Hail, Caesar!

    This last spring I was lucky enough to sit in for a Q&A with Joel Coen. The Coen Brothers are one of my favorite directors and I reference them often in this blog. So when asked about his next project and Joel described a movie called Hail, Caesar! about George Clooney being abducted by a group of extras, I was thrilled. I finally saw Hail, Ceasar! last weekend on a Valentine's date with my Mom. I was not thrilled.

    So let's get this clear. The movie is not awful. It's not Battleship or some other Hasbro garbage. But is not a good movie for them and is one of my least favorites by them. I like the visuals, the jokes, and the acting. But there were some key story elements that did not happen. For example, there's a plot line that involves a dastardly act George Clooney's character did on his first Hollywood film. The act was revealed at the end of the movie in an offscreen conversation and written out quickly. Additionally a lot of the characters don't have purpose or a desire, other than create work for Josh Brolin's character Eddie Mannix.

                                                            Mannix is the protagonist of this twisty, seemingly meaningless comedy-drama. That description in itself shows how scattered the characters are. Huge stars like Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, and Scarlett Johansson pop in and out of the story with very little to do and loose ends that get tied up by a simple walk and talk with Eddie Mannix in the last five minutes.

The only actor who is given any other meaningful screen time is Alden Ehrenreich who gives a marvelous performance as country good ole boy Hobie Doyle. Hobie is a stud with horses but is brought into a adapted play directed by Ralph Fiennes' Lawrence Lawrence. The scene provides the only true moment of comedy of the whole film with an endearing Hobie and the artist Lawrence. 

  

     Now at the Q&A I learned about Hail, Caesar! before while it was shooting. This could be me only hearing what I wanted to hear but I could have sworn that Joel Coen said that Hail, Caesar! was going to be a musical.

     It fits with the current cut of the movie. There are large musical interludes with Channing Tatum, Scarlett Johansson, and Alden Ehrenreich and music and old Hollywood is a big theme. Additionally the explanation of major off screen plot points through dialogue would make sense if these were originally supposed to be shown in a musical number. Channing Tatum's character is given a full length musical number and then has no dialogue until what seems to be the climactic scene. And this climactic scene has absolutely no context. 

     I think Hail, Caesar! was supposed to be in a musical and somewhere in the production that was cut. What was left was a hodge podge of actors, characters, and story lines tied together by Eddie Mannix and Roger Deakins.

High School Musical Brought Back the Musical Movie

I remember waiting anxiously for High School Musical to premiere on Disney Channel in 2006. It was not a very highly anticipated movie because it was "just another DCOM." However, this movie's fame blew up immensely as soon as it came out and paved the way for musical movies to come back into the scene.

After this movie was released, it became very popular for Broadway musicals to create movies, such as Hairspray or Mamma Mia!. Also, Disney Channel tried to follow up with musicals that were not nearly as popular but still in the limelight, like Camp Rock or Starstruck. High School Musical was a very large part of my childhood that I will never forget. I am obsessed with musical theatre and this just gave me a new genre to fangirl over. It became popular again for teenagers to listen to musical theatre and I finally wasn't THAT big of a loser anymore.

High School Musical was a phenomenon and  released two more movies after the first, with the third hitting the big screen. I will alwayys remember how sad I was at the end of the third movie, because it felt like a significant part of me was over. High School Musical made stars out of many people such as Zac Efron, Vanessa Hudgens, or Ashley Tisdale. It brought new talent to the screen and was a hit of its time. I still love High School Musical and appreciate all that it has done for the musical theatre movie world.

Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

I wanted to do something Halloweeny but I don't really like "scary" movies, so I ended up with this. Sorry I couldn't be more festive, haha.

Either you have seen this or you are staring at this post thinking "what the hell is this?". For those of you in the later group I will elaborate.

Back in 2008, there was the famous Writer's Guild of America Strike in Hollywood. The strike was because writers wanted to get better pay in comparison to what the studios were getting for their work. The strike lasted 14 weeks and almost nothing came out during that period. Except for Doctor Horrible.

Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog was written by Joss Whedon (Avengers, Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Zack Whedon (Fringe), spouses Jed Whedon and Maurissa Thancharoen (Dollhouse, Marvel's Agents of Shield). The family wanted to create something "small and inexpensive, yet professionally done, in a way that would circumvent the issues that were being protested during the strike." The project, funded by Joss Whedon, only cost about $200,000. It premiered online as a web miniseries in three acts. It was a big success and has made more than it's small budget back in DVD/Blu-ray and iTunes sales. It was also well received by critics and has won serveal awards including an Emmy, Hugo Award, People's Choice Award, and several Streamys. Time magazine slotted it at #15 of their top 50 Innovations of 2008.

The entire run time of all three acts together is only 42 minutes. The story follows Dr. Horrible, (Neil Patrick Harris) a super villain who desperate to join a club of other super villains called "The Evil League of Evil" so he can impresses Penny (Felica Day) whom he's in love with. His plans are thwarted when Penny becomes romantically involved with superhero Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), Horrible's arch nemeses.

As one might guess from the title, it's a musical! The short film features 14 songs. Here's one of my favorites:

The film is not only interesting because of the historical events in Hollywood at the time of it's release, but it is also extremely well done and just plan a lots of fun. I would highly recommend anyone who hasn't seen it should check it out!

Disney's Hercules

Hercules is by far my favorite Disney movie. I think that's the reason I became so interested in Greek and Roman mythology. I recently had to watch this movie again for my class. Although this movie is not even close to historically accurate according to the real myth, it still has quite the story line. I enjoyed how this version of a classic myth really takes into account what it takes to be a "true hero." They did a good job of incorporating the 12 labors of Hercules under a different base story. You get the stables and the lion snuck in there without you noticing. If you didn't know about the labors you might not notice them which I think rewards people who know the real story. It allows them to alter the story without upsetting too many people.

Of course the best part of this Disney animated film is the music! The songs are catchy and upbeat and straight to the point. They aren't just fluff pieces added in. They truly add to the story in my opinion. Plus the Muses are so sassy and fun!

Broadway, Here I Come

Season 2 of NBC's musical-drama SMASH premiered 2 weeks ago, to an average size audience.  The premiere was a 2 hour spectacle full of guest starts like Oscar winner Jennifer Hudson and Tony winner Harvey Fierstein.  The show was largely revamped from last season's disastrous mess of characters that no one liked, story lines that were too ridiculous for soap operas, and writing that was so over the top even greeting card companies would have made fun of it.   Show creator and writer is Theresa Rebeck a well known playwright.  Add executive producer Steven Spielberg, actresses Debra Messing and Angelica Houston and you would think the show could survive right?  Well last weeks episode was rated an all time low for the series with 3.3 million viewers and .9 million in the 18-49 age range.  But what makes this show so undesirable?

A musical TV show is obviously a very difficult task to accomplish, having rarely been successful.  For example, Viva Laughlin, the Hugh Jackman casino themed musical TV show which was canceled after 2 episodes.  Smash aims to take viewers into the world of Broadway while following a young singer who dreams of singing on the big stage, as well as the crew and producers who try and turn their dream musical into a reality.  But this is no Glee where a bunch of 30 year old professionals attempt to play 16 year olds in a mis-fit Glee club.  This show uses real broadway experienced actors, performers and names in their show to really portray the world of show biz, in NYC.  It's sexy, sophisticated and the original music is phenomenal.  It's main song "Let Me Be Your Star" was nominated for an Emmy and a Grammy.  The music is written by Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (of Tony winning musical Hairspray and Catch Me If You Can)

So what makes this show so unlikable by viewers?  My guess would have to be the characters.  I can't say there is a character whom I wouldn't care if they died or were written out of the show.  They already have written a few characters off of the show since season 1, but they still have a lot more work to do if they plan on maintaining viewership.  I think characters are what keeps the audience for a Tv show, you come back each week to check in on your favorite characters.  They should be relatable and dynamic characters the audience can follow and cares about.  New to season 2 is Jeremy Jordan an Ithaca College grad.  He graduated IC with a BFA in musical theatre.  I'm so proud to see an Ithaca alum on the TV screen, even if I do happen to hate his character.  I think Smash needs to get it's act together before NBC cancels yet another one of it's shows.

A Perfect Blend - Theatre and Film

As I mentioned in class on Wednesday, I am a big theatre dweeb.  So of course, when Les Miserables hit theaters this past December, I had to see it.  As much as I love theater and film, I have never been a fan of when the two are blended together.  For example, I'm not the biggest fan of RENT which hit Broadway in 1996 and movie theaters in 2005.  Why?  Well, I could go on for a while for a lot of different reasons.  But one of the biggest reasons, which I know many will disagree, is that casting Adam Pascal and Anthony Rapp was a mistake.  As we discussed in class, theatre acting and film acting are two very different things.  I think that Pascal and Rapp are phenomenal actors on stage and on film, but being thrown together with the rest of the broadway cast makes the film more "broadway" and not "film"- making the story seem fake and pieced together.

But back to where I was before, I think Les Mis was one of the BEST films I have seen that has been based on a musical.  What stood out to me was the audio.  There was no lip syncing which was impressive for the performer and the audio crew as well.  The sound was crystal clear.  I remember watching a scene where it was raining, and I felt like I could hear every single rain drop hit the ground perfectly.  Not to mention that since there was no lip syncing, it made the story feel that much more real.

Also, I need to talk about Anne Hathaway.  By far- one of the most compelling performances I have ever scene from an actress.  Her dramatic 25 pound weight loss to fit the role was only step one of her commitment to the role of Fantine.  Her emotional portrayal, particularly in "I Dreamed a Dream", was one of the most beautiful performances I have ever seen.  She nailed it.

Needless to say, I saw Les Mis twice, and wish I had time to see it again.