rollernerd
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Welcome back to another edition of Adam's Reviews!!
**queue in into music**
Today's movie review is the romantic comedy musical The Pajama Game (1957), a musical about a union dispute in the United States where on the surface, it's a charming romantic comedy with lively dance numbers and catchy songs, but dig a little deeper, and you'll find something far rarer in the musical genre-a full-throated commitment to a social issue. Here, labour rights and union organizing aren't just backdrop, they're the heart of the story - 7 and half cents!
The film stars Doris Day and John Raitt, the film begins with Sid (Raitt) walking into the Sleeptite Factory with a purpose and determination to get a job and lands one with the no nonsense interview for the position of superintendent. Little does he know but there's some unrest at the factory. While other factories in the area have given their workers a 7.5¢ raise, the Amalgamated Shirts and Pajama Workers of America Union are fighting for their workers to get the same. This may not be nothing of interest to Sid, until he meets and falls in love with the factory's grievance committee leader, Babe Williams (Day), and to her the union is everything. In the same way Sid is determined to keep his new job, Babe is determined to get her people that raise, and it puts them on opposite sides of the fence. This ideological divide quickly becomes personal, as Sid and Babe fall in love while standing on opposite sides of the union-management fence. The tension between duty and desire plays out throughout the film, making for an emotionally complex, if sometimes old-fashioned romantic comedy.
The film features the legendary Bob Fosse's choreography and after watching a few of his musical films, you can notice his distinctive style, which includes the bowler hats and precise group formations which shines in the beginning of the film with the scene "Steam Heat," and of course the splashy picnic scene.
In the film you have jealous boyfriend Hinesie played by Eddie Foy Jr. Who throws knives and does superb in the song "I'll Never Be Jealous" by using comic timing and showing his insecurity due to his self-delusion, tone of caricature, pacing with the momentum of the song makes the scene very memorable. You have Carol Haney, as Gladys, Hinesie's flirtatious girlfriend is played as a vibrant, quirky and an absolute dynamo with each musical number and in my opinion steals the film and below you will further find out why she does steal the show.
"Hernando's Hideaway" is one of the film's most memorable and stylized musical numbers, and it perfectly showcases Fosse's inventive choreography plus the song itself is a sultry, tango-inspired tune about a secret rendezvous spot and it's delivered with delicious theatrical flair. The use of shadows, silhouettes and match-lit faces to create a dark, smoky, almost noir-like atmosphere is very innovative for its time. This is where Haney shines here, she isn't the only performer/actor in this scene however her expressive face, snappy timing and sharp dancing anchor the whole routine. Her performance makes "Hernando's Hideaway" not just a song, but a theatrical moment and yes "Oleee!"
Overall 7/10.
**queue in into music**
Today's movie review is the romantic comedy musical The Pajama Game (1957), a musical about a union dispute in the United States where on the surface, it's a charming romantic comedy with lively dance numbers and catchy songs, but dig a little deeper, and you'll find something far rarer in the musical genre-a full-throated commitment to a social issue. Here, labour rights and union organizing aren't just backdrop, they're the heart of the story - 7 and half cents!
The film stars Doris Day and John Raitt, the film begins with Sid (Raitt) walking into the Sleeptite Factory with a purpose and determination to get a job and lands one with the no nonsense interview for the position of superintendent. Little does he know but there's some unrest at the factory. While other factories in the area have given their workers a 7.5¢ raise, the Amalgamated Shirts and Pajama Workers of America Union are fighting for their workers to get the same. This may not be nothing of interest to Sid, until he meets and falls in love with the factory's grievance committee leader, Babe Williams (Day), and to her the union is everything. In the same way Sid is determined to keep his new job, Babe is determined to get her people that raise, and it puts them on opposite sides of the fence. This ideological divide quickly becomes personal, as Sid and Babe fall in love while standing on opposite sides of the union-management fence. The tension between duty and desire plays out throughout the film, making for an emotionally complex, if sometimes old-fashioned romantic comedy.
The film features the legendary Bob Fosse's choreography and after watching a few of his musical films, you can notice his distinctive style, which includes the bowler hats and precise group formations which shines in the beginning of the film with the scene "Steam Heat," and of course the splashy picnic scene.
