Musical Mondays Week 58 The Last Five Years

[grudlian. 4725]

Memento meets Blue Valentine! We watched:  The Last Five Years!

(Pretend I uploaded a poster because my phone is being stupid)

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

20 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

Memento meets Blue Valentine! We watched:  The Last Five Years!

(Pretend I uploaded a poster because my phone is being stupid)

Like this?

 

Thank you for opening the thread.  I forgot I would be unavailable.  I got a cast on my left foot this morning.

[grudlian. 4725]

2 minutes ago, Cinco DeNio said:

Like this?

 

Thank you for opening the thread.  I forgot I would be unavailable.  I got a cast on my left foot this morning.

The poster:  exactly

Your leg:  that sucks. What happened?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

1 minute ago, grudlian. said:

The poster:  exactly

Your leg:  that sucks. What happened?

I have had a diabetic ulcer (a big hole) in my foot since mid-July last year.  We have tried crutches, a surgical shoe, and a walking boot with padding to offload the pressure.  (The ulcer persists because pressure is still being put on the wound.)  Today I took the next step: a total contact cast to offload as much pressure as possible and allow the wound to heal.  I have to go back once a week so they can cut off the cast, evaluate the wound and put another cast on if needed.  I'm encouraged because this cast is specifically designed for my problem.  Also I can't use the crutches so now I can walk more normally and have both hands free.  I just walk a lot slower and lumber like Frankenstein (Frahnkenshteen)'s monster.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

I found out my local theater is putting this show on starting this Friday.

[grudlian. 4725]

28 minutes ago, Cinco DeNio said:

I found out my local theater is putting this show on starting this Friday.

From what I read on wikipedia, the show is a very different production. The other person generally isn't in the song.

That was my main beef with the movie. I didn't realize the time lines were in chronological order. I just thought they were from various points in the relationship alternating between happy and sad. Since Anna was present in all his scenes and he was present in all hers, I didn't really pick up they were his or hers instead of his and hers. Had I picked up on this stuff earlier, I might have liked it more. I think I would have appreciated it more on a second viewing.

Except the guy was awful and completely responsible for their entire relationship failing. Had they both been at fault or they both just fell out of love or been equals on some level, I'd have like that a lot more.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

2 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

From what I read on wikipedia, the show is a very different production. The other person generally isn't in the song.

That was my main beef with the movie. I didn't realize the time lines were in chronological order. I just thought they were from various points in the relationship alternating between happy and sad. Since Anna was present in all his scenes and he was present in all hers, I didn't really pick up they were his or hers instead of his and hers. Had I picked up on this stuff earlier, I might have liked it more. I think I would have appreciated it more on a second viewing.

Except the guy was awful and completely responsible for their entire relationship failing. Had they both been at fault or they both just fell out of love or been equals on some level, I'd have like that a lot more.

That's another reason I want to see the show, to see if he's truly awful there as well.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

CakeBug is an expert on the play, so I'll let him chime in on that side of this.

But yea, our rabbit viewing was full of 'what's wrong with this guy?' and at one point I called it Mansplaining: The Musical

The relationship absolutely was not equal, but they portrayed it as such, and that's kind of f-ed up.  

Also I mentioned this on Letterboxd but I found the direction of the film to be sooooooooo basic and uncreative, I couldn't get over it.  Just an utter lack of art, like that long shot of just two hands holding or lots of long close-ups.  There seemed to be no thought behind any of it.

[SaraK 1980]

This might be a bit of my love for Jeremy Jordan, but I don't think he was that awful. I think he got caught up in his success for sure, (and obviously shouldn't have cheated, I'm not excusing that) but thought of it as him not knowing if this will ever happen again, being really young and taking all opportunities to capitalize on it. This isn't to say I feel like Anna Kendrick (I cannot remember either of their names) is to blame or he didn't do anything wrong (again, shouldn't have cheated), but I think they were young dreamers when they met. Its fun and easy to be a couple when you're both dreaming but not easy when one person's dreams come true and the other's get further away.

