I rarely pay much attention to those around me in a movie theater. We all have experienced a myriad of awful behavior from both adults and children, and it’s driven some people to stay home and simply watch movies on Netflix (or pirate them), but I’ve mostly learned to tune them out. There are exceptions, when I want to see how people react to a particular moment in a film I’ve seen before, but mostly I ignore people rudely talking or checking their cell phones and such. However, I started to notice an interesting trend during Into the Woods that brought a lot of questions to my mind, particularly as it pertains to the state of musical films in today’s pop culture landscape. And it all made me wonder whether movie musicals will ever be popular enough again to have a regular place at the table of major film genres, and why, exactly, people stopped loving musicals.
Elphaba: What? What are you all looking at? OH! Do I have something in my teeth? Is my underskirt showing? Alright, let’s just get this over with. No, I am not seasick. Yes, I’ve always been green. No, I didn’t eat grass as a child…
Wicked
Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.
Babe is one of my favorite movies. And while I love all of the things that everyone else praises, the story of an “unprejudiced heart” who challenges preconceptions, the fantastic music (which will be a post of its own one day soon) and the Oscar-winning effects, my favorite part of the movie is one that is often overlooked: Arthur Hoggett. Though James Cromwell was nominated for an Oscar for the role, losing to Kevin Spacey for his deserving role in The Usual Suspects, his performance in this Best Picture nominee has been mostly ignored in the 18 years since Babe’s release. So today, I’d like to highlight one of my favorite characters/performances, who turns out to be deeper than he might seem on one viewing.
The Love Pirate 