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Moriarty Gets A Lungful Of HAIRSPRAY!
Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.
I love the original John Waters version of HAIRSPRAY.
I love it because it shouldn’t exist. Before that film, Waters was as fringe as fringe could be, and his films managed to be both funny and repulsive, sometimes in the same scene. I thought of him as one of those guys who was perfectly happy working outside the mainstream, resolutely vile. And I expected he would continue to make movies that were nearly impossible to release for as long as he worked.
That’s why it seemed like such a shock when HAIRSPRAY was released. Not only was it rated PG, but it was positively sunshiney. Sure, there was Divine playing a central role in the film, and sure, it was set in Baltimore, but it just didn’t seem like it was possible that the same guy who talked his cast into the various perversions of PINK FLAMINGOS could make something as sweet and even uplifting as the story of Tracy Turnblad and her quest to integrate THE CORNY COLLINS SHOW while proving herself to be the best dancer in town.
It didn’t surprise me that they turned the film into a Broadway musical. The film is, after all, all about dancing already, and there’s a bright plastic colorful quality to the movie that seems perfect for musical theater. I have to admit, though, I wasn’t interested in seeing the new version. I can understand why they did it, but I love the original so much that I didn’t want to sit through someone else’s riff on it.
Then they announced the inevitable film version, and as soon as they said Adam Shankman was directing, I pretty much counted the film out entirely. I think I’ve been very clear about my feelings for his work so far. BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE is a loathsome, stupid, ugly-spirited piece of shit, and every dollar it made at the box-office is one more reason the terrorists hate us. He’s that rare combination of visual ineptitude and dramatic inertia. THE WEDDING PLANNER. A WALK TO REMEMBER. THE PACIFIER. CHEAPER BY THE freakin’ DOZEN 2. That’s his filmography so far. He’s got godawful taste, and so far, there hasn’t been a single moment in anything he’s directed that I’ve enjoyed on any level.
In fact, the only good thing I can say about him as a filmmaker is that he’s not Shawn Levy.
And Leslie Dixon adapting the script didn’t inspire much more confidence in me. OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNE. OVERBOARD. LOOK WHO’S TALKING NOW. PAY IT FORWARD. The FREAKY FRIDAY remake. She’s not a particularly bad writer, but I don’t really think of her as someone who really delivers, either. In general, the creative team put me off, and the first few images I saw of John Travolta in the fat suit just seemed bizarre. I wasn’t particularly looking forward to the film as a result. I wasn’t determined to hate it... I guess I was just indifferent.
But HAIRSPRAY has a few tricks up its sleeve that I wasn’t expecting, and as a result, I’m surprised to be recommending it. The first and most important thing the film has going for it is Marc Shaiman. Tracy Turnblad and her mother Edna could have only come out of the imagination of John Waters, more of his gutter Sirk goddesses, but Marc Shaiman and his co-songwriter Scott Wittman give them (and the rest of the cast) voice with hilarious precision. This is a big, no-apologies song score musical, and Shaiman loves this stuff. He eats and breathes musical comedy. Shaiman’s the reason the music in the SOUTH PARK movie is so impeccably funny, at least as responsible as Trey Parker. Here, Shaiman’s composed at least six numbers that kill, and there are a few other gems in there that really depend on how they’re performed. That’s an impressive percentage of showstoppers for any one show, and I think Shaiman manages it because he’s so steeped in the musical/comedy tradition. His ‘60s pop sounds more like real ‘60s pop than the songs in DREAMGIRLS did. That show was about Motown, but it didn’t really sound like Motown. It sounded like Broadway. Here, Shaiman writes in fluent pop, so he manages to really make it feel authentic. The songs manage to satirize Broadway and pop conventions while also being very good examples of both, no easy feat. The opening number, “Good Morning Baltimore” is a perfect example. It’s a slightly, lovingly skewed take on the sort of numbers that Disney loved so much during the ‘90s, like Belle’s song at the start of BEAUTY & THE BEAST. It works as an introduction to Tracy (Nikki Blonsky) and her impossible optimism. But it also lampoons this kind of sunny opening number in a way that tells the audience “Don’t take this completely seriously. We don’t.”
This is something inherently artificial about having people sing and dance an entire movie, and I think when I hear someone say they don’t like the genre, it’s just a rejection of that particular flavor of artifice. Musicals aren’t any less real than, say, a superhero movie or ALIENS or any less stylized than SUSPIRIA or HARD BOILED. And this film at least makes sense as a musical since so much of the movie hinges on the idea that the characters are singing and dancing on TV. It makes it much easier to swallow, I’d suspect, for many audiences, audiences that might not otherwise enjoy this sort of thing. This is like LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS or even GREASE in terms of cross-over potential. It’s a film that encourages you to join the party, that practically dares you to try and sit still.