In the beginning of his storyline, he mentions that he has a ten year plan to become a successful writer and then later says his first book gets bought with no re-writes. I can see how that would lead him into the ego trip that he get into, as well as how that fractures his relationship. It must be damn near impossible to sustain a relationship where one person is having people fawning over their 'talent' and the other is struggling to get any sort of recognition. 

I saw this a while ago, and have since watched La La Land for Musical Mondays, and its interesting how those stories parallel. I think that if they showed Anna and Jeremy years later, they'd have a similar dream sequence that Emma and Ryan have - what could have been if they'd been willing to work on their relationship rather than their dream careers. 

Also Cinco, I'm sorry about your foot, that sounds like a nightmare situation. 

 

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

2 hours ago, Cinco DeNio said:

Like this?

 

Thank you for opening the thread.  I forgot I would be unavailable.  I got a cast on my left foot this morning.

The cast on your leg is the best of the two casts you posted in this post! Heyo!

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

17 minutes ago, SaraK said:

Its fun and easy to be a couple when you're both dreaming but not easy when one person's dreams come true and the other's get further away.

Yea I think that's the story they wanted it to be, but his patronizing and 'I tried to rescue you' and all that stuff turned it into something else

[SaraK 1980]

13 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

Yea I think that's the story they wanted it to be, but his patronizing and 'I tried to rescue you' and all that stuff turned it into something else

I think I'm a bit immune to the patronizing because I grew up with family members that succeeded in everything the first time they did it while I didn't get whatever gene that was. A lot of conversations were just "did you try it this way?" as if I have never thought of the basic way to accomplish any task. I related to Anna in that way, and was frustrated for her and could understand her resentment towards his ego tripping parties. But also didn't really hold it against Jeremy because I know it comes from love and a desire to be helpful when there's no possible way to help. I have had many a fight end in tears that way with my mother and brothers. 

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

I should point out that I am a huge fan of the original musical, so I had really mixed feelings about this.  The stage version never places the two actors onstage at the same time, or if they are, they're never looking at each other, because of the time conceit.  This one puts them in the scene together at all times, which is understandable in many ways but also really undermines the concept.  The only time the two look at each other in the stage musical is in the middle of 'Next Ten Minutes', which becomes a hugely heartbreaking moment because you know what's to come.  There's no way to make this movie without the two in the scenes together, but I was so frustrated by the blurring of the lines that it just didn't work for me.  Also, I think JJ is a smug pile of crap in everything he's in (sorry Sara) so I hated him on sight.  Anna Kendrick is the only reason I actually watched this 2.5 times this week...

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

34 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

Yea I think that's the story they wanted it to be, but his patronizing and 'I tried to rescue you' and all that stuff turned it into something else

Please post here the fantastic name you gave this movie during the viewing.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

3 minutes ago, Cinco DeNio said:

Please post here the fantastic name you gave this movie during the viewing.

I mentioned it above!

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Did Anna have any friends that she could confide in?  It seems Jeremy was her whole world.  When he didn't help she had nowhere to go.  We never see her in any acting classes.  I would have thought she could at least make some connections to help her out.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

2 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

I mentioned it above!

Yes you did.  I missed that.  To me that sums it to a T.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

On the third viewing last night I could see why CakeBug likes it so much.  I'm excited to go see it this weekend.

[SaraK 1980]

27 minutes ago, Cakebug Tranch said:

 Also, I think JJ is a smug pile of crap in everything he's in (sorry Sara) so I hated him on sight.  Anna Kendrick is the only reason I actually watched this 2.5 times this week...

How dare you

 

[SaraK 1980]

8 minutes ago, Cinco DeNio said:

Did Anna have any friends that she could confide in?  It seems Jeremy was her whole world.  When he didn't help she had nowhere to go.  We never see her in any acting classes.  I would have thought she could at least make some connections to help her out.

Anna seems very isolated in this story as everyone involved with her acting is either judging her or someone she dislikes (the people in Ohio), as opposed to Jeremy who has a whole world outside of their relationship. I do find that odd. 

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

CakeBug and I scrolled the IMDB Trivia last night.

