Movie Review: The Greatest Showman

The Greatest Showman *** / *****

Directed by: Michael Gracey.

Written by: Jenny Bicks and Bill Condon.

Starring: Hugh Jackman (P.T. Barnum), Michelle Williams (Charity Barnum), Zac Efron (Phillip Carlyle), Zendaya (Anne Wheeler), Rebecca Ferguson (Jenny Lind), Austyn Johnson (Caroline Barnum), Cameron Seely (Helen Barnum), Keala Settle (Lettie Lutz), Sam Humphrey (Tom Thumb), Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (W.D. Wheeler), Eric Anderson (Mr. O'Malley), Ellis Rubin (Young Barnum), Skylar Dunn (Young Charity). 

 

You already know if you’ll like The Greatest Showman if you’ve seen a preview for the film. If the preview makes you roll your eyes or gag, stay far, far away from the film. This is both the cheesiest and most earnest musical in recent memory – a film that doesn’t even try to be cool of hip or edgy, but just goes straight for easy sentiment. If you hate that, you will hate – and I mean HATE – this film. If, on the other hand, there is a part of you that can admire a film that so joyously embrace its cheesiness – that I can literally have a scene in which Hugh Jackman leaves London in a full sprint to try and win back his wife, and finds you – dress billowing – as she looks out at the sea, that boy, is this movie for you.

 

The Greatest Showman is based on the story of P.T. Barnum – but bares almost no resemblance to the actual man – who was pretty much a horrible person, as opposed to Hugh Jackman’s smiling, happy, family man in this film. Here, Barnum is a dreamer, who scams his way into a bank loan to buy a museum of curiosities in New York, and then when that’s in trouble, decides to stock it with the “freaks” – little people, big people, bearded ladies, black trapeze artists, and all sorts of other people that polite society deem unacceptable. Barnum has never heard of such a word. Instead of exploiting them (as what really happened) – here the whole thing becomes a celebration of life and diversity – with Barnum doing it all for his beloved wife and daughters. When he becomes a financial success, but still has high society look down on him, he enlists rich, pretty boy Phillip Carlyle (Zac Efron) to make him respectable. That doesn’t really work – but perhaps putting on a tour with Europe’s most celebrated singer, Jenny Lind (Rebecca Ferguson), will. But of course, doesn’t P.T. Barnum know that all he really needs to be is true to himself?

 

The movie is cheesy to be sure – the original songs are cheesy, the costumes are cheesy, the sets are cheesy, the dancing, you guessed it, cheesy. The romance between Zac Efron and Zendaya shouldn’t work at all, given how thinly written it is, but boy, do those two sell it. And it’s still not as cheesy as everything having to do with Michelle Williams, who seems to have been cast because she can wear the hell out of old fashioned dressed (to be fair, that’s true).

 

And through it all, your master of ceremonies is Hugh Jackman, clearly having the time of his life. Sure, he’s done a movie musical before – but as good as he was in Les Miserables, he kind of had to play a sad sack character. Here, he gets to go for broke in each and every moment of the film, each and every song and dance number. He is perhaps the only one who could make this movie work – and he does.

 

I know a lot of people will hate this film – as a teenager, I would have been one of them. I don’t think it’s a particularly good film know. But it’s earnest and cheesy and fun, and it works while it plays. It doesn’t linger in your mind long after (except for a couple of ear worm songs) – but it does what it sets out to do, and isn’t ashamed of it – nor should it be.

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Movie Review: Patti Cake$

Patti Cake$ *** / *****

Directed by: Geremy Jasper.

Written by: Geremy Jasper.

Starring: Danielle Macdonald (Patti), Bridget Everett (Barb), Siddharth Dhananjay (Jheri), Mamoudou Athie (Basterd), Cathy Moriarty (Nana), McCaul Lombardi (Danny), Patrick Brana (Slaz), MC Lyte (DJ French Tips), Sahr Ngaujah (O-Z).

 

No one can really claim that Patti Cake$ is in anyway an original movie. It is basically Eight Mile with a heavyset white women in the lead – and remember, Eight Mile was essentially Purple Rain, with Eminem stepping in for Prince. And Purple Rain wasn’t that original either. You know the beats this story is going to hit from the moment it begins – and it hits them all – and hard. Yet, despite my better judgement, the movie mainly won me over. The performances are winning and touching, and the music is genuinely catchy. No, the film didn’t become the audience favorite so many thought it was going to be out of Sundance – but you’d have to be pretty cynical to hate it.

 

The film takes place in the downtrodden wasteland of suburban New Jersey. It’s there where Patti (Danielle Macdonald) lives with her mother, Barb (Bridget Everett) and chain smoking Nana (Cathy Moriaty). The family is poor – Barb is a hair dresser, not making very much, Patti – who’s now 23 bartends, at a low rent dive. Patti can never be sure if Barb has a new man in her life or not – Barb drinks a lot, and battles depression – and when she wants to, her rage can be turned on Patti.

