Topsy-Turvy

[rm]

How the hell did I miss this in the theaters? I mean, I kept meaning to go -- I so often do, and never got there.

Just, utterly spectacular. And of course, I'm biased, I played Ko-ko in the Mikado when I was in 5th Grade at my all girls school, so I know the show and have a very, very thorough affection for it.

But how great -- perfect costumes, incredible performances, gorgeous sets, a wonderful subtlety, utterly obnoxious humour and a real heart. Wow -- there's a meaningless rave review if ever there was one. I will also add it did a lovely job at touching on the inability some/many/most (choose your own quanitifier, would you?) creative types have to interact with others in any sort of manner that is any sort of use outside of said art. I was really moved by that.

And really, who the hell says, "I know, I'll make a film about the creation of the Mikado!" -- there's a thought process / bit of serendipity I'd love some insight into.

1999 was one hell of a year in film -- and some of the crap that got recognized instead of stuff like this....

It's a good movie if you believe in the romance of theatre and all that. For someone who go beat-up by her peers because she finally scored a good role in a school show with the Mikado, it was positively bizarre.

Comments

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I saw Being John Malkovich later than many people, so I didn't remember that it also came out in 1999, it was also excellent - definitely one of those wonderfully quirky films that I was amazed that it ever got made. American Beauty never looked like my sort of thing though.

[rm.livejournal.com]

I have had more vicious arguments about American Beauty than perhaps any other film -- and it's hard to explain why if you haven't seen it, but it's a film people take _very_ _very_ personally, in _very_ _very_ different ways. It's an exceptional piece of work that a lot of people dismiss as shallow, because yeah it's life coming apart in the suburbs -- and isn't that urban smugness or Hollywood cooler-than-thou -- but the film has such a good heart, and such a truthful viciousness, and there are a couple of really awful moments in it that ring so true, it's shocking.