15th Hall of Fame

This reminds me of something I saw on the internet awhile ago:

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I don't even know if I hated it, it was just so tonally inconsistent and fragmented. It was like an Adan Jodorowsky musical.

DELETE THIS PICTURE FROM THE INTERNET!

I just updated the write ups...Way to go everyone

We already have 13 review/write ups done. And 8 out of the 11 of us our on the board, with at least one movie.

Miss Vicki is the early favorite to finish first with 3/11 done so far.

I just had a look at my library account and it looks like it's going to be awhile before Shallow Grave is available. I might just rent it from Amazon and watch it tonight since I can watch Hedwig whenever.

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I just finished watching Hedwig. I thought it was pretty good, which is high praise from someone who typically hates musicals haha.

The Station Agent is on hold, but I still watched it again. This is one of those day/month/week in the life of a dwarf type story. The plot meanders we meet a group of characters and stories are told without much in the way of resolution. Everyone is very good in this very boring story, I would have preferred some resolution to Bobby Cannavale's story or if they would have done a little more with Michelle Williams.

Tom McCarthy is a gifted film maker as he once again makes New Jersey look gorgeous. He still had a way to go when it came to his writings but he quickly works out the kinks in his two followups Win/Win and The Visitor.

a day/week/month in the life of a dwarf movie? Are you serious? LOL, oh man...OK well, hope no one reads too much into this review.

BTW, The Station Agent isn't on hold any more. I've worked out my kinks over here so I'm committed and burning through these titles

Like Joel just said, he's still in the Hof...so The Station Agent is not on hold.

It looks interesting so I think The Station Agent will be the next movie I watch.

It's a "day in a life movie" how else would you describe it? It's not really a drama or a comedy. I suppose you could call it a character study, but most of the major plot points happen to people around him and he hardly factors into them.

I think it was the way which you used the word dwarf. Seemed kind of careless and condescending. Maybe I misinterpreted what you said, I don't know. I haven't seen Dinklage in his other shows or films. This was my introduction to him, and I thought he was tremendous. But I'll save all that for a proper review. But while we're on the topic of what kind of movie this is...I'd say it's a comedy and a drama as it fits nicely into both categories. The lack of resolution I don't really see that POV. I thought the ending was beautiful. It's a film about unlikely friends. I thought the writing was grand. I couldn't see the director/writer actually competing with himself for this type of film. I'll defend this film to the grave.

"Dwarf" is not a slur, "Midget" is the slur, Peter Dinklage has dwarfism.

I bet his friends call him Little Dink.

That sounds like something Trump would say.

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It's what you learn after you know it all that counts. - John Wooden
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I think he'd say something a bit demeaning like Little Dinky.

He does indeed.

I feel the film transcends that summation.

that man DID NOT age well at all. Or like he lost a deal with the Devil. Where he could become famous but would lose 10 yrs of his life and didn't really realize it was going to come out of the next 10.

This comedy musical pieced together like a never ending music video starts off rambunctious and absurd and eventually turns into something more weighty and abstract. The running theme seems to be a broken soul looking for its other side, questioning where it can be found, or if it's run off with itself, maybe somewhere close by.

Hedwig reminds me a lot of Pink Floyd: The Wall, at least in the style in which it was made. It's super intricate and the writing is usually confident enough to produce images and direction that play out amusingly and tenderly. It means business. My question is what business? I am going to assume that a lot of the narrative for Hedwig is shuffled around in the songs, and as much as I thought the music was awesome, I'm not a big lyric kind of guy. I usually tune lyrics out unless they demand my attention, and that would require them to be surrounded by instruments a lot less bombastic. Between the balladry and up tempo numbers standing in the shadows of Iggy Pop, Lou Reed, Bowie, and even Meat Loaf, I found it increasingly difficult to invest too much emotion into the story of what this person was going through. I suppose I could investigate it since it seems to be based on a road show still to this day in some form(s).

I liked this movie a lot. Regardless of my detachment from it emotionally, and despite the fact that I am very much a heterosexual male, I thought it was made beautifully, and I was laughing quite a bit.

Some stand out scenes were at the buffet, or the jewish deli. Funny stuff. Doing an airplane dive while a chef violently chops assorted shellfish and veggies on white tablecloth. A waitress grabs an open mouth kiss from a teenager while the whole family fights around the restaurant table. A mother throws a tomato at her son who is hovered in the oven with pictures plastered on the innards as he attempts to harmonize with "Walk on the Wild Side". A narcissistic Air Force colonel feeds gummy bears to a young boy who he fancies and we get these macro shots of his teeth exclaiming at how "fiiiine" he is. Why wasn't he born a girl, he asks.

There's a lot to see, and a lot to hear. I'll be thinking about this movie more a bit later, and probably looking up some fun facts about it. A lot of information at once for me to digest and understand. I know that when I first rented this when it came out, I was mostly turned off because it was a gay movie. I don't usually watch gay cinema. I am not attracted to men, and seeing men act sexually makes me feel sick. This was different. Hedwig was kind of hot for a guy. I wouldn't take him out for coffee or anything, but at least I didn't have to see full on french kissing, and there was only a quick scene of under-the-sheets humping. Also, this movie took me back to when music inspired me the most as a young adult. It was this era that had me eyeballs deep into all sorts of rediscoveries and tricks I would do at home or in bands. Not those kinds of tricks..recording tricks! Anyway..this was fun. Good nom!

have ALWAYS wondered WHAT the young Freeman looked like THANK YOU Cosmic!!

@Joel

The lyrics to the songs definitely add to the story, but perhaps aren't really crucial to enjoying it. My relationship with lyrics is much different than yours, though, as I've always paid a lot of attention to them and placed a lot of value on them in the music I listen to. I guess that probably has a lot to do with the fact that I'm a writer (as a hobby, not professionally) so words matter a lot to me. In any case, I absolutely love the songs of Hedwig and have the soundtrack on my iPod. "Wig in a Box" is my favorite.

Then again, I also have a much different relationship with gay films than you seem to and I'm totally comfortable with watching men behave sexually with each other. (And I may or may not enjoy watching gay porn from time to time. Also I might possibly have written a novel that could qualify as gay erotica. )

I should say though that I feel like there's not much in the way of men really being sexual in the film. There's a masturbation scene that turns into handjob scene. Some cuddling. That's about all I recall. Lots of innuendo, but not a lot else.

Anyhoo... Thrilled to see you liked it this time around!