In the film you have jealous boyfriend Hinesie played by Eddie Foy Jr. Who throws knives and does superb in the song "I'll Never Be Jealous" by using comic timing and showing his insecurity due to his self-delusion, tone of caricature, pacing with the momentum of the song makes the scene very memorable. You have Carol Haney, as Gladys, Hinesie's flirtatious girlfriend is played as a vibrant, quirky and an absolute dynamo with each musical number and in my opinion steals the film and below you will further find out why she does steal the show.
"Hernando's Hideaway" is one of the film's most memorable and stylized musical numbers, and it perfectly showcases Fosse's inventive choreography plus the song itself is a sultry, tango-inspired tune about a secret rendezvous spot and it's delivered with delicious theatrical flair. The use of shadows, silhouettes and match-lit faces to create a dark, smoky, almost noir-like atmosphere is very innovative for its time. This is where Haney shines here, she isn't the only performer/actor in this scene however her expressive face, snappy timing and sharp dancing anchor the whole routine. Her performance makes "Hernando's Hideaway" not just a song, but a theatrical moment and yes "Oleee!"
Overall 7/10.
Welcome back to another edition of Adam Reviews!!
**queue in into music**
Today's movie review is Cabaret (1972) directed by music maestro Bob Fosse who gives us a sultry plunge into the decadence and decay of 1931 Berlin, a city teetering on the edge of political catastrophe and cultural revolution. At the heart of this chaos is Liza Minelli's electrifying performance as Sally Bowles, a cabaret singer at the Kit Kat Club who loves green nail polish, has a taste for Prairie Oysters and a reckless passion for life. Minelli inhabits Sally with eccentric charm, superficial sensuality and emotional rawness, which draws you to this character. Whether she is belting out "Maybe This Time" or "Life is Cabaret" with haunting vulnerability or showcasing her jazz hands and acrobatic skills through the iconic char and hat dance in "Mein Herr", it's a masterclass as Minelli's performance captures both the glitter and grit of a woman who is simultaneously performance for an audience and hiding from herself.
The Kit Kat Club, where Sally performs, is not just a seedy nightclub; it is a distorted mirror of the crumbling German Weimar Republic. Fosse's use of the club's performances as commentary on the outside world is brilliantly executed. Numbers like "Money Makes the World Go Around" and "Wilkommen" are provocative, stylised and laced with cynicism and satire commentary with what is happening around the characters. The emcee, played by Joel Grey (Dirty Dancing Baby's father), presides over the cabaret like a mischievous puppet master where his exaggerated facial expressions and eerie songs like "If You Could See Her" reflects the moral erosion surrounding the characters. The chilling moment when the young soldier boy at a country outdoor event sings "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" is a sobering reminder of what is coming, a jarring tonal shift that rips through the movie's playful exterior.
Beyond the glamour, the movie occasionally struggles with narrative cohesion, for example the subplot around Fritz pretending to be Jewish in order to woo wealthy heiress Natalia. Another subplot is how Brian, the reserved English tutor studying philosophy, finds himself entangled with both Sally and the Baron Max and to me this feels undercooked. The love triangle and sexual tension though progressive for its time, lack the emotional depth and clarity needed to fully resonate nor did the emotional stake of the triangle never fully land. The love triangle in tone clashes with the rest of the film, while cabaret scenes are vivid, vulgar and politically charged, the romantic subplot often feels like it belongs to a different movie due to its light and conventional tone. Another narrative subplot was Sally's father, an off-screen ghost in the film feels forced and emotionally unresolved. Sally mentions her father multiple times in the movie, "My father is an ambassador, darling!" and tried to meet up with him however suddenly shows up and says the meeting was a disaster. This arc feels it should have been explored more in order to hint at a deeper sadness and sense of rejection in Sally's life i.e. Abandonment issues or longing for a parental approval - but it never gets unpacked. The film builds Sally as someone who performs happiness to mask emotional instability and this subplot could have offered meaningful insight into this character's vulnerability. Instead we get a forced love triangle and perhaps the filmmakers intended Sally's father to be more of a representation of the emotional void or dysfunction Sally tries to drown through her lifestyle of partying and performing. However, I still believe this father story could have developed a deeper understanding of Sally's emotional state.