The film is also helped enormously (no pun intended) by the casting of Nikki Blonsky. You have got to buy believe that Tracy is the equal of any other dancer her age in Baltimore, and you have to believe that Link (Zac Efron) could fall in love with her, and you have to believe that relentlessly sunny disposition. Waters struck gold in his original movie when he found Ricki Lake, and by all accounts, Marissa Jaret Winokur ripped it up on Broadway. Blonsky had some big shoes (again, no pun intended, I swear to God) to fill, and she fits the role perfectly. She’s a little ball of energy with a gigantic Broadway voice, and she seems to be having so much fun that you just sort of join in. She’s impossible to resist. I’ve never seen HIGH SCHOOL MUSICAL, but I know that’s where Zac Efron made his first impression on audiences. He’s well-cast as Link here, and he gives good Elvis when he’s called upon to do so. Amanda Bynes isn’t much of a singer, but she’s a cute Penny Pingleton, and she does decent work overall. She’s sort of blown off the screen by Elijah Kelley, though, who plays Seaweed, the black kid who she falls in love with. If they announced a musical tomorrow that starred Elijah Kelley, I’d put it on my list of “films I can’t wait to see,” because this kid is amazing. I don’t know anything about him beyond what I saw here, but he’s got amazing charisma. He’s easily the best dancer in the young cast, and his big song, “Run And Tell That,” is one of the highlights of the movie. Another guy who does fantastic work here is James Marsden, who makes Corny Collins into more fun than he has any right being. Marsden doesn’t play it smarmy, which would be the easy choice, and he continues to strike me as profoundly underrated.
The adult cast is a little more of a mixed bag. Michelle Pfeiffer’s got a tough job playing Velma Von Tussle. She’s a good villain, and she seems game for anything, but she is hindered by the worst song in the movie (“Miss Baltimore Crabs”), and it almost seems like she did something to piss off cinematographer Bojan Bazelli. I spent an afternoon sitting beside her last year on the STARDUST set, and she’s still a beautiful woman close-up. I’m not sure you’d know it based on how she looks here. I know that ever since “Weapon Of Choice,” it’s been cool to watch Christopher Walken dance, and I’m a fan of him when he’s somewhat self-aware of himself as a joke. But I didn’t really buy him as Wilbur Turnblad, Tracy’s dad. He’s got a few numbers, and neither of them worked for me. That’s a shame, since one of them was reportedly a major part of the Broadway production’s success, the duet he does with Edna called “You’re Timeless To Me.” It sort of stops the film cold, I thought, and I think the main problem is that there’s no chemistry between Walken and Travolta.
Which is not to say that I dislike Travolta’s work. Because I don’t. I think Travolta is oddly compelling in the movie. The makeup is strange, the accent is all over the place, but he’s always been magic when he dances, and somehow, his oddball choices add up to an affecting portrait of a woman struggling to grown comfortable in her own skin. Travolta doesn’t have much chemistry with Walken, but he clicks with Blonsky in a big way, and their biggest number, “Welcome To the ‘60s,” is grand fun. Same thing with “Can’t Stop The Beat,” the song that closes the film.
Other actors like Queen Latifah, Brittany Snow, Allison Janney, Jerry Stiller, and Paul Dooley all do what they were hired to do, but there’s only so many great moments in a film like this. One of the best, the song “Without Love,” belongs to the kids, and there’s a real sweet silliness to it. Overall, this is not a consequential film. The anti-segregation message certainly has its heart in the right place, but it’s hardly breaking new ground. The film is admirably color-blind, but that’s not the point. Really, it’s just an excuse for some great music, some great dancing, and this great party atmosphere for a few hours.
I still don’t think Shankman knows what to do with a camera, and considering his background as a choreographer, I expected him to be better at shooting the dance sequences. Still, he doesn’t get in the movie’s way, and it ultimately doesn’t matter that he’s sort of inept. The material overcomes that. I’ll always prefer the Waters original, but I’m pleased to see that this is a respectful riff, that rare remake that honors rather than undermines.
I’ve been sort of scarce this week here at Ain’t It Cool because I’ve been moving into my new house. Moving’s bad enough, but when you’re buying for the first time, there are a million things that come up that you don’t expect, expenses and logistics and giants pains in the ass. I managed to steal away for a few cool things, though, and I’ll have more on that in the days ahead.
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
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yes!
