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"Into the Woods"
Jan. 4th, 2015 10:50 amInto the Woods - I liked parts of it? I liked the part where Meryl Streep drank the fabulous potion to become fabulous. I laughed till I cried at the "Agony" scene, which was perfect. I loved Emily Blunt and Red Riding Hood.
I think I agree with people who say it was too "stage-y." There's a difference in choices made for the stage and for the big screen, seeing those huge dramatic gestures (which absolutely work on stage) on the screen made me feel...kind of uncomfortable. I think that's why "Agony" worked so well, and Emily Blunt and James Corden and Red Riding Hood worked so well - they all knew what kind of production they were doing and made deliberately hammy or meta-genre-savvy choices (think Disney's "Enchanted") that turned their performances into sweetly genuine parodies of their characters, aligning audience and actor expectations of each other into a sly inside-joke wink. The stepmother and stepsisters almost got there, but not quite, but I liked them too. I mean, come on - it's Christine Baranski. Your fave could never.
I would have actually appreciated an intermission in the middle, if they were going with stage choices anyway. Sitting through the whole thing made the movie seem so interminably long. I kept wondering when they would get to the second part.
Can we also talk about how I wanted them to feed Jack to the Giantess? Because he was traipsing around wearing the scarf he stole off the corpse of the baker's wife, and telling people about her death was NOT his #1 priority. If he hadn't been prompted by the baker, he might not have said anything. That's fucked UP. Give up the kid, people.
And if anyone is asking, yep, I was nope-ing so hard back into my seat during the Johnny Depp and Red Riding Hood scene, for the reasons above about stage-iness, the creep factor, and the realisation that parents had probably brought kids in to watch it with them. Nope nope nope nope nope.
On the other hand, I went to go see this with a superfun new Meetup group, and we had a blast! We all clicked and hung out after the movie for several hours till the restaurant was like, uhh guys, we're closing the kitchen soon. And then I walked home while the snow plows were out, but that's okay! What a great bunch of people.
And you know what, if the movie had been "good" or "adequate", we wouldn't have sparked up the same kind of conversation. I think it was almost better that most of us weren't too thrilled with the movie. It was like watching bad movies with your friends. :)
I think I agree with people who say it was too "stage-y." There's a difference in choices made for the stage and for the big screen, seeing those huge dramatic gestures (which absolutely work on stage) on the screen made me feel...kind of uncomfortable. I think that's why "Agony" worked so well, and Emily Blunt and James Corden and Red Riding Hood worked so well - they all knew what kind of production they were doing and made deliberately hammy or meta-genre-savvy choices (think Disney's "Enchanted") that turned their performances into sweetly genuine parodies of their characters, aligning audience and actor expectations of each other into a sly inside-joke wink. The stepmother and stepsisters almost got there, but not quite, but I liked them too. I mean, come on - it's Christine Baranski. Your fave could never.
I would have actually appreciated an intermission in the middle, if they were going with stage choices anyway. Sitting through the whole thing made the movie seem so interminably long. I kept wondering when they would get to the second part.
Can we also talk about how I wanted them to feed Jack to the Giantess? Because he was traipsing around wearing the scarf he stole off the corpse of the baker's wife, and telling people about her death was NOT his #1 priority. If he hadn't been prompted by the baker, he might not have said anything. That's fucked UP. Give up the kid, people.
And if anyone is asking, yep, I was nope-ing so hard back into my seat during the Johnny Depp and Red Riding Hood scene, for the reasons above about stage-iness, the creep factor, and the realisation that parents had probably brought kids in to watch it with them. Nope nope nope nope nope.
On the other hand, I went to go see this with a superfun new Meetup group, and we had a blast! We all clicked and hung out after the movie for several hours till the restaurant was like, uhh guys, we're closing the kitchen soon. And then I walked home while the snow plows were out, but that's okay! What a great bunch of people.
And you know what, if the movie had been "good" or "adequate", we wouldn't have sparked up the same kind of conversation. I think it was almost better that most of us weren't too thrilled with the movie. It was like watching bad movies with your friends. :)
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