The Resident Bitch Prepares for... the Most Recent MoFo Countdown

LOL. I'm trying to remember how I felt about it. Looks like I gave it . I preferred Pygmalion, which is the same story but not a musical.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
(Jacques Demy, 1964)

I don't know what the hell possessed me to watch this. I knew going in that there was absolutely no way in hell I was going to enjoy a foreign musical from the 1960s. But I knew of its reputation among MoFos, it was available on Kanopy, and with a runtime of only 91 minutes I thought "How bad can it be?"

Well... It isn't bad - It's well made and is even quite visually beautiful - but holy shit was I bored. This is a sung-through musical and while that style worked for me in Les Miserables, it most definitely didn't work here. I might've been okay with the story and its characters had this not been a musical, but the constant singing prevented me from ever engaging with anyone or anything and consequently the whole thing just dragged terribly. It was an absolute chore to get through.

I'll give it a little bit of credit for how pretty it is but I have no other praise for it.

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OMG MV!?!?! What are you doing to yourself? Umbrellas? I think we're bordering on self-harm now.

Also, just as a little factoid no one cares about, it's called My Fair Lady because they misheard the term Mayfair Lady.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

I'm gonna need therapy after I'm done with this shit. Still got a month to go before the deadline though.

Miss Vicky is a masochist.

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San Franciscan lesbian dwarves and their tomato orgies.

Mon dieu

I admire your commitment to the cause, MV

Umbrellas is a pretty good movie. Always liked it.

Why even bother?

Anyways, I'm also one who didn't get the love for it, but I'm certainly not in the minority on that thought. And also I only saw one time.

Pinocchio
(Norman Ferguson, T. Hee, et al., 1940)

This movie is hokey as hell, but charming and looks great. Also I have to say Geppetto is kind of a terrible father and Jiminy is an even crappier conscience. They both fail Pinocchio multiple times.

Still this was a fun enough watch though I definitely won’t be voting for it.

Bohemian Rhapsody
(Bryan Singer, 2018)

I've never considered myself to be a fan of Queen nor am I a fan of anyone involved with this movie so I never really had any strong desire to see it. I do like what I've heard of Queen's music though and I'd heard good things about this movie so I figured I'd give it a shot.

And.. it's fine. There wasn't anything that I disliked about it. It had strong performances, an interesting enough story, and obviously good music. I really have no complaints, but there also wasn't anything that stood out to me as being anything special here. I was never bored but I also never really emotionally engaged with it. Honestly I kind of doubt I'll have much memory of it a month from now when it's time to vote so there's no way it makes my ballot.

It's not fun. It's an evil, evil movie with the scariest character ever seen on celuloid.

I knew you'd have something to say about that.

Almost Famous
(Cameron Crowe, 2000)

Almost Famous has always been a movie that I like, but don't love and it never really makes any sort of lasting impression on me. It features some really strong performances, likable characters, good music, and a fun and engaging story, but it also doesn't really pack any kind of emotional punch for me nor is it unique enough for that not to matter.

All in all, I think it's a very solid movie but not a great one.

Anastasia
(Don Bluth and Gary Goldman, 1997)

This movie does have a good number of things going for it. The animation is mostly very well done, the voice work is solid (though as a John Cusack fan, I am a bit biased), the songs are pleasant enough though not really catchy or memorable, and the banter between Dimitri and Anastasia was amusing enough. I also thought it was a little bit better than I'd remembered it being.

However, I still don't think it's anything special and my patience with it did begin to run pretty thin towards the end. Not a bad movie but definitely not one that will make my ballot. Also - ten years later - I'm still slightly annoyed that this made it onto the Animation Countdown over some far superior films including some of Bluth's better work like The Secret of NIMH and The Land Before Time.

It's sad to see Anastasia rated so low. I love this movie, and it's very likely to make my list.

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If I answer a game thread correctly, just skip my turn and continue with the game.
OPEN FLOOR.

Begin Again
(John Carney, 2013)

This was my third Carney film and I went into this with some reservations. I was a bit underwhelmed by Once but thought Sing Street was good so this could really go either way. And while those other two films are cast with people I had never heard of, this one is cast with people I’m either apathetic to or mildly dislike.

Well, it turns out this is a sweet little movie about making music, making friends, and rediscovering yourself. The performances are solid, the music is decent, though I’m not particularly fond of Keira Knightley‘s singing voice, and the two leads had good chemistry. It was also refreshing to see a movie where a man and a woman spend time together without falling in love.

That said though, I don’t know that it will make my ballot. I definitely liked it and it’s pretty much on the same level as two or three of the movies already on my preliminary ballot but the trouble is those two or three movies are at the very end, so if it does get my vote it will only get maybe 2 to 4 points.

I liked it and I feel it might grow on me even more next watch.

Sleeping Beauty
(Clyde Geronimi, 1959)

It has been a long time since I last watched this movie and I’d forgotten just how gorgeous the animation is. Maleficent also makes for a pretty cool villain. However this movie suffers from some of the same problems as Cinderella. I’m not buying this love at first sight crap (we met for like a minute and don’t know each other’s names or anything but we’re madly in love and want to get married!) and Aurora may have been blessed with beauty but she is sure lacking in personality. Also the whole premise is just stupid. Why not just keep Aurora hidden in the woods until after her birthday has passed? They already waited sixteen years, what’s another day or two? It’s not like it’s some secret that Maleficent is a powerful sorceress, but sure let’s take a chance. I mean there’s no way Maleficent will interfere now, right? Ugh.

Anyway all those issues aside, there’s no way this is going on my ballot. Even if I had loved it, there’s not a lot of singing so it doesn’t even fit the rather loose definition of a musical that I’m working with.

I liked Sleeping Beauty more than you did, but I agree that it doesn't have enough songs to consider it a musical.