@Rinel said in Good or New Movies Review:
Crucial to understanding our differences of opinion on the work is the fact that its music was never mentioned in your post.
Of course not. Music is something I don't fight about with people. Some people like Cardi B, for instance, and I find her rapping to be hot garbage.
I have found that many people get hung up on any of the songs with the word "jellicle" in it. That's fine, but nonsense words are: (1) sort of what the modernist poets, like T.S. Eliot, were all about; and (2) perfectly crumulent in a musical number. That aside, if you like the music in the musical, you will probably really like Hudson's Memory and, of course, Grizabella the Glamour Cat,* while hating Swift's version of Macavity or the fact that they turned Skimbleshanks into a tap number (but it sort of makes sense, I suppose, for the railway cat).
I really liked what they did for Magical Mr. Mistoffles. Sir McKellen kills it as Gus the Theatre Cat,** but I am just flabbergasted and appalled that they elected to remove/alter Growltiger's Last Stand (because of racist performances back in the 80s). Hated Wilson; tolerated Corden; and am in love with Hayward.
If I read another person's comment about Dench's "unnecessary" fourth wall break, I swear I'm going to scream.
*- This was based on the poem given to ALW by Eliot's literary executor, and was excluded from the Old Possum book because it was too sad for children. The song opens with an except from Eliot's Rhapsody on a Windy Night, and is a wicked bitch to sing.
**- When you listen to it, close your eyes and imagine Sir McKellen quietly singing as a doddering old actor seeking to be reborn to tell more stories to a new generation.