Starting with Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. Another article this morning says "in 2007 an unprecedented number of serious films, along with the usual slasher movies, contemplated the end of life." Todd is a serious film (possibly history's most serious musical) and a promiscuous slasher flick, all-singing, all-dying.

A very simple story with easily grasped character motivations reverberates by its climax into something that explores the dangers of romantic ideals as deeply as Hitchcock's Vertigo, the relation of violence to family and politics like Shakespearean and Greek tragedy, and whatever ineffable mystery is embodied in a pieta. It didn't need a cast that could sing (because the music is by Stephen Be-Damned-If-You-Can-Hum-This Sondheim) but it did need one that could act brilliantly (because the words are by Stephen My-Subtexts-Have-Subtexts Sondheim) and Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, and Snape reach the necessary heights. The men are excellent, and Carter still blows them away.

Flaw: Anthony Stewart Head's appearance is subliminal.

Pointy | December 23, 18:34 CET

um, Manohla's a girl. been reading her off and on for years, living in LA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manohla_Dargis

annagranfors | December 23, 19:32 CET

Huh. H'bout that. Well.

Pointy | December 23, 19:44 CET

I'll go with "Pointy" with "Sweeney Todd". I call it a slasher musical, but this story has been around for than a hundred years and the musical for nearly 30 years. Leave it to Burton to put a new spin to this classic tale by making the movie version a different animal than the Broadway version. Johnny Depp should get an Oscar nomination for this.
This morning, I'd say "Waitress" was the favorite film, but that may change after I see "Juno" this afternoon.

impalergeneral | December 23, 21:56 CET

I nominate Ed Sanders, who played Toby, for a Best Supporting Actor award, myself.

Kirochka | December 24, 02:00 CET

It would be great to include Ed Sanders in the mix for that category, because his permornace is great as a singer and actor.
By the way, when Juno arrives in your town, go and meet her. Ellen Page just owns this movie, but Jason Bateman and Jennifer Garner are also great as the adoptive couple. J.K. Simmons is also a riot as Juno's dad, too. This movie may not have enough to overcome No Country For Old Men or possibly There Will Be Blood in the Best Picture race, but it should get Original Screenplay. I'd even vote for Ellen for Best Actress, but that may go to Julie Christie for Away From Her.

impalergeneral | December 24, 04:08 CET

Critics seems to love Sweeney even if they don't quite appreciate what Tim Burton's doing with it.

One complained that the actor playing Anthony Hope, the young sailor who falls for Johanna, was too pretty, and that cutting some of his songs made his love-at-first-sight seem too much like the Judge's predatory gaze. The actor looks a lot like pre-calamity Benjamin Barker, and I think the movie uses the resemblance to draw parallels between those two characters the way it draws them between Sweeney and the Judge. The latter pair duets about the effect that pretty girls with "yellow" hair have on them in a distinctly creepy way, and Anthony's singing about stealing Johanna underlines that he, like the other two, sees her in symbolic rather than human terms. I think the casting and cutting weren't mistakes, but art, since they make it possible for the movie to draw parallels between an entirely sympathetic character (Anthony), an entirely unsympathetic character (the Judge) and Mr. In Between (Sweeney). Bleak art, like Vertigo, about how idealizing women can go hand in hand with objectifying and destroying them.

(On stage, but not in the movie, Sweeney encounters his wife, identified only as the beggar woman, early in the show and fails to recognize her. This is not a good sign.)

I listened to the original cast album today and on first blush it appears that they changed Johanna's character a great deal. On the album, her songs seemed to suggest false hope of a happy ending, but in the movie the songs are cut and she gets a speech in which she announces that she has no hopes, no dreams, only nightmares. She tries to escape from her present troubles, but she has no illusion that doing so will mean her troubles end.

Pointy | December 24, 09:01 CET

I think the young man was icky and his love(ahem) was bland. They were basically non-entities for me, and even with the soundtrack I'm skipping their songs. The meat, if you'll pardon, was Sweeney and Mrs. Lovett. What a beautiful tragedy it was.

What I loved:

Alan Rickman. He can never be bad, not even if he tried. I mean, he can't be a bad actor. He can always be bad...

It was bloody, but not what I'd consider gory. If that makes any sense.

Helena Bonham Carter. I generally find her oogy for some unexplainable reason, but I really liked her here.

Saturation. Or de-saturation rather. God, what a dreary place that London is. Beautiful.

Johnny Depp. Yeah, well, duh.

The Priest. He was good. Too good, at least. :~)

[ edited by Rogue Slayer on 2007-12-25 00:16 ]

Rogue Slayer | December 25, 03:16 CET