• The pianist Anna complains about is the show's creator Jason Robert Brown.  (She hands him a paper.)
• "The actress who plays the former stripper is Betsy Wolfe, who played the role of Cathy in the 2013 Off-Broadway revival of the stage musical."
• "The receptionist at random house is played by Jeremy Jordan's wife, Ashley Spencer."  No wonder he wanted to take her to the bone zone.
• "When Anna Kendrick's 'Cathy' is singing her good audition of 'When You Come Home to Me' she is standing on the set of 'Avenue Q' graciously offered to the production by New World Stages on West 50th St."
• "Sherie Rene Scott played Cathy in the original off-Broadway production of The Last Five Years. Here, she graciously smiles support to Cathy during her good audition."  (Sherie Rene Scott is on the stage soundtrack.)
• "From both sides of the story, when the relationship is new, the colors -- everything from lighting to wardrobe -- are bright and vivid, but as the relationship is ending they get darker. This helps the audience discern where any given moment belongs, in the two contrasting timelines."  I found this interesting.  I've never noticed the color changes.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Sorry to be emphatic but I really don't like the movie ending with Cathy going into the house to get the letter.  That zips her back from the beginning to present day.  It would have been better to leave their song as the end.

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

My personal (second hand) story about the background on this play is this. My wife worked at a theatre in downtown Toronto as an usher, and mentioned to her boss one day that she was going to see 'L5Y'. Her boss laughed and said that a few years prior, when Jason Robert Brown had just hit it big with 'Parade', he was in Toronto with the production and everyone was fawning over him as some kind of genius. As my wife's boss watched the entourage and piles of adoring hangers-on swarm around him at an opening night gala, a woman stood just off to the side, kind of making fun of the to-do. My wife's boss chatted to the woman for a while and has nothing but lovely things to say about her. It wasn't until later that she found out that she was JRB's wife, who was along for the ride after her tortured genius husband had finally struck gold with his first show.  They divorced not long later, mostly because JRB apparently 'outgrew' her as a famous composer (or, more likely, he couldn't 'Resist Temptation'...), and then his next show was all about profiting off the death of their relationship.  It is very interesting that Jamie is such a heel and Cathy is such a cypher in this piece, you're right - I got no real sense that she wanted him to rescue her, but she also doesn't have much else in her life. Her friend Carol-Ann who got pregnant in high school maybe? I guess she lost touch with her.

[Cakebug Tranch 6873]

Hey why isn't Jamie's dad wearing a yarmulke at their wedding in Central Park? I know it's clearly a civil ceremony but if the 'Shiksa Goddess' is such a big deal, then surely his father would be wearing the yarmulke at the wedding. Right?

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

3 minutes ago, Cakebug Tranch said:

My personal (second hand) story about the background on this play is this. My wife worked at a theatre in downtown Toronto as an usher, and mentioned to her boss one day that she was going to see 'L5Y'. Her boss laughed and said that a few years prior, when Jason Robert Brown had just hit it big with 'Parade', he was in Toronto with the production and everyone was fawning over him as some kind of genius. As my wife's boss watched the entourage and piles of adoring hangers-on swarm around him at an opening night gala, a woman stood just off to the side, kind of making fun of the to-do. My wife's boss chatted to the woman for a while and has nothing but lovely things to say about her. It wasn't until later that she found out that she was JRB's wife, who was along for the ride after her tortured genius husband had finally struck gold with his first show.  They divorced not long later, mostly because JRB apparently 'outgrew' her as a famous composer (or, more likely, he couldn't 'Resist Temptation'...), and then his next show was all about profiting off the death of their relationship.  It is very interesting that Jamie is such a heel and Cathy is such a cypher in this piece, you're right - I got no real sense that she wanted him to rescue her, but she also doesn't have much else in her life. Her friend Carol-Ann who got pregnant in high school maybe? I guess she lost touch with her.

It seems Cathy deliberately lost touch with everyone in her past, especially Carol-Ann.  In that sense she seems like Rose, only going back when absolutely necessary.

One other note Cakebug made last night was that the walk through Central Park is muddled.  Jamie sings his answers to the questions and Cathy asks them.  Later Cathy sings her questions again or in a different form.