My work is blocking blogger now. So while I can read other people's blogs I can't comment or post on my own. So instead of wasting time posting comments and blogging, I wasted an extra half hour looking for a proxy server so I could then post comments and blog. Take that, district overlords.
Everyone should have a cane. I found a reasonably stylish one yesterday at Rite Aid, of all places, and I've been stomping around on it ever since.
It's really annoying when every single person you see asks you what happened and you don't have an exciting story to tell, especially since half the people asking have never said two words to me before. Please, people. You don't care. You're just curious.
My story: I got jumped in the Target parking lot and I kicked the guy in the head, knocking out three of his teeth and giving him a concussion but spraining my foot in the process. It helps with my street cred.
When I went to the Sweeny Todd screening last night I wore a leather trench coat so I'm pretty sure I looked like a super villain. They call me Ms. Chiquita. (They actually do but I'm not going into detail as to why.)
Speaking of villains, Sweeny Todd was kick ass. If Charles Dickens and Edgar Allen Poe hung out and sang songs composed by the Phantom of the Opera, this is what they would have created. And I mean that in a good way.
INCREDIBLY MINOR SPOILERS
It's basically a dark comedic horror musical. It was a story about the perils of revenge, but the antagonist is not completely clear here because at some point there are many characters doing horrible things. And that goes perfectly well with the opening where a bright, innocent sailor sings about how great London is and is interrupted by Sweeny Todd singing his own version where London is a place filled with vermin.
That theme is carried all the way through the film. Everyone's a sinner, nobody's innocent and we all deserve to die. But the people who believe that are the ones who get screwed at the end by their own actions, so while everyone keeps preaching despair and disgust, the true message in this story is that obsessing over revenge will blind you to any opportunity for happiness.
Sacha Baron Cohen got instant, constant laughs as the competing Italian barber and of course Alan Rickman, Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter did their usual skillful performances, even more impressive here since all of them are actors, not singers. Nobody even knew if Johnny Depp could sing at all but he kept promising he could so the producers trusted him, right up until the first day of shooting. He sounds pretty damn good to me.
When I was a kid my mom gave me a tape of Barbara Streisand singing a bunch of musical numbers. I knew the ones from The King and I and West Side Story, but most of the songs I had no idea what shows they came from. Last night as I was watching the movie I got really excited as soon as Sweeny Todd crooned the first line of "Pretty Women" because I knew it. Then later came "Not While I'm Around" which I also knew. For years I had theorized what kind of story those songs were connected to. I assure you I never thought they were part of a story about a barber who likes to slit people's throats.
In short, I am happy to say that the film lives up to the hype. It's definitely the best R rated horror musical comedy in the theaters this Christmas.
I heard about this on the radio today (NPR). It seems that they hired Johnny Depp and took his word that he could do it. Well I think it was producer/writer John Logan (or whomever it was) brings a tape player with some ear phones and puts it on the director's (Tim Burton's) desk and leaves. The Tim listens to it. Johnny Depp singing. So he goes to whomever it was and they're crying over how good he really turned out to be.
ReplyDeleteI would remember better if I wasn't concentrating on not getting hit by people who are unable to drive in a snowstorm but act like they can regardless.
According to Logan at the Q&A it was Johnny singing over the cast recording. It was like right before they were supposed to start shooting.
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