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rhythmbandit

rhythmbandit

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A musical based on the life of Jonathan Larson, creator of Rent who died aged 35. Starring Andrew Garfield and directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda. Limited cinema release this week, released to Netflix next.



Garfield highly fancied for a best actor Oscar nomination, and it's had great reviews.
 
Ellie said:
Have the day off today so popping into the Curzon later to see it properly.
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How exciting! The reviews I've read have been mostly positive, I just fear I may have had my fill of LMM for a while, so I'll be waiting until Friday.
 
looking forward to seeing the film - glad that SUGAR song is gone - and Jazmine sounds stunnin' as Peabo Bryson here

 
Rhythmbarbican said:
Torn between travelling 2 hours to my 'local' Showcase Cinema or waiting to watch on Netflix now. :shock:
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2 hours, ouch.

I must say the trailer makes it look quite generic, and it's anything but that, so I'm not quite sure how some audiences will react. There's a whole fantasy scene in the diner with just a who's who of Broadway making cameo after cameo. Garfield is in every scene I think. I can't believe he had never really sung before this - I listened to an interview with him this week where he said he always wanted to sing and dance, knew he definitely wasn't tone deaf, but had never actually pursued performing in that way. From this you'd think he'd been doing it for decades!
 
I loved this. Andrew Garfield is phenomenal and it’s such a beautiful tribute to Larson.
 
Saw this on Friday and thought it was terrific. Absolutely Rent The Prequel but that's not a bad thing. I liked the score a lot, Garfield was obnoxious and excellent at the centre of it all and everyone else was just in his orbit and his shadow. Michael fared better than drippy Susan in leaving a mark and I did enjoy Hudgens (first time seeing her in anything!) giving it some welly with the tunes.

Not hard to see why the story of a monomaniacal songwriter determined to unleash his apparent genius unto the world by creating a musical worthy of Sondheim appealed to Lin Manuel Miranda of course :eyes: but the direction was solid and interesting and it was opened up really well. I enjoyed the self congratulatory "Sunday" number but the cameos (I recognised about two thirds of them) were very cliquey and smug but very fun :D I did wonder how he got away with the direct lifting of Sondheim's song until I looked at the writing credits!

On a sadder note, it would have been so interesting what Larson would have done with a few more rewrites that Rent so desperately needs, and even more so what would have come next, once he moved on from his Lower East Side Bohemia fixation.

Best musical film of the year so far for me so far, but the competition is pretty weak. Only Jamie was similar levels of fun and that's no masterpiece. Annette, Cyrano and West Side Story still to come!
 
Loved it. Admittedly I'd never heard of Larson or seen Rent before so I wasn't really aware of his story. But it was beautifully told and directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, but my judgement is probably clouded because I'm currently stanning hard over him. I also loved In the Heights, Vivo, the Disney plus production of Hamilton and Encanto is out next week. Still, a solid 9.
 
Rhythmbarbican said:
Loved it. Admittedly I'd never heard of Larson or seen Rent before so I wasn't really aware of his story. But it was beautifully told and directed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, but my judgement is probably clouded because I'm currently stanning hard over him. I also loved In the Heights, Vivo, the Disney plus production of Hamilton and Encanto is out next week. Still, a solid 9.
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I still haven’t seen Vivo. Never particularly loved In The Heights either, so my LMM love came purely from Hamilton, Moana and a lot of watched interviews with him where he talked a lot about music and was pretty much describing my own taste to a tee. I really enjoyed the Bring It On stage production too.

He’s just very very talented, even though I don’t love absolutely everything he does. I can see how his innate optimistic enthusiasm might not be for everyone, but I just love his unapologetic approach to everything.

Not sure what the numbers are for Netflix, but I agree with this:

 
The voicemail that Stephen Sondheim left for Larson near the end of the film was actually Stephen himself. What a nice touch.
 
LMM has been flogging that anecdote everywhere - always including the "I'm not turning down a Sondheim rewrite" line :D
 
Really enjoyed this. The trailer totally does it a disservice, I remember when it first came out my friend and I were laughing about how shit it looked.

Garfield was a total knockout and I’d gladly see him take home the Oscar. Also, didn’t Vanessa Hudgen’s hair look LOVELY? :disco:
 
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