The MoFo Top 100 Musicals Countdown

What has happened!? ANOTHER REVEAL!

How many have I seen? NEITHER!

I saw Sing Street a couple of days before submitting my ballot, but it easily made its way to it. I had it at #14. Great music, likable and lovely characters, and a very touching coming of age story that hit me in the heart (here is my review).

I haven't seen Nashville.


SEEN: 18/62
MY BALLOT: 7/25

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How does that work? Did you just know?

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Sing Street has a great cast of fun and likable characters with good and often funny dialogue. Most ‘feel good’ compared to the other two Carney musicals. Loved all the eighties inspirations and references. Back To The Future, Michael Jackson’s Beat It video, The Cure, Duran Duran, Hall & Oates and a-ha. Somehow slipped my mind while compiling a ballot. Glad to see it made top forty regardless. Good job MoFos.

I'd only vaguely heard of Sing Street somewhere, somehow, but I didn't know it had the lovely Lucy Boynton it, so it's a must now!

Nashville is one of my favorite Robert Altman films (and that's a short list, sorry fans!) and despite it being chock-full of people performing songs in concert and in bars, I never though of it as a musical. Cool that it made it. Sing Street is on my watch list now.

So far:
#1. On the Town #93 (list proper)
#6. Easter Parade #78 (list proper)
#10. Gigi #85 (list proper)
#12. Calamity Jane #84 (list proper)
#14. Seven Brides for Seven Brothers #71 (list proper)
#18. The Muppet Movie #45 (list proper)
#25. Neptune's Daughter (one-pointer)

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"Miss Jean Louise, Mr. Arthur Radley."

Sing Street - I think I had something of a movie watching burnout causing a watching draught, during the months leading up to the ballot, because Sing Street was on my watchlist, it was vaguely far down on my general watch list for the past decade, and I still didn't get around to it for my ballot. It's safe to say, still unseen, if I had watched it, it probably would have made my ballot.

Nashville - I think there's a case to make for Inside Llewyn Davis as a musical, but kind of didn't consider it. I know people sing and everything in Nashville, but I'm struggling on interpreting it as a musical. Maybe I just don't remember enough of the performances or how they played out in their scenes.

Nashville is great but what little I remembered told me it was not a musical so I couldn't vote for it.

I did vote for Sing Street.

5. Charlotte's Web (#79)
7. Stingray Sam (#46)
10. The Lure (#51)
14. A Star is Born 2018 (#43)
15. Sing Street (#40)
17. Calamity Jane (#84)
20. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (#66)
21. A Star is Born 1954 (#67)
23. Pink Floyd - The Wall (#41)
25. 42nd Street (#76)

You can ask for edits. They were flexible this time. I had Sting Ray on my list but flipped it for Brave Little Toaster after careful consideration.

Did you decide webisodes shouldn’t be elgible

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Letterboxd

Nashville a musical? Who knew!

This surprises me. Not that you traded it for BLT, but that you considered Stingray Sam at all (your review wasn't exactly a glowing endorsement) and that they allowed edits after votes were submitted. Usually countdown votes are final unless something ineligible gets voted for.

It had a theatrical release, played at several film festivals including Sundance, and was released on DVD (which is sadly no longer available). It was also at one time available to stream on Netflix, Amazon, and iTunes.

Nashville (1975, Robert Altman)



I haven't seen Nashville in years, and it is certainly due for a re-watch again, but it's a film I do love quite a bit - albeit more on an intellectual level than on a raw emotional level. Regarding whether or not it is a musical, as the question has popped up here, according to the rules of having at least three musical numbers and it showing up as musical on either wiki or IMDB, it meets all the criteria. Also the fact that the musical numbers happen on stage in "real time performance" akin to something like maybe Cabaret, doesn't bother me at all. By this I mean that it's not like typical musicals where people burst out into song at random, but would reflect situations and locations in real life where we expect to hear people singing.

Nashville is a great film and a very unique film in that it has all the hallmarks of the Robert Altman sound montage and the ensemble cast multiple storylines and characters whose lives and circumstances intersect at some point and the cause-effect of actions. It's different because there's no real main protagonist or antagonist - certainly some characters are better people than others and follow a stronger moral compass, but it doesn't fit into the normal plotline of narrative fiction.

