lean into the redemption angle i.e. the Bible stops the bullet). It's interesting though that around this same time, Andre 3000 did Be Cool (the Get Shorty sequel that is BAD) and is one of the bright shining spots in that film.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

I knew this would be a mixed bag in reaction when I picked it -- some of us will just be in the right mood and enjoy the hell out of it, and others will be confounded.  Maybe that's true for every movie, but I think melodramatic hiphop musicals set in the '30s can feel like there are way too many angles going on.

I can see the low energy critique but for me, but I think, for Dre at least, that was a character choice.  Also thinking about it, the romance brings me in: I liked Dre and Paula together and felt their story.  If it wasn't there, I would've certainly felt more cut off from the story.

[Cameron H. 23786]

9 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

I knew this would be a mixed bag in reaction when I picked it -- some of us will just be in the right mood and enjoy the hell out of it, and others will be confounded.  Maybe that's true for every movie, but I think melodramatic hiphop musicals set in the '30s can feel like there are way too many angles going on.

I can see the low energy critique but for me, but I think, for Dre at least, that was a character choice.  Also thinking about it, the romance brings me in: I liked Dre and Paula together and felt their story.  If it wasn't there, I would've certainly felt more cut off from the story.

I wouldn’t say “confounded” exactly. I got it, I just wasn’t feeling it.

The only thing I didn’t get was why “Angel” was mad at him when she found out he knew her secret. Like, that’s ideal! Now you don’t have to go through the whole “fess up and have him mad at you for lying” thing. You’re in the clear!

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

2 hours ago, EvRobert said:

What is it about musicals and gangster films that seemingly go so well together? It's like chocolate and peanut butter. I really enjoyed rewatching this film (if I was to guess, I'd say I hadn't seen this in 11 years or more and reconnecting to the world of Idlewild, GA. Frank Lovece of Film Journal International said that Idlewild was seemingly an "African-American Moulin Rogue" an you know what the comparison kind of fits. Between the anachronistic music (which I think really works in this consider that the roots of hip-hop and funk can be found in the African-American jazz sound). What struck me is how...young I guess the leading cast is. The veteran African-American characters are killed off (or run away) leaving some very hungry characters to fill their place(sometimes figuratively sometimes literally), be it Ving Rhames' Spats or Patti LeBelle's Angel.

[EvRobert 1684]

12 minutes ago, Cinco DeNio said:

that would have made this better

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

3 hours ago, AlmostAGhost said:

I knew this would be a mixed bag in reaction when I picked it -- some of us will just be in the right mood and enjoy the hell out of it, and others will be confounded.  Maybe that's true for every movie, but I think melodramatic hiphop musicals set in the '30s can feel like there are way too many angles going on.

I can see the low energy critique but for me, but I think, for Dre at least, that was a character choice.  Also thinking about it, the romance brings me in: I liked Dre and Paula together and felt their story.  If it wasn't there, I would've certainly felt more cut off from the story.

First off, I liked this this movie. I watched it a second time over the weekend and thought it was pretty enjoyable. You can tell the director's main work is music videos. The musical numbers and the flourishes like the animated flask and the cuckoo clocks over Dre's bed show a real familiarity with creating a scene and mood. As for the plot ... well, that was kind of sparse. One thing that bugged me was that I didn't really get why the club was so important. Why it was so important for Rooster to take it over, and exactly how much in debt he was. I thought Terrance Howard taking out Spats and Ace kind of came out of nowhere, and I never really got a sense of him as a villain. I'm also not real sure why this was set in the prohibition era, aside from just a stylistic choice. Sure, they were smuggling hooch into the club, but I didn't think there was ever any real concern about the cops busting them up. Overall, basically, the stakes felt pretty low.

To me, Dre seemed not so much low energy, as just sad and emotionally burdened. I liked his performance, and his chemistry with Angel/Sally. Their story was probably my favorite part of the movie. And the end with Busby Berkeley-esque musical number at the end and through the credits. I also felt the song Dre does while dressing Angel/Sally's body for burial was the weakest, but the rest of the music was really fun. Very Outkast. 

And final thought - what is with prohibition-era musicals and scoundrels named Rooster? (ahem, Annie). 

[tomspanks 9039]

59 minutes ago, WatchOutForSnakes said:

Why it was so important for Rooster to take it over, and exactly how much in debt he was.

Rooster owed $1100 to Terrence Howard.  Not sure about the other debts.

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

5 hours ago, tomspanks said:

Rooster owed $1100 to Terrence Howard.  Not sure about the other debts.

Ahh, I think some of that story line went right past me. 

[grudlian. 4725]

6 hours ago, tomspanks said:

Rooster owed $1100 to Terrence Howard.  Not sure about the other debts.

According to an inflation calculator, this would mean he owes him about $20,000.

[tomspanks 9039]

1 hour ago, WatchOutForSnakes said:

Ahh, I think some of that story line went right past me. 

 

1 hour ago, grudlian. said:

According to an inflation calculator, this would mean he owes him about $20,000.

Sorry guys, I had only watched the first half of the movie at the time of my comment. In the second half, Rooster pays back the $1100, but Terrence Howard says the deal was for “25 large.”  I think that’s 25 grand?

  

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

10 hours ago, tomspanks said:

 

Sorry guys, I had only watched the first half of the movie at the time of my comment. In the second half, Rooster pays back the $1100, but Terrence Howard says the deal was for “25 large.”  I think that’s 25 grand?

  

The 25 grand was what Spats was asking to buy him out so he could retire. Why Terrence Howard thinks he is owed that money is unclear to me. 

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

13 minutes ago, WatchOutForSnakes said:

The 25 grand was what Spats was asking to buy him out so he could retire. Why Terrence Howard thinks he is owed that money is unclear to me. 

I think Terrence Howard was saying to pay him the 25 grand if Rooster wanted out of the business.  I think Rooster thought he was done when he paid back the $1100.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Can I get one of those Kevlar Bibles that stop bullets?  That lady could have made a lot of money if she just sold those.

[grudlian. 4725]

46 minutes ago, WatchOutForSnakes said:

The 25 grand was what Spats was asking to buy him out so he could retire. Why Terrence Howard thinks he is owed that money is unclear to me. 

Terrence Howard is known to not be great with numbers or math.

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

1 hour ago, Cinco DeNio said:

I think Terrence Howard was saying to pay him the 25 grand if Rooster wanted out of the business.  I think Rooster thought he was done when he paid back the $1100.

Did Rooster want out of the business? I suppose he was wanting to spend more time with his wife and kids, but I didn't get the sense that there was something else he was planning on doing after leaving the speakeasy? Again, maybe I just missed this whole part of the plot? 

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

1 minute ago, WatchOutForSnakes said:

Did Rooster want out of the business? I suppose he was wanting to spend more time with his wife and kids, but I didn't get the sense that there was something else he was planning on doing after leaving the speakeasy? Again, maybe I just missed this whole part of the plot? 

That's a good question.  I was wondering how he afforded the Cadillac at the end of the movie.  I just figured all the stress of dealing with the smuggling and dealing with Terrence Howard might have driven him out.  Maybe not once things calmed down.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

Didn't it end with Rooster running his own giant peach champagne farm?

[tomspanks 9039]

34 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

Didn't it end with Rooster running his own giant peach champagne farm?

This.  He came up with Rooster brand hooch.

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

1 hour ago, tomspanks said:

This.  He came up with Rooster brand hooch.

But he put away the flask at the end. I'm so confused! 

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

He put away a flask for to make something more fancy and legit, I think