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...well, would have been 2nd this week:-)
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...movie, as I am a hardcore Waters fans and looking at the images of Travolta gives my the overwealming urge to punch him in the face. I'm not really a fan of musicals - most showtunes make bile creep up my throat. I had the misfortune to hear one of the tracks from this broadcast over the radio whilst I was having Sunday lunch a couple of weeks ago and it nearly made me bring up everything I had just eaten.
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... you know that Waters is actually in this film, as is Ricki Lake? Liking, or even loving, the original does not mean you have to hate this one sight unseen.
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WAS IT???
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doing well. Wedding, houses . . . good for you guys, considering not ten years ago (or a bit more) this site was just a newsboard in reality. Kudos, peeps. And BTW: How's the little Jedi treating you these days Mori? He start talking yet?
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And not just because Mori will shout at me if I dont ;)
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Wow - seems like just a few months ago you were moving in to your last place and showing us your dvd storage problems (which many of us sympathised with). Hope the new place has plenty of room for the shiny discs?
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ever.
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no less realistic than a superhero movie?! so, when has a musical ever explained why everyone knows the lyrics and the dance moves, and where the frickin music is coming from?! at least in a superhero movie they explain the fantastic nature of the characters as part of the plot. superman can fly because he's an alien (plot device).... not just because its a movie.
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I will never ever watch this film.
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You guys sounds just like all the gay guys I know. They are all refusing to ever see this too. I don't blame you, but the thing is, this movie (and musicals in general) are designed for and aimed at the same people who make up the majority of the weekday broadway audience: Housewives. That's why Travolta, the housewife's wet-dream is playing one, and it will work. And why he and this film are on Oprah every 15 minutes.
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It’s funny how people how don’t like sci-fi movies just don’t like them, but people who don’t like musicals are pretty passionate about why NOBODY should like them. For the record, I like both.As for Obscura’s take, it’s clear to EVERYONE that singing and dancing are unrealistic conventions of musical. Nobody's saying no. The point is that most movies require a suspension of disbelief, particularly genre movies. People (and I assume aliens) can’t fly. Bruce Willis can't surf the wing of a low flying jet. Zombies aren't going to be ravaging a city any time soon. Your comment about Superman’s powers being part of the plot makes it sound like you don’t care that they can sing an dance in unison, but rather that the writer didn’t throw in some silly line like ‘hey, let’s all do that dance number we were practicing earlier’.That, however, just isn’t true. You don’t like musicals. Fine. But it’s LAME AS HELL to cite ‘Superman’ as more realistic than anything.There is one truth that we can all cling to, Obscura. I will grant you that if zombie aliens who can fly since they're from another plant (which is fully explained) attacked a city, they PROBABLY wouldn't be able to pull off a dance number... I mean, how would they all know the lyrics and dance moves?!?!?!?
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Will not be any easier. It's actually more complicated, in most cases. Trust me. And additional expenses will come up. And if you spend time adding and finessing this house, when you move to your next house you realize that you have to do it all over again . . .
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i'll say High School Musical. because it is better.
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"or"
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Sorry, but Hairspray is to High School Musical what Grease is to Grease 2.
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No I don't, I think they're BAD!
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Jul 20, 2007 12:11:44 PM CDT
Count me amongst the other High School Musical fans her
by lando griffin
And its completely possible that even if I didn't have kids I would like it. I realize I am relinquishing all man card privileges by admitting all this but so what. Its a cute little movie with catchy songs. To even further up the estrogen amount in here our family has the soundtrack, dvd and went to the concert. Feel free to mock me, I would if I were you.
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fuuuuuck.
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I'm not the biggest fan of musicals, but I have some I love, some I loathe, which usually has to do with poor music that basically just people talking with notes (look up the Legally Blonde musical on youTube, you'll see what I mean). But the issue of realism comes in when you're dealing with Musical Dramas rather than Comedies. Its fine for someone to break into song about how great life is and bouncing around stage and the lack of realism is fine. But to sing about Aids, murder, the Titanic etc... really undercuts the value of any possible message. Sure Sci-Fi movies aren't real, but they deal with real human emotions, and are often an allegory for true issues. But that is the difference between Ghost Rider and Star Wars. Neither are real, but one has subtext. Now imagine say... Saving Private Ryan and instead of them listening to Edith Piaf waiting for the Germans, Adam Goldberg and Tom Hanks broke into the song "Waiting for Gerry". I'm not saying Musical Drama's can't be done well, (Opera's are another genre btw) Moulin Rouge worked well by removing itself so far from reality that we could just deal with what we saw, rather than nitpick the fact that they are breaking into Nirvana songs in 19th century France, but that is the issue I think people have with Musicals. Sorry, that one got away from me.