The abortion scene was super raw from Minelli, where we see that Sally is not losing a baby, of course, since a fetus is not a baby, she's foreclosing the possibility of a future family with a man who she could never have had a real relationship with, despite her intense attraction to him (due to daddy issues) they were never compatible.
Still, the flick's power lies in its collision of personal freedom and political doom where we see the creeping rise of Nazism, glimpsed in background posters and violent outbursts - casts a shadow over the Cabaret. With Minelli's powerhouse presence at the centre, Cabaret endures as a dazzling yet deeply unsettling portrait of a world dancing on the edge of collapse. Overall 7/10.
**queue in into music**
Today's movie review is Cabaret (1972) directed by music maestro Bob Fosse who gives us a sultry plunge into the decadence and decay of 1931 Berlin, a city teetering on the edge of political catastrophe and cultural revolution. At the heart of this chaos is Liza Minelli's electrifying performance as Sally Bowles, a cabaret singer at the Kit Kat Club who loves green nail polish, has a taste for Prairie Oysters and a reckless passion for life. Minelli inhabits Sally with eccentric charm, superficial sensuality and emotional rawness, which draws you to this character. Whether she is belting out "Maybe This Time" or "Life is Cabaret" with haunting vulnerability or showcasing her jazz hands and acrobatic skills through the iconic char and hat dance in "Mein Herr", it's a masterclass as Minelli's performance captures both the glitter and grit of a woman who is simultaneously performance for an audience and hiding from herself.
The Kit Kat Club, where Sally performs, is not just a seedy nightclub; it is a distorted mirror of the crumbling German Weimar Republic. Fosse's use of the club's performances as commentary on the outside world is brilliantly executed. Numbers like "Money Makes the World Go Around" and "Wilkommen" are provocative, stylised and laced with cynicism and satire commentary with what is happening around the characters. The emcee, played by Joel Grey (Dirty Dancing Baby's father), presides over the cabaret like a mischievous puppet master where his exaggerated facial expressions and eerie songs like "If You Could See Her" reflects the moral erosion surrounding the characters. The chilling moment when the young soldier boy at a country outdoor event sings "Tomorrow Belongs To Me" is a sobering reminder of what is coming, a jarring tonal shift that rips through the movie's playful exterior.
Beyond the glamour, the movie occasionally struggles with narrative cohesion, for example the subplot around Fritz pretending to be Jewish in order to woo wealthy heiress Natalia. Another subplot is how Brian, the reserved English tutor studying philosophy, finds himself entangled with both Sally and the Baron Max and to me this feels undercooked. The love triangle and sexual tension though progressive for its time, lack the emotional depth and clarity needed to fully resonate nor did the emotional stake of the triangle never fully land. The love triangle in tone clashes with the rest of the film, while cabaret scenes are vivid, vulgar and politically charged, the romantic subplot often feels like it belongs to a different movie due to its light and conventional tone. Another narrative subplot was Sally's father, an off-screen ghost in the film feels forced and emotionally unresolved. Sally mentions her father multiple times in the movie, "My father is an ambassador, darling!" and tried to meet up with him however suddenly shows up and says the meeting was a disaster. This arc feels it should have been explored more in order to hint at a deeper sadness and sense of rejection in Sally's life i.e. Abandonment issues or longing for a parental approval - but it never gets unpacked. The film builds Sally as someone who performs happiness to mask emotional instability and this subplot could have offered meaningful insight into this character's vulnerability. Instead we get a forced love triangle and perhaps the filmmakers intended Sally's father to be more of a representation of the emotional void or dysfunction Sally tries to drown through her lifestyle of partying and performing. However, I still believe this father story could have developed a deeper understanding of Sally's emotional state.
The abortion scene was super raw from Minelli, where we see that Sally is not losing a baby, of course, since a fetus is not a baby, she's foreclosing the possibility of a future family with a man who she could never have had a real relationship with, despite her intense attraction to him (due to daddy issues) they were never compatible.
Still, the flick's power lies in its collision of personal freedom and political doom where we see the creeping rise of Nazism, glimpsed in background posters and violent outbursts - casts a shadow over the Cabaret. With Minelli's powerhouse presence at the centre, Cabaret endures as a dazzling yet deeply unsettling portrait of a world dancing on the edge of collapse. Overall 7/10.
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