They’re not written by “musicals” people, so the songs hit like contemporary pop and rock songs. Most musicals are written by people deep into musicals and that’s where there songwriting comes from. When tey try to do a rock or hip hop sounding musical it’s not their dialect, so it sounds wrong like something that’s not in their native language.
Sometimes that can be good, like Lordi’s English language releases, other times it’s more like a Justin Bieber track having a verse in Spanish.
edit: as I have stated before and as I will not get tired of stating Lin Manuel Miranda sounds more like the rapping Barney Rubble from a Fruity Pebbles ad then like any actual rapper, placing him below even the 2016 era soundcloud rapper and the guy who wants to sell you his mix tape as the bus stop
musicals rule, I’m going to go watch Cabaret to spite you all. one time in amsterdam I did Mein Herr at karaoke and like a half dozen elderly dutch gays and a british lesbian all sang along, it’s like the universal language of
Cabaret is great. I like any time Mel Brooks got close to Musicals too. The audacious golden era of Hollywood musical is something I can’t help but admire, but mostly those were just musical numbers rather than musicals.
I can’t even think of Lin Manuel Miranda any more without thinking about the fact that they cast him as a noble, laconic Texas gunfighter in the horrific His Dark Materials prestige series, causing my brain to flee directly out of my asshole
fwiw, musicals didn’t do anything for me until LaLaLand rewired my brain, flashed a new firmware on there, rebooted and clicked the liek&sup’scribe-button, but i attribute that to Damien Chazelle’s handwriting, let’s see how Babylon turns out (hasn’t started in yuropistan yet, looking to get into the opening night screening this friday).
Gave the remasters of les Demoiselles de Rochefort and the Parapluies de Cherbourg (five typos in these two film-titles, tells you how much of a fan i am, but i am trying, really!) a shot and finally clicked with me, so i am looking for the next musical that makes me go
Anette was cool ftr, but didn’t click w/ me yet, maybe when i give it a rewatch later this year.
Also was told to check out the Spielberg rehash of Westside, didn’t get around to it yet.
My movie of 2022 was Umbrellas of Cherbourg, and all its bad ass wallpapers
And that Charles Durning DEATH WISH knockoff that ends with him being loaded into an ambulance after doing a Home Alone on all the thugs who fucked up his favorite diner, that movie fucking rocked, he was very fat and old and always breathing very heavy and sweating profusely BUT sometimes he had a gun! My hero. Also maybe we watched it in 2021 I can’t remember.
family movie night was My Father’s Dragon. pretty unenjoyable, a lot of writing telling the story and not much art. plenty of characters overwhelmed by emotion, you don’t understand!, meltdowns over stuff that could be resolved in a minute of sharing their feelings. a few scenes about capitalism/parent’s empty promises and … a child’s anxiety attack? just the topic to discuss afterwards at bedtime.
the 2D art style looked cartoony in this, compared to the stylistic theme from Song of the Sea/Book of Kells. tho those were clearly inspired by traditional artworks. most prominent visual theme is “balls” (many circular round animal designs + the island). plain backgrounds. everything looks straight out of the storyboard
somehow despite getting Anohni to perform the credits song, the very obvious ecological theme of “Wild Island is sinking & the human character’s actions makes it so dangerous that the animals are in danger of death” is not emphasised
weird timing choices in editing? hero shots of less than a second, some almost-jump scares as Chris O’Dowd’s extremely-frustrated baboon snaps around to glare and bark at the camera. cloying child actor casting clashes with the more sonorous actors
would rather had watched some late 80s/early 90s family fantasy PG movie where you’re slightly unsure if it was make before or after they replaced “shithead” with “turd snorter” in scripts
I wish letterboxd would send me one!! last year I was so upset because I got Laura gemsers husband instead of Laura gemser (they’re always in movies together BUT SHE’S THE STAR DAMNIT)
I didn’t get a letterboxd stats roundup email/notification either afaik but you can just figure out this stuff from your stats page for 2022. I believe everyone has them at
The most watched actors and directors are at the bottom of the page. My most watched director is Johnnie To at 7 films and therefore my most watched actor is Lam Suet at 6 films
