Joyful Noise Is a Musical Celebration

I've always liked the idea of making a joyful noise, but I have tended to think of it in terms of being an activity that involves more enthusiasm than talent. However, in the 2012 movie Joyful Noise, written and directed by Todd Graff, the parties in question can really sing up a storm.

This is a light-hearted feel-good film with splashes of comedy and romance. It involves a plucky little choir whose director (Kris Kristofferson) has just died, leaving his perky wife G. G. (Dolly Parton) and the replacement director, the commanding Vi Rose (Queen Latifah), at odds with each other over how to proceed next. With their final shot at winning the national competition looming, the pressure is on for them to really excel.

Complicating matters is the fact that Vi Rose's daughter Olivia (Keke Palmer) and G. G.'s newly arrived grandson Randy (Jeremy Jordan) are the two best singers around and are also very interested in each other. G. G. doesn't have a problem with this, but Vi Rose does, and it introduces even more tension into an already contentious choir. Can they pull it together for the big win?

This is a predictable movie with strong shades of Sister Act 2 and GLEE, but I still got a kick out of this tale of the Little Choir That Could. Not all of the humor is a home run; while I was amused by the exploits of a lonesome woman who fears she will never love again after her beau kicks the bucket, I found the insistence of one choir member on immediately repeating everything she finds funny to be quite tedious. Most of the humor comes from zesty G. G.'s zingers, particularly when they are aimed at Vi Rose.

While the basic storyline focuses on the choir's efforts to win this big competition, the movie is just as much about reconciliation between these two powerful women in the congregation and the developing relationship between their teenage relatives. It's also about Vi Rose's family regaining a sense of closeness in the wake of her husband's absence and her son Walter's (Dexter Darden) increasing struggles with Asperger's Syndrome. Darden does an especially nice job in what may be my favorite role in the movie.

Joyful Noise probably doesn't have the staying power of a Sister Act 2, but it's still an uplifting movie filled with lots of music that is not only enthusiastic but harmonious as well.

Manny and Sid Become Family Men in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

It seems like I’ve seen a lot of dinosaurs in the past couple of weeks. While I was in Florida with my aunt, uncle and cousin, I spent two days at Universal, and both days we rode the Jurassic Park river ride, which is half sedate boat tour, half panicky log flume, with animatronic dinosaurs in every direction. At Lion Country Safari, we wandered through a wooded path and posed with giant sculptures of dinos, and at Animal Kingdom, we spent a fair bit of time meandering through the dino village and embarking on the Dinosaur ride there. It was fairly fitting, then, to return to my aunt and uncle’s after our long drive up from Florida and turn on the TV to find Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs just starting.

I’m not sure what it is about the Ice Age movies, but I’ve seen all three of them now, and basically enjoyed them, but I always seem to watch them when other things are going on, so I’m not able to give my full attention to the movie. Hence, the details of this third movie in the Ice Age series are just a bit fuzzy to me as I think back on watching it a couple days ago as we wound down from our trip. However, I did enjoy the movie overall, even if it didn’t suck me in completely as Pixar always does.

Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs finds the main characters from previous movies each in a different place in life. Sensitive mammoth Manny (Ray Romano) is about to become a father, and while his even-keeled mate Ellie (Queen Latifah) is handling her pregnancy with quiet dignity, Manny is so excited that he’s beside himself. He’s channeled most of his nervous energy into providing a perfect playground for the impending arrival, but he still has enough left over to pester Ellie with endless questions as he worries over whether everything will go smoothly.

Surly saber-toothed tiger Diego (Denis Leary) finds all this lovey-dovey family stuff pretty off-putting, and it’s enough to make him want to set off on his own and return to a life of solitude. Meanwhile, eccentric sloth Sid (John Leguizamo) craves a sense of belonging, of truly being needed. He hasn’t been able to find a mate, and Manny’s domestic bliss leaves him feeling a little left out, so when he stumbles upon a clutch of Tyrannosaurus Rex eggs, he can’t resist bringing them home to raise them himself. Of course, this is a dangerous idea, and though he begins to care for them once they hatch, trouble really heats up once their biological mother returns for them.

