December 29th
All of the Christmas movies I could recommend are up. Stay tuned to see what next month’s theme is. And I no longer want to see Nine. I just saw Chicago and was severely unimpressed. It’s not a musical in the true sense of a musical where the diegetic world the characters live in is filled with song and dance to express their emotions and actions. Instead Chicago’s music (and what it looks like is the same for Nine) relied solely on the delusions of grandeur from Roxie Hart – the music exists solely in her own thoughts/world. There were only two real musical numbers in the diegetic world of the film but the rest of them were all conjured up in the mind of Roxie. Which is lame. It was more like a film with musical number, after number rather than a musical story. I have no idea why that film won so many awards, but I can guess it’s because as always Rob Marshall used the old “razzle dazzle ‘em” technique to blind us with sparkles and lights from the true weakness that his film is. And it must have worked. And it seems to be working for Nine. But it will not work on me. I think I will take Roger Ebert’s advice (he’s the only critic I like) and just go watch 8 1/2 instead. You should too. Unless you actually liked Chicago, then go ahead and see Nine but don’t ever come back here. Perhaps Rob Marshall is not as great a director as everyone thinks he is.