I would like to apologise to the people on the District Line at my out-loud reaction to one particular moment in this movie.
So, just before she was due to start filming the final season of Stranger Things, Sadie Sink flew out to Croatia to do a musical. Unfortunately, the writers went on strike before the cameras rolled, but since SAG-AFTRA was not yet in a position to call their strike, she had to carry on filming. So, perhaps this movie might not be as polished as it could be... like Quantum of Solace.
But it's fair to say that this movie doesn't have a quantum of anything. If you're here for subtlety, go somewhere else.
In "another time, another place", O'Dessa Galloway (Sink) is a farmgirl, well, farmwoman in a desolate, poisoned world. Her father was a sixth-generation "rambler", basically a travelling troubadour, with a guitar carved from a burning willow tree and called Willa as a result. After falling in love with and marrying her mother, he went off... and his guitar came back in a coffin. So Mama buried it.
However, Daddy told his daughter that she is the Seventh Son, destined to bring back hope to the world. No, a penis is not required for this task.
Now their farm is pretty much gone, its goodness sucked away and O'Dessa's mum has generic terminal illness. When she goes the way of the Norwegian Blue, O'Dessa digs up the guitar, then burns the house down, complete with her mother's body. I think you're supposed to at least wait for probate to be completed before you do that sort of thing.
She goes for a spot of rambling herself. She meets some old friends of her father and they have a campfire sing-a-long with her... then O'Dessa wakes up plus one hangover with blue vomit, minus one guitar. She has to ride the back of a truck to one of the last remains of civilisation, Satylite City...
That is run by the evil Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett), who dominates the airwaves, brainwashes the population via it and deals with dissidents by making them appear on his deadly TV talent show.
As she tries to get her stolen guitar out of the pawn shop, she also falls for a nightclub singer