Soon another great quest is underway as he tags along after the babies he’s come to think of as his own, ignoring the threat their mother poses, and Manny and Ellie trail after him, hoping to extract him. Parenthood is foremost on the minds of both Sid and Manny here, and it’s sweet to see the ways in which they prepare for and embrace that role. Their storylines mostly unfold separately, while Scrat the comic relief prehistoric squirrel dashes through every once in a while in pursuit of that ever-elusive nut as well as a particularly attractive female squirrel. His antics always steal the show in these movies, and that’s the case here as well, which is nice because the overall tone of the film is a bit on the serious side.

The animation in the movie is pretty nice overall. The landscape is on the bleak side, but it has its own sort of beauty. Of the animals, I think the mammoths come off looking the best. Sid isn’t particularly pleasant to look at, while Scrat is fairly cute but also deranged-looking. Diego has a solemnly handsome look about him, while piratey weasel Buck (Simon Pegg), who comes along to serve as a guide to the mammoths, just looks goofy.

Although I wasn’t drawn into this movie as completely as I might have been, I did enjoy seeing the characters again, and I thought the depiction of Manny and Sid trying to figure out how to be father was quite touching, even if the Sid angle reminded me a little too much of the first sequel to The Land Before Time. I hear that a fourth installment is on its way next year, and something tells me I’ll probably give that a try too.

Glitzy 81st Oscars Are a Ceremony to Remember

I came into the 2008 Oscars having seen only three of the nominees: WALL-E, The Dark Knight and Doubt. I almost saw Slumdog Millionaire, but the theater was sold out and we never made it back; I have no excuse for Man on Wire, since not only does Netflix have it, it's available for instant viewing. But that will have to be my first post-Oscar pick. Anyway, though I hadn't seen most of the movies involved, I was fairly well-informed about most of them, and I found myself especially rooting for The Little Movie That Could, which came close to pulling off a Return of the King-style sweep.

Last year's ceremony was pretty short on frills. By contrast, this year's was showy, from the gorgeous crystal curtain hanging over the stage to the song-and-dance antics of host Hugh Jackman. I thought the ensemble tribute to musical theater featuring him, Beyonce, Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron was entertaining, albeit rather chaotic. But the opening number, where he so energetically and hilariously honored the Best Picture nominees (and The Dark Knight), was brilliant. Clever lyrics, great way of matching the music to the mood of the movies, and man, can that guy sing! And Anne Hathaway was a nice surprise. They looked - and sounded - great together.

I liked the structure of taking us through the movie-making process, which put more focus on the amount of work that goes into the more technical aspects of movie production. I was a little disappointed that WALL-E won in none of these categories, but at least it took home the big award for Best Animated Picture. (As if there was any doubt; I loved Jack Black's line about starring in Dreamworks movies and then betting all his money on Pixar winning the Oscar.) The WALL-E-centric ode to 2008's animated features was fun, as were his appearances in the romance montage.

One of the most memorable moments from the technical awards came with Best Cinematography, when Ben Stiller did a killer Joaquin Phoenix impression while Natalie Portman played it straight. It was hilarious, but it did seem a bit disrespectful; then again, perhaps the movie community feels like Phoenix has been thumbing his nose at them lately. What was really disrespectful was the fact that Stiller went on goofing around while the nominees were being read, so it didn't seem like anyone was paying attention to those names. I think he let the gag go on too long and detracted from their big moment. The Slumdog cinematographer gave a great speech, though, gracious and funny.

I was a little surprised that some presenters stayed on stage so long, but it seemed to streamline the process a bit, and I don't think anyone was complaining too much about seeing Will Smith presenting four awards in a row. The rising through the floor bit was fun, as was his comment, the fourth time around, that Hugh was napping. Probably the most memorable of that batch of speeches was for Sound Mixing. He really seemed to appreciate it, and taking it as a victory for his whole country was nice. And going back to Best Make-Up (one of several presented rather blandly by Daniel Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker), that was an impressive list of names to spit out in such a short time. Made for a somewhat dull speech, but I'm sure the folks who were mentioned appreciated it.