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having John Travolta, the self-hating closeted homosexual scientologist, star in a remake of a movie by and starring gay icons, is akin to letting Mel Gibson remake Fiddler on the Roof...
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...for Amanda Bynes. That is all.
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make sure to cover your netherparts with the popcorn bucket when they appear on-screen.
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I really have a fondness for the original, but since the initial pictures of Travolta in drag, I have had no interest in seeing this rehash. Don't let me down, Mori!!!
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I just want to stick up for "serious" musical dramas, and say that they're just as capable of dealing with real human drama as any other genre. When a character sings a song, they can say things that would be completely unnatural and unrealistic in standard dialogue, and thus reveal inner turmoil that would otherwise go unknown to the audience, as well as focus in on certain character interplay and situations to set a particular tone for a piece. In one particularly well-known musical, "Les Miserables," no writer in their right mind would have Eponine openly discuss her complicated emotions regarding the young lovers Marius and Cosette; she's a guarded person by nature, and it would undermine her character entirely for her to speak frankly about her feelings. However, within the context of a musical it's entirely acceptable for a character to sing a song about how they're feeling to nobody in particular. Granted, the same effect can be achieved through spoken asides and soliloquies, or a narrator, or whatever, but revealing internal monologues through song is a perfectly valid artistic choice, and if it's well done a subtle and moving story can be told.
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I've been jonesing for a little bit of your writing, and this was an interesting thing to hear your take on. I grew up in the theater, and have an intersesting love/hate relationship with musicals. For my money, the biggest problem with them is that they rarely take advantage of the camera the way others films do, and Moulin Rouge! and the Lion King were the biggest exceptions. Making a cinematic musical is something few filmmakers can do.
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please fail in Hollywood so we can get some Playboy pictorials or straight to dvd erotic thrillers
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YUCK
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Obscura makes a great point. A bigger point is that the kvetching over whether a musical is realistic or not is a moot issue. Telling a story in song and dance is a larger than life way to convey emotions. To bitch about it now (as if it were a new concept) is silly. The musical was the first thing they made once movies had sound. Get over it, folks. The person who doesn't get it is either brain dead or has been living in a cave since birth. Either you enjoy it or you don't. If the latter, there are plenty of options in the other multiplex auditoriums.
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Yeah, I'm a big time faggot who loves musicals but I also love horror and science fiction films, so enough with the gay shit on here about musicals. All you guys on here ranting about how much you hate musicals in an attempt to prove your manhood also probably beat off every night watching Gil Gerard on your "Buck Rogers" dvds.
All I have to say is that any self-respecting faggot WILL NOT see this film because of the travesty of John Travolta as Edna Turnblad. Divine or Harvey Fierstein are 100x the man that the big old closet queen Travolta could ever hope to be. God, either of them could completely beat the shit out of him. Now THAT I would pay to see. -
Something like Evil Dead 2 or Cabin Fever, yeh I can dig it. But if someone spontaneously bursts out and claims to be conservative?Republican in real life I'd expect;
a) Immediate violence enacted upon said person by passerby
b) Several prescriptions for anti-psychotics be shoved up their ass (because they secretly like it)
Only hot guys with amazing schlongs are exempt from this.
Oh, and just because you hate Republicans doesn't mean you action films. Just thought I'd point that out to all you supposedly conservative pussies out there.
P.S. Bush gets it in the ass Saturday! -
dance since DEER HUNTER, for fuck's sake. And how exactly does Evil Dead2 deserve to be "eviscerated?"
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You post doesn't make any fucking sense, even if I agree with you in spirit. Modern Republicans are artless and humorless.
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However that's the wrong show to take into account as far as realism goes because it's essentially an opera. I do think any film snob who can't handle the realism or lack thereof of people breaking into song needs to get over it and just enjoy themselves.
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(spoilerish)I thought it was there especially in that dance number which was of course my favorite scene. Except I kept wanting the clothesline to go away. That was bugging me. And there were a lot of weird angles. It seemed like they were shooting upwards at people from the left. Maybe you're supposed to do that, I don't know, but it reminded me of watching televised figure skating when someone does a triple axle and all you see is their hair. John Travolta was great though. I don't know what that accent or speech impediment was but he was really cute. And then towards the end when he was in the red dress and everyone started to back up I thought "Uh-oh, here it comes..." and did it ever! Loved that. In heels and a fat suit? Too awesome. The whole cast was great. I did think there was too much Latifah however.
Of course it's not as good as the original movie, but is anything? I think it's very good for a straight up musical. -
It comes from their souls. So obvious.
