It’s so long since I last saw this that it’s not only ridiculous but simply unfair. It’s so long that I was actually getting excited about its screening on Five tonight (I sold the DVD years ago). See, it’s just wrong I think for a long time the thought of watching the movie brought back too many bad memories of the turbulent year in which I first fell in love with it – ha, my big absinthe obsession, lol – bought the DVD, watched it almost on repeat. I’m actually really glad I left it so long, but I feel insane for having it so low down in my lists (okay, not so low, #663 out of 2000+) this past half-decade.

I was momentarily stuck as to which genre to put this movie in. First and foremost it’s of course a musical, though the music is mostly non-original. But then it’s also comedy, drama, romance, even horror I think during “Like a Virgin”, lol. Musical pretty much covers it, though. I think the musical genre is the only one where anything goes. And truly, anything goes here more than any other Baz Luhrmann movie.

I think this movie has to be the definition of tour de force. The action moves from the most madcap comedy to the sternest, almost unexpected, intensity in the blink of an eye or the beat of a heart. It transcends the lines of entertainment, art, eye-candy, it’s truly all of them and none of them at the same time. It’s a movie you can either let simply wash over you or that you can completely submerge yourself in, interpreting, finding subtexts, etc, or simply drown in the colour, the sounds, the craziness. The use of music, the quality of the arrangements, the power of the production … it’s truly heart-stopping at times.

It’s not a movie I could watch with any real frequency, there’s too much here, it could drive a person crazy, as I said earlier there are so many ways to view it and take it in, it’s the kind of movie it would take me a whole fan commentary to cover fully; but there is simply no other movie like it, the use of sound is completely arresting, it takes my breath away, the range of creative ideas almost rivals Citizen Kane, and I’d be a fool not to force it into my top 100 list. If anyone else out there has been holding off a repeat viewing like I was, trust me: now’s the time.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 5th, 2006 at 11:33 pm and is filed under 5 hearts, Movie Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.