The one low point in the evening for me was when Bill Maher presented the documentary awards. I groaned when I saw him step out because I knew he'd have something inflammatory to say. As somebody who's generally more involved in television than movies, he felt rather out of place anyway, and instead of acting grateful for the opportunity, he seemed to be bent on deriding everybody. And plugging his movie. From his "silly little gods" comment to his dismissive remark after the Man on Wire guys made their speech, he just oozed contempt for the whole thing. I don't know if Maher's beef with them was the documentary itself or the speech, but I loved that they invited their subject up to the stage. He was among the giddiest people we saw all night, and I got a kick out of his Oscar-balancing and disappearing coin trick.

I expected that Prop 8 would come up at some point during the night, and it did. Sean Penn got a little heated with his remarks, but I enjoyed his speech overall, especially the shout-out to Mickey Rourke. Still, I preferred the emotional acceptance speech of Milk's incredibly young-looking screenwriter, and it was moving to see him getting choked up all over again as Penn accepted his award. His profound gratitude lessened the blow of WALL-E failing to get top screenplay honors. I still think it should have been nominated for Best Picture. I thought Tina Fey and Steve Martin were a great presenting team, by the way, and I was quite content to watch them banter their way through two awards.

Speaking of banter, Seth Rogen and James Franco's video was a hoot. As an ode to comedy it was rather strange, since half the featured movies were only funny because those two were laughing at wildly inappropriate times, but I thought it worked. I also found the promo for Jimmy Kimmel with Tom Cruise hilarious, and the only ad aside from the inspirational True North commercials that really got my attention. (I actually stayed up for Kimmel because of it and was rewarded with not only more silliness with Cruise but also deliciously ridiculous previews for The Curious Case of Benjamin Batman and The Colonel, a Civil War epic starring Mel Gibson. As Colonel Sanders.)

I found Queen Latifah's live song accompanying the memorial tribute classy, though I'm not sure if it was such a good idea not to fill the screen with the clips of the deceased. I found it rather hard to see what was happening, and I missed a few of the names. I liked Eddie Murphy's presentation of Jerry Lewis's honorary award, as well as the video (especially the clip of Mattie Stepanek), and I thought that Lewis was very gracious. He also looked like he was in good health. Anyway, he could have taken a moment to grouse about never being recognized for his work in the years when he was in so many movies, but instead he just seemed thankful.

One thing that I really liked this year was the way the acting awards were presented. It felt so much more meaningful to have five past winners stand up there and speak directly to the nominees than just showing a little clip of the movie. Each of the nominees really seemed to appreciate those words of praise; it was like they all got a prize. I especially got a kick out of Whoopi Goldberg's riff on nuns to Amy Adams (who I was hoping, but not really expecting, to win). I can't believe Alan Arkin flubbed Philip Seymour Hoffman's name, but it was a nice speech otherwise. All 20 of those mini-speeches were beautifully done, I thought. The Oscars didn't seem so concerned with speed this time around. There was time for reflection and big showy musical numbers, and nobody got played off the stage.

I was rooting for Meryl Streep for Best Actress, but Kate Winslet sure was tickled with her win. I kept forgetting she was up there for The Reader and not Revolutionary Road. It's been a big year for her. I liked her acceptance speech, especially the part about practicing this moment with a shampoo bottle in front of the mirror when she was eight, and thanking Peter Jackson for her first big break. Asking her dad to whistle so she knew where he was also was great. Of course, perhaps no other award of the night had generated more interest than Best Supporting Actor. I wasn't surprised in the least to see Heath Ledger receive the award (though it's slightly disturbing that the winning role has been a homicidal sociopath two years running). I thought both Kevin Kline and the members of Ledger's immediate family paid him nice tribute, and I thought it was appropriate that the cameras spent so much time panning through the audience for reactions to this particular award. It seemed like a cathartic moment for everyone there.

Of course, the king of the night was Slumdog Millionaire, and they must've cut to the ecstatically grinning Danny Boyle about a dozen times. I loved his speech, especially the bouncing up and down before announcing that he was receiving the award in the spirit of Tigger and his shout-out to the people of Mumbai. I wasn't all that interested in the music categories this year, but I thought A. R. Rahman seemed very touched. At first, he just seemed shell-shocked, but he recovered by the second award, and I liked what he had to say about the power of hope and choosing love over hate. After it won so many other awards, I would have been pretty surprised to see Slumdog not take top honors, so the Best Picture award wasn't a shocker, but it was a great moment with everybody, especially the kids, up on stage. What a night for them!