I also appreciate the focus on country music and gospel music which is a genre and culture that doesn't always get representation in film. Another one I can think of off the top of my head that is somewhat akin to Nashville in that regard is the Jennifer Jason Leigh picture, Georgia, which is also decent, but certainly not as singular and special or trendsetting as Nashville was. In addition I admire the attention to showing how the world of politics, individuals following their dreams no matter how futile they are, and the world of the Nashville country music scene intersect. Music and politics have of course always gone hand-in-hand especially in the time period of the 1960s and 1970s with the insanity of the Vietnam War, LBJ's radical new policies that uprooted the culture, and the tragedy of the high profile assassinations of the time, most prolific of which obviously being JFK, RFK, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X - lesser higher profile ones happened to with Medgar Evers and the George Wallace attempt. This of course here in 2024 is every bit as poignant today as we have a former President and current Presidential candidate, love him or hate him, who has tragically had two publicized assassination attempts on him.



So Nashville, for my money, is a film that might be difficult to get into with the high cost of entry of narrative that were not used to, sound montage that were not used to, and the way the musical numbers are staged that isn't conventional, but it's a great and meaningful and powerful film all the same. It's worth taking a chance on and I completely get why it might not be everyone's thing. It's not my favorite Robert Altman film - that always has and will forever belong to McCabe & Mrs. Miller, but it's still one of his best and a lot of people would be well justified in arguing that it's his best film. Of course the most important director today who is the spiritual successor of Robert Altman is Paul Thomas Anderson who for anyone that has seen and loved Boogie Nights and Magnolia can easily see the influence of Nashville on those films.

I voted Nashville in my number 16 spot and I am glad to see it make this list, as it's a film I wasn't sure would make it now that we're nearing the top of the list. Also considering only six people voted for it, I imagine it must've made a couple of people's top 10 which is cool.

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One pointer for Fredward almost.

Haven't seen Sing Street.

Nashville is pretty good, but it's been some time since I've seen it. Like a few Altman's, I feel I'd need to rewatch it to fully appreciate it.

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I love Nashville, but don't consider it a musical, so I didn't put it on my ballot. I like Sing Street, but didn't have room on my ballot for it.

Seen: 60/62

Sing Street is a film, I've never heard of until this thread. From the premise, it looks like it has potential AND it appears to be streaming on Netflix. Should be worth a watch.

Sally Tomato doesn't like Sing Sing, but he makes it work, somehow he does he does with the help of Holly Golightly and the weather report!

40. Sing Street (2016) - When I watched Sing Street it was in the unfortunate position of being hyped up to an unreasonable degree of expectation that I'd go insane with love for it, and when I saw that it was just a movie I had to think to myself "Why isn't it happening?" It never does when I watch underdog movies which have wall to wall ecstatic reviews and recommendations. I'm really going to have to give it another go one day, with those expectations dialed way down - the same happened with me regards Once. Or maybe I'm just a sour misfit with a black heart - but I so want to fall in love with movies that other people have guaranteed me I'll fall in love with. When my reaction is just, "Yeah, it was okay" I feel cheated by my own need for these movies to creep up on me completely unexpectedly. The 1980s was my era too. Maybe it was because I'm not musical. My father is naturally gifted musically - and the joke's on me because I can't carry the simplest of tunes. Not on my ballot.

39. Nashville (1975) - I've reviewed Nashville on my Robert Altman thread here, and of course I really went into things at length trying to say everything I'll ever want to say about a movie in my reviews. It's another movie I didn't think of as a musical for my ballot, because if I were including the likes of Inside Llewyn Davis and Nashville on quality alone they'd sure be in the top 25. I've actually got a different Altman film that I'm 100% sure now won't show up - unfortunately. You can call this a musical if you like - I don't mind, especially if you were running short of options. I think it's more of a musical than Inside Llewyn Davis was for some reason. Just the vibe. Really intelligent film this one, while at the same time free-flowing and natural like many of Altman's films are. Not on my ballot either.

Seen : 41/62

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Nashville was #43 on the MoFo Top 100 of the 1970s.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra