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strangeman
Reviews
Rent (2005)
Great music, a solid story and strong characters combine to tell an urban tale of finding hope in the seemingly bleak.
To start, the music and performances are excellent. The songs are well written. Thoughtful melodies and lyrics are weaved inside an eclectic rock format. While I found Ms. Menzel to be the least physically attractive among a stunningly attractive cast ( she's pretty saucy none-the-less), her singing blew me out of my seat. Wow! Next, the story is very good and well structured. Poverty-stricken twenty-somethings (thirty-somethings?) struggle with external pitfalls of the world and the internal search for acceptance, meaning and love. The characters are very much individuals. But they combine to form a family, each playing a specific part of the whole. The story deals with drug addiction and homosexuality on a very human level. I dare say that the depicted acceptance of gay relationships foretells of a hopeful future where people of all orientations can live their lives w/o fear of persecution. The more conservative among us will find this aspect of the story very challenging.
The setting is gritty and palpable. There is seamless movement between location and sets. It all feels like you are there. The shots from New Mexico are stunning in their own right and in contrast to the urban jungle.
For me, musicals sacrifice some feeling of reality to allow for the musical aspect of the story. This movie does a most excellent job of keeping things real in a very musical setting.
Oscars are forthcoming. If you liked Chicago, throw in an industrial sized dose of realism and you are ready for Rent! Most excellent!
Memories of Tata (1994)
Touching, but not for the Tata Boy.
Sheldon Schiffer goes in search of his identity by examining his family's difficult past. This is a technically very good documentary with some intense and
touching moments.
"Tata Boy" refers to Mr. Schiffer as the grandson of Tata, the enigmatic maternal grandfather who was an abusive father to Schiffer's mother and aunt. The movie certainly gets the point across that the scars left by parental abuse span the generations.
The great irony is, in a film where Schiffer is searching to better understand his own identity and find some emotional connection to his grandfather, his
emotional responses come across as insincere and pretentious. It would have
been better for Mr. Schiffer to react honestly.