I took a stab at guessing in each of the categories, though I was completely clueless about a few of them. I managed to guess 14 correctly, which was slightly better than last year, when I had seen much more of the nominees. What does that tell you? Of course, I have Slumdog to thank for some of that. Now that it's been so richly rewarded, I'm even more determined to see if I think it lives up to the accolades. In any case, this Cinderella story provided an uplifting tone for the evening that was most welcome. And Hugh, if you're not too busy filming New Zealand (the musical! with hobbits!), I'd be more than glad to see you back next year. The Oscars seem to be expanding more and more beyond America every year, but if this night is any indication, that's not a bad thing.

Hairspray Exuberantly Examines the Notion of Otherness

I've been hearing a lot about Hairspray over the last couple years thanks to the enthusiasm of my young cousins, who were such fans of the show that they went to see it on Broadway. Aside from hearing the effervescent opening number, Good Morning, Baltimore - a grand hello to a bustling city that reminds me a lot of our beautifully boisterous introduction to Belle and her little town in Beauty and the Beast - on late-night and early-morning television, in the Macy's Parade and on Ugly Betty, I was pretty unfamiliar with the play, but all the buzz about it was enough to get me pretty pumped up for the movie when I heard that director Adam Shankman would be bringing it to the big screen.

Yesterday, my parents, my friend Libbie and I decided to see for ourselves what all the hype was about. What we got was a joyous kaleidoscope of slightly over-the-top early-sixties eye candy, with the darker edges of that era bubbling beneath the surface until they are brought into the full light of scrutiny when Queen Latifah's matronly Motormouth Maybelle leads a soulful march protesting the segregationist policies of The Corny Collins Show, the American Bandstand-esque television program that turns Tracy Turnblad (Nikki Blonsky), a starry-eyed teen with a heart as oversized as her pudgy frame, into an overnight sensation.

Blonsky is absolutely infectious in the lead role. The girl is a ray of sunshine, undeterred by all the obstacles that stand in the way of her dream of dancing on her favorite TV show, while also unwilling to compromise her principles for the sake of her ambition. As the film progresses, she becomes acutely aware of how the black students from whom she learns her best dance moves are oppressed, and she yearns to create an environment in which race need no longer be a barrier to opportunities. Just as she has broken down conventional societal expectations of beauty, she strives to show everyone that integration is the wave of the future.

Along the way, she dances her heart out and takes a few time-outs to sigh dreamily over Ricky Nelson-esque Link Larkin (Zac Efron), who gradually comes to see Tracy as a young woman of such substance that she overshadows his perfectly coiffed girlfriend Amber Von Tussle (Brittany Snow), whose conniving mother (Michelle Pfeiffer), the manager of the station on which the dance show airs, undermines the new girl every step of the way despite opposition from host Corny (James Marsden), whose dazzling smile gleams all the brighter whenever Tracy takes to the stage.

Her best friend Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes), a wisp of a girl with an omnipresent lollipop, ducks out from under the icy repression of her puritanical mother Prudy (Allison Janney) when she falls head over heels for Maybelle's exuberant son Seaweed (Elijah Kelley). Tracy, meanwhile, aims to bring her mother Edna (John Travolta), a frumpy laundress whose crippling self-image has long led her to eschew the outside world, into contemporary society. She's not an unreasonable woman; she's just insecure and set in her ways, and with a little nudging she is ready to support her daughter in her endeavors, though perhaps not as whole-heartedly as Tracy's gentle, eccentric father Wilbur (Christopher Walken), who achieved his own long-held goal when he opened a novelty shop, which enjoys an upsurge in business in the wake of Tracy's newfound celebrity.

Much was made of Travolta's gender-bending performance here, and he certainly immersed himself in the part, though I was never quite able to forget that she was actually a he, and neither was the rest of the audience, judging by the nervous titters that rippled whenever Walken edged in for a kiss. After his over-the-top performance in High School Musical, I wasn't sure what I would think of Efron, but he was much more nuanced here, even though he was in a similar role as a dreamboat who is startled into self-awareness by the arrival of an unconventional gal. I didn't think there was a weak link in the cast, and I give special kudos to Janney for making such a simultaneously humorous and terrifying impression in her brief appearances.

