I wanted to love this movie but... eh 🤷🏽♀️
I guess I don't like the storyline of the Broadway musical from which the movie is based. It felt like there were 400 different plot lines that either got resolved way too quickly or were never really resolved at all. Also the vaseline filter Lucille made them edit over her close-ups is incredibly distracting. I kept cleaning off my glasses thinking I had smudged them before the movie started.
That being…
Lighthearted, funny, and surprisingly subversive in their display of gender roles (or, I guess, as subversive as they could be in 1949). Not much of a plot, but that's not really why you put on a movie like this anyways. If you watch this movie for one reason, watch it for Gene Kelly and Vera Ellen's 6-minute dream ballet and Frank Sinatra's "You're Awful" duet. You won't be disappointed!
A timely watch in the era of COVID-based prejudice and racism. Incredibly moving, and probably my favorite Tom Hanks role!
Considering how much I love the music from the Broadway musical version, I was genuinely embarrassed by the fact that I had never seen the movie.
That being said, this storyline still holds up! The cameos (Buster Keaton?!?!?!) are impeccably placed, and Gloria Swanson gives us some of the most iconic line readings of all time in her role as Norma Desmond, and for that I am eternally grateful.
