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Thu Tran recommended Ziegfeld Follies (1946) in Movies (curated)

 
Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
Ziegfeld Follies (1946)
1946 | Classics, Musical
6.0 (1 Ratings)
Movie Favorite

"It’s this old Hollywood musical variety show type of thing. Really epic Technicolor. There’s an Esther Williams thing in there where she’s just swimming and being beautiful. It’s a beauty-based film. All the money wasn’t popped into special effects, obviously. It was popped into building really grand sets, really great costumes, really, really good makeup. Like, whatever. I saw that in college. One of my friends showed it to me in his apartment. I was like, “What the f— is this?” And then I bought the DVD and [now] I toss it in once a month, at least in the background. I don’t really actually follow the movie straight through. I just kinda fast-forward to the parts that look cool."

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Gone With the Wind (1939)
Gone With the Wind (1939)
1939 | Drama, Romance, War

"I saw it years ago and I was in the movie — as far as I was concerned, I was the star of the movie [laughs]. I so identified with her — with Olivia de Havilland. And Vivien Leigh. Oh, I was in the movie! It was a time that I wish I had been born but I didn’t want to be so uncomfortable, know what I mean? But I just love that time in history. I love the costumes. I thought the cinematography was extraordinary. For that time it was such a magnificent piece. And Clark Gable – I didn’t learn until much later that he had rotten teeth [laughs]. But I adored him. I was with the woman who played the baby. She passed away this past year. She was at a party that Esther Williams gave about two years ago, maybe three years ago. And she called me over to her and told me she loved my work and she told me she was the baby in Gone with the Wind. She was the little baby when they were running away from the fire. She was in the horse and buggy with the nanny."

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In the Heights (2021)
In the Heights (2021)
2021 | Drama, Music, Musical
Music and lyrics are fantastic (1 more)
Choreography
A flabby run time (0 more)
Lin-Manuel Miranda's high octane musical hits the heights.
"In the Heights" follows the hopes and dreams of a group of ordinary but ambitious Latinx youngsters, living their lives as best they can in the poor neighbourhood of Washington Heights in New York. They all have their own 'El Sueñito' - a little dream - of what they want to achieve.

Positives:
- A "proper" musical, with a large percentage of high-octane song and dance numbers.

-As with "Hamilton", "In the Heights" features some truly clever rap-style lyrics - lyrics so clever that you gasp at the way in which they trip off the singer's tongue. At one point, Carla (Stephanie Beatriz) sings "My mom is Dominican-Cuban, My dad is from Chile and P. R., which means: I'm Chile-...Dominica-Rican! But I always say I'm from Queens!". Glorious stuff.

- The dancing is stupendous. The choreography team is led by Christopher Scott, and he joyfully brings back the large set piece dances that we used to see in movies of old. The Esther Williams style swimming routines even make a spectacular return in a glorious Lido sequence (although I could have personally done without the dislocating contortionist dancers here!).

- The four young people taking the leads are all extremely personable (as well as being very good looking). Anthony Ramos in particular shows real star quality, those mesmeric eyes holding your attention for every moment he's on screen. You get the feeling that Lin-Manuel Miranda (whose superfluous minor role could have usefully ended up on the cutting room floor) was itching to play the lead but was just "too old man"!

- It was also great to see a range of roles for older women as well, with the dramatic sequence with Olga Merediz, the neighbourhood saint and guardian Claudia, being a highpoint in the movie for me.

Negatives:
- When you step back and analyse it, the story is pretty slight. You are distracted from this by all the razzle-dazzle going on, but having a bit more meat on the bone would have been welcome. This is particularly the case, since....
- At 143 minutes, I have to say that the movie outstayed its welcome for me by about 20 or 30 minutes. If the movie had been tightened up a bit and shortened, it would I think have been much improved.

Summary Thoughts on "In the Heights": This is a musical for those people who say "They don't make musicals like that anymore". High octane and full of noise and colour, its a spectacular that doesn't disappoint. The quirkiness of "Crazy Rich Asians" (which Jon M. Chu also directed) is on full display in some of the sequences, which are cleverly filmed. It's a movie that had me periodically grinning, not just at the story or the songs but at the movie craft on show.

Is it a bit of an 'Emperor's New Clothes', given the shallowness of the story? Yes, perhaps. And does it laugh in the face of my 90-minute movie ideal? Definitely. But it's still well worth the price of your movie ticket..... and this IS a movie that demands to be watched on the BIG SCREEN to get the full effect.

(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies review here - https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2021/06/21/in-the-heights-lin-manuel-mirandas-high-octane-musical-hits-the-heights/. Thanks).