As someone with limited familiarity with the songs in this film, I was impressed by their energy and complexity. The lyrics in particular are very clever, perfectly capturing the various speech patterns of characters and often riddled with sly innuendoes that indicate this was not such an innocent time after all. Most of these are subtle enough that they would probably go right over the heads of youngsters, and there's little else in the movie that could be considered objectionable. Indeed, Hairspray is an ideal film for the family to see together, as the bouncy dance numbers and likable characters reel audiences in for a poignant lesson in the importance of accepting other people's differences. Don't miss out!

Lots of Razzle Dazzle, But Not Much Else

Two years ago I watched as Chicago took home half a dozen Oscars and wondered whether I would feel bitter about them when I finally got around to seeing the movie. I like musicals, so I wanted to withhold judgment, but when I did get around to watching it I was gravely disappointed. I watched in the company of a roomful of people who loved the film, so I kept my criticisms to myself until I got in the car upon our departure. As it turned out, the members of my immediate family shared my lack of enthusiasm. Maybe we’re just too old-fashioned.

First off, Chicago takes place in probably my least favorite decade of the 20th Century: the 1920s. Anything I see depicting that era seems awash in a haze of cigarette smoke and cynicism. I hated the supposed Great American Novel The Great Gatsby and Chicago didn’t redeem the 1920s for me. I found the dingy nightclub scenes bursting with slinky costumes more depressing than those in the jailhouse.

Don’t get me wrong. This is visually a very impressive film. I happen to dislike all the locales pictured, but I’ll still concede that it looks good. The costumes are flashy, the fantasy sequences are imaginative and the choreography is astounding. I wanted to like this movie, not least because a good friend of mine told me I had to see it. So I gave it a fair shot, but there’s just very little in the film that appeals to me.

I generally find Renee Zellweger irritating, and never more so in this movie, where she plays aspiring star Roxie Hart. When she discovers that the man with whom she is having an affair doesn’t intend to get her into show biz like he promised, she is so enraged that she kills him. Her steady husband Amos (John C. Reilly) rushes to her defense, claiming guilt for himself, until he discovers the affair and has a slight change of heart. I found Amos the only likable character in the whole shebang, and even that isn’t a very strong draw. We feel sorry for him, especially in the song Mr. Cellophane, but in the end he’s bland and not very memorable.

The guy who gets all the attention is Billy Flynn (Richard Gere), the slick lawyer who takes on Roxie’s case and tries to sweet-talk the public into sympathizing with her. This job is made more difficult by the fact that she possesses very limited reserves of tact and restraint, amusingly illustrated in We Both Reached for the Gun. Also making her life harder is Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones), the slinky star-turned-murderess she once idolized. Now she stands as her rival to the public’s affections, and Velma’s been around the block a few times and knows how to play the game.

While I can’t find anything remotely likable about either of these leading ladies, Matron “Mama” Morton (Queen Latifah) does hold a certain appeal for me. She is also too cold and conniving for my taste, but she puts forth the appearance, at least, of being warm and motherly at times. There are moments when I think she really does care about the women under her watch, and her African-flavored introductory number is enjoyable enough. She’s my favorite of the gals, but given the company that’s not saying too much.

The whole idea of switching constantly between real life and some dream sequence in the minds of the characters didn’t work for me. I guess I like my musicals more straightforward than that. I have no trouble accepting people bursting forth into song. I do, however, tend to find self-referential theater less than satisfying. It’s a conceit that won many viewers of the movie over, but I’m afraid it turned me off. Add to that the dearth of sympathetic characters, songs that failed to stay with me and an overriding sense of cynicism and what I was left with was a masterfully executed movie that I didn’t get anything out of. It echoed the reaction I had when I saw my alma mater’s production of On Your Toes: Gee, the cast, crew and orchestra are doing a brilliant job, but this is the most pointless play I’ve ever seen. Obviously a lot of moviegoers disagreed with me, so I won’t tell you not to bother with it. But if you’re looking for a good musical, there are a couple dozen others I’d point you to first.