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took my elderly neighbors to have t-day lunch ~ i'm stuffed. but then i went to the movies anyway.
it was a tradition in my home to go to the movies on thanksgiving ~ not real sure why, but it started the year they first re-released Bambi in the theatres and that's what we all went to see as a family. because we're spread all over now, we sorta switched the tradition to now see something during the Christmas break (last year we saw Phantom of the Opera and for three years running before that it was Lord of the Rings).
anyway, i still go to the movies on thanksgiving and this year i decided to go see Rent.
i have a long-running relationship with this musical. i've only seen it once on stage, but listened to it incessantly for years when it first came out. at first i really loved it until my world-view started realigning and then i found it rather sad and rather than life-affirming, a sort of nihilist commentary on the bohemian life as a panacea for worldly ailments. i don't know, given my overfed stomach and exhausted brain at the moment, whether i can articulate what i mean by that statement, but it's basically this: the message of the story ~ to live in the moment ~ while a basically positive one, really is a rejection of hope because hope is for the future. "No Day but Today" essentially takes the pov of a society (of friends) all dying of AIDS who have given up in a manner of speaking. they have no hope for a future, so all they have is today, the moment. that's not a philosophical choice, that's a caving in to the futility of modern medicine and therefore taking a "to hell with it" attitude in which they are then entitled to just "be" without any obligation whatsoever. nor responsibility.
now, i have thought about this a lot, and sometimes i think i am the one who is negatively spinning the story, but really these are selfish spoiled characters who are slumming in the Village in order to reject "corporate" America and avoid selling out, making "art" for art's sake (and these days i'm not even sure what that means anymore).
but i've really gone off tangent about the film by critiquing its message. The point is: i like the music and there's a lot to like about the story (ripped off, as it is, from La Boheme) and so even though i disagree with it on a lot of fundamental levels, i still enjoy it on others.
the film is pretty well done. the casting is superb. not a character out of place. the guy who plays Roger in particular was really well-chosen ~ just the right combo of "pretty-boy front man" and damaged goods. Mark, Angel, Collins, and Mimi were also dead on and Joanna and Maureen were actually not obnoxious (which i've always found them to be otherwise). some choices were made to cut time off the clock ~ mostly good cuts, just a lot of fat-trimming and repetition. i also have to say that i love that they cut the sex scene, which i always felt was just grossly inappropriate (maybe that's not the right word, but i always felt it was gratuitous). the only cut i didn't like was the argument between Roger and Mark in the finale. partly because that's the scene that always struck the most chords with me personally: "Mark hides in his work!" i understand why they cut it and it's very effective, but i did miss it. i actually like the shortened version better (save for missing that one scene), as i always felt the show was too long.
so go check it out. i wanted to see it in the theatres to support big-screen musicals. i like musicals. they should continue to push to bring them back. clearly they can still work and i admire Baz for Moulin Rouge and taking risks.
and so there you have it. i'm exhausted and wish i could say more and say it more eloquently, but it's nearly dark out now and i've got work to do yet.
still, so much to be thankful for.
: D
p.s. side note about Rent ~ jill (?) whatshername (man, i am so bad), jonathan larsen's dramaturg who sued the estate (and i believe won) for royalties on the show after he died at 35 of an anuerysm before it opened on broadway, was a dramaturg for me in New York at a workship one summer. she was a nice enough person. oddly, everything she contributed to the show is the stuff i don't like ~ hahahaha.
it was a tradition in my home to go to the movies on thanksgiving ~ not real sure why, but it started the year they first re-released Bambi in the theatres and that's what we all went to see as a family. because we're spread all over now, we sorta switched the tradition to now see something during the Christmas break (last year we saw Phantom of the Opera and for three years running before that it was Lord of the Rings).
anyway, i still go to the movies on thanksgiving and this year i decided to go see Rent.
