Alice in Wonderland (1951)
My March Blind Spot Series Pick was Alice in Wonderland. It’s of course the famous tale of the girl who falls down a rabbit hole and into Wonderland. Much as I love the story (and wonder who goes around sticking their heads down holes?) I’ve never seen this version.
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Directed by: John McPhail
Grade: A
I tried watching a holiday Zombie musical and darn it I loved it! This is also the second zombie movie I’ve seen that has seriously made me cry. (Train to Busan being the first.) Maybe zombie stuff makes me overly emotional? Of course this one also made me want to sing and dance through a graveyard so there’s that…
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Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
Grade: B+
Considering that choosing films for the Blind Spot Series is very much like a TBR (TBW?) it’s amazing I stuck with it this long. Truth be told I’m very much a mood watcher like a mood reader and I didn’t want to watch any of the movies on my list.
I wound up watching this Marilyn Monroe/Jane Russell classic and completely enjoyed it.
Normally I’m not into musicals. There has to be something about them that’s either slightly off (like Chicago) or they have to be somehow natural (like Moulin Rouge was natural to me because they were all singers and artists in a nightclub like atmosphere). It’s the everyday musicals that I don’t ever get but I thought somehow my love for Anna Kendrick would make The Last Five Years different.
5 minutes in: Okay, this is good. Good start. I can do this.
20 minutes: This is a lot of singing.
40 minutes: Please stop singing for a little while!
1 hour: If you stopped singing and talked to each other maybe you could work out some of your problems!
1 1/2 hours: The final song was good but by then they were all running together.
I don’t think I would have been big on this one even without the singing. Jamie and Cathy meet, they fall in love, he sells a novel without even blinking (which personally did not endear him to me.) Meanwhile struggling actress Cathy can’t catch a break and it’s pretty easy to know what’s coming for this relationship.
It might have been personal bias but I couldn’t ever connect with Jamie like I did Cathy and Kendrick is just so charming that you really feel for her. She makes you feel Cathy’s struggle. Besides the first and final number none of the music really stood out to me except for some scenes where I thought it overpowered everything else and not in a good way.
Recommend: This is one of those cup of tea movies if you like theatre style musicals you should give this a try. Check out a preview and you’ll probably know if this is your type of movie or not. I like my musicals big, dreamy and over the top so I will be wildly looking forward to finally getting to see Into the Woods soon.