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As I don't think either Mori or Harry (understandable, as he was busy with his wedding) got to review Die Hard 4, can you offer Mori, any comment/s in this talkback on what you thought of DH4, in terms of it being crap, a big disappointment, or pretty
average overall.
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Walter B. came all over you after you jacked him off so much apologizing for Die Without Balls. Wait, this is Mori's forum. Mori - didn't read your review and I seriously doubt I'll see hairspray but thank Jeebus you write for this site because I agree with you 90% of the time and you write well. Capone and Mori carry this site. I don't have anything else to add. Except that Transformers was worlds better in terms of shitty movies than Die Like A PG-13 Rated Pussy AND YES THE PG-13 RATING SUCKED AND JUST ADDED INSULT TO THE INJURY OF THE DIE HARD SERIES THAT IS LIVE FREE OR DIE HARD! I apologize fellow talkbackers, just got back from seeing that disappointment.
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I think he's actually pretty good, didn't he used to be a dancer before acting? Also I will never see this movie. Ever.
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i wasnt stating i hate musical, i was stating that saying they are equal to something like a superhero movie in terms of realism is inaccurate. they both involve suspension of disbelief, but the point i was trying to make, is that one is internal to the plot, the other is external. infact, rather than suspension of disbelief, instead a musical requires acceptance of medium. Musicals are not a genre, they are a medium. you could make a musical about anything, and regardless of conent, it would require acceptance of the fact that the story will be told using music. this is VERY different from just believing a man (or alien) can fly. Yes what i said may have sounded like another 'i hate musicals' post, but it wasnt. (why would i read a review for a musical if i decided i didnt like musicals before i read it?) i was simply commententing on the diffrence in plot specific realism and medium defining elements being mistaken for a worthy comparison.
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I'd pay anything to smell the funk out of the fat girl's humanoid-like panties after all those hours and hours of dancing takes.
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...strange, but true fact.
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...as I believe that any genre can be made to work with the right amount of care and attention, but this sucked, and seriously huge amounts at that. Still, hopefully John Waters got a nice big check out of it all, to help fund his next filmic opus.
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I don't shock easy but I was pretty shocked by the trailer with the outright racist remark by Queen Latif-uh "if there were anymore white people in here, we'd have a suburb" (or something like that). The whole race joke for a easy laugh was played out with rosie o'donnells chinese crack a few back. However, I'm not expecting any apologies from Queen or the producers anytime soon. Maybe now it'll be cool to start cracking overweight, black lesbian jokes.
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I agree that the other movies listed pretty much suck though.
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I haven't been that repulsed by make-up since WHITE CHICKS.
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The reviews all basically say the same thing. Thought "meh" when we went in, came out saying "wow!" when we left.
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I'm having trouble separating the homophobia from stupidity...can anyone help?
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Musicals are alive and well. If you don't believe me go right now to your local theater and check out Once. Hell, go see it even if you do believe me. Just go see it! It's the best musical I've seen since Moulin Rouge.
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...then how the hell do you know if they're any good?
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if it were not for the fact that I am married.
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Declining to come out of the closet, Cruise and Travolta shack-up with hot babes as a defense (this strategy has been negotiated by their Scientology drones). Which is worse? Homophobia, hypocrisy or denial of your lifestyle? Cruise almost comically leaks his own desperation (everytime a tabloid challenges his heterosexuality, the idiot seeks solace with a bombshell). His embarrassing performance on OPRAH was the last straw for SOUTH PARK.
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does anyone else want to bang that young fat chick, Nikki Blonsky? I got a thing for big girls!
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It'll probably make more money cuase it's got a good amount of white people in it. A White musical instead of a black one.
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...as there are in Dreamgirls, sir.
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In response to, oh I don't know, ALL of the previous geek rants about musicals and their alleged affront to geek sensibilities...
Once. More. With. Feeling.
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maybe it'll give some haters a second thing to think about...
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AMIRITE?
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This looks horrible! The trailers really bother me for some reason and I like musicals! I agree with most that people who out right come out and bash musicals are probably in the closet like Cruise. Oh well you want a good musical watch Grease again that movie never gets old, hell even Phantom of the Opera was good.
PS: DH4 owns Transformers it's a fact look it up. -
Seriously. Oh, and I've already won a bet made about a year ago (don't know with which talkbacker) who said that the movie wouldn't even make it to $30 million. Time to step forward, boy-o.
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...of what I consider a vastly superior play. What gives?
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I agree with whoever said that Travolta's voice as Turnblad was awful, but I still loved the movie. I was checking out the Hair Spray trivia, and some of it is pretty funny if anyone is interested.....
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