i have a long-running relationship with this musical. i've only seen it once on stage, but listened to it incessantly for years when it first came out. at first i really loved it until my world-view started realigning and then i found it rather sad and rather than life-affirming, a sort of nihilist commentary on the bohemian life as a panacea for worldly ailments. i don't know, given my overfed stomach and exhausted brain at the moment, whether i can articulate what i mean by that statement, but it's basically this: the message of the story ~ to live in the moment ~ while a basically positive one, really is a rejection of hope because hope is for the future. "No Day but Today" essentially takes the pov of a society (of friends) all dying of AIDS who have given up in a manner of speaking. they have no hope for a future, so all they have is today, the moment. that's not a philosophical choice, that's a caving in to the futility of modern medicine and therefore taking a "to hell with it" attitude in which they are then entitled to just "be" without any obligation whatsoever. nor responsibility.
now, i have thought about this a lot, and sometimes i think i am the one who is negatively spinning the story, but really these are selfish spoiled characters who are slumming in the Village in order to reject "corporate" America and avoid selling out, making "art" for art's sake (and these days i'm not even sure what that means anymore).
but i've really gone off tangent about the film by critiquing its message. The point is: i like the music and there's a lot to like about the story (ripped off, as it is, from La Boheme) and so even though i disagree with it on a lot of fundamental levels, i still enjoy it on others.
the film is pretty well done. the casting is superb. not a character out of place. the guy who plays Roger in particular was really well-chosen ~ just the right combo of "pretty-boy front man" and damaged goods. Mark, Angel, Collins, and Mimi were also dead on and Joanna and Maureen were actually not obnoxious (which i've always found them to be otherwise). some choices were made to cut time off the clock ~ mostly good cuts, just a lot of fat-trimming and repetition. i also have to say that i love that they cut the sex scene, which i always felt was just grossly inappropriate (maybe that's not the right word, but i always felt it was gratuitous). the only cut i didn't like was the argument between Roger and Mark in the finale. partly because that's the scene that always struck the most chords with me personally: "Mark hides in his work!" i understand why they cut it and it's very effective, but i did miss it. i actually like the shortened version better (save for missing that one scene), as i always felt the show was too long.
so go check it out. i wanted to see it in the theatres to support big-screen musicals. i like musicals. they should continue to push to bring them back. clearly they can still work and i admire Baz for Moulin Rouge and taking risks.
and so there you have it. i'm exhausted and wish i could say more and say it more eloquently, but it's nearly dark out now and i've got work to do yet.
still, so much to be thankful for.
: D
p.s. side note about Rent ~ jill (?) whatshername (man, i am so bad), jonathan larsen's dramaturg who sued the estate (and i believe won) for royalties on the show after he died at 35 of an anuerysm before it opened on broadway, was a dramaturg for me in New York at a workship one summer. she was a nice enough person. oddly, everything she contributed to the show is the stuff i don't like ~ hahahaha.
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From:
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From:
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i think recycled existentialism is the definition of post-modernism in some ways and decontructionist post-modernism can't help but be nihilistic ~ and so that's where i'm coming from.
it's one thing to create something out of the beautiful moment, but i almost feel that Rent succombs to pandering to the yuppy corporate culture it's decrying. for all its message about "don't sell out" ~ i think it actually does just that in the end.
i'm probably still not articulating this well. hahahahaha ~ but i do see what the "intent" is (and it's as you say) ~ i'm just not buying it because so much else about the show (for me) seems to be sending a counter-message.
: D
From:
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I think a big part of my reaction is really a reaction to the hype and culture surrounding it. When I went to see it at the Bushnell years ago I was surrounded by young angsty bohemians who had driven to the theater in mommy or daddy's SUV. That sort of stuff supremely pisses me off.
No Day But Today...not a bad catchphrase, but one that needs to be balanced. It is very easy for that mantra to veer into total selfishness, and that undercurrent of selfishness is what always made me uncomfortable with the whole piece.
Which all stems from thinking too much about it. I think I will just go pull out the soundtrack and try not to think ;)
From:
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and yes, it is overthinking it, and i listen to the music still! but i think it's these things that separate the potatoes from the corn in the end. Rent is really good, but it will never be "great" because i think it's deeply flawed in its packaging.
: D