 

Patti alongside her friend Jheri (Siddharth Dhananjay) – who works in a pharmacy – have what is likely an unrealistic dream of becoming rappers. It’s a dream Barb does not encourage – she had dreams of her own music career, and they didn’t go far. Patti and Jheri have to deal with the assholes who don’t think they’ll be able to do it, not because of their talent (they don’t see them perform) – but because of who they are, an overweight white girl and her Indian friend. It doesn’t help that Patti has stage fright, and backs down quickly when they do get their chance. Eventually these two misfits will meet a third one – Basterd (Mamodou Athie) – who lives in a shack by the cemetery, and is some sort of metal/rap musical genius.

 

You know where this is headed, right? If you don’t, congratulations on watching your first movie ever. For the first half hour or so of the movie, I resisted, because everything seemed to be running on a track – everything was too by-the-numbers, and easy. But gradually, the movie does wear you down. A lot of that has to do with Macdonald, who brings genuine emotion to her role as Patti – you don’t often see women like her in the lead roles of movies, and she knows it. She lacks confidence, but is a genuine hard working and nice person – and when we do hear her rap, she is legitimately great as well. The rest of the cast is a mixed bag – I don’t know that Jheri ever really becomes a complete character, and Basterd certainly doesn’t. Bridget Everett, the bold, brash stand-up comedian really does bring it as Patti’s mom as well – she surprised me, in a good way.

 

The film is directorial debut of Geremy Jasper – who also wrote the music for the film. As a first effort, it’s pretty good – he certainly isn’t swinging for the fences, but then that’s a mistake too many inexperienced directors make – trying to do too much, and end up doing it all poorly. Patti Cake$ lacks ambition – but it does what it sets out to do.

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Movie Review: Band Aid

Band Aid *** / *****

Directed by: Zoe Lister-Jones.

Written by: Zoe Lister-Jones.

Starring: Zoe Lister-Jones (Anna), Adam Pally (Ben), Fred Armisen (Dave), Susie Essman (Shirley), Retta (Carol), Hannah Simone (Grace), Ravi Patel (Bobby), Brooklyn Decker (Candice), Jamie Chung (Cassandra Diabla), Erinn Hayes (Crystal Vichycoisse).

 

Anyone who is married – or has been – knows that it is not easy. The rewards of a long marriage are plentiful, but the downfalls are there as well, and if you don’t reckon with them, and work on them, they can destroy the marriage. The marriage at the heart of Zoe Lister-Jones’ Band Aid is one of those marriages who, in real life, would probably end – not necessarily in fireworks, but just kind of fizzle out. The married life really isn’t for either of these people, but they’ve embraced it anyway – and considering that nothing else in their life is working out, they have to wonder what it says about them if this fails as well. This is obviously a setup for a musical comedy.

 

Band Aid was written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones, who also stars as one half of the couple, Anna, and wrote all the songs as well. Her husband, Ben, is played by Adam Pally – and they play this L.A. couple whose life is basically a bunch of failed dreams – she once had a book deal, but that fell through, and now she’s an Uber driver – he was an artist, now making a living doing corporate logos – although sometimes he just blows that off to smoke weed and play video games. Everyone else they know seem to have their life in order – marriage, career, kids – and they have nothing. A miscarriage a year ago has left them sort of numb – especially since they don’t talk about it. They don’t talk about anything. Then, by chance, they pick up some instruments and start writing songs together – songs in which they say all the things they cannot say in real life. They drag in their weird neighbor Dave (Fred Armisen) to play the drums – although he often just sits there and listens to them yell at each other. But somehow, through the music, this couple comes together – at least for the time being.

 

All of this probably sounds more than a little insufferable, right? I know I had avoided the film – even if I fully support Lister-Jones’ idea to hire an all-female crew on the movie, because the whole thing sounded hopelessly twee – yet another film about hapless, grown-up hipsters who still act like teenagers. To be fair, some of that is true here – but not all of it. The film is peppered with enough humor, and enough genuine insights into marriage and relationships – and pivotally, the songs are good enough – that the whole thing doesn’t collapse under its own navel gazing weight. In fact, the film is more genuinely moving and insightful than most Sundance comedy/dramas I see in a given year.

 

Yes, to a certain extent, the whole thing is a pile of clichés – and while I like him just fine here, I’ve never warmed to Adam Pally as much as many seem to (he always strikes me as someone I wouldn’t want to spend any time in real life with – and if I did, I’d want to punch in the face). But there is genuine chemistry here, and the film is honest enough to admit that all this may just be temporary – that in a way, the music is yet another way for this couple not to deal with their shit. That sets it apart – enough – for it to be a decent movie. I look forward to what Lister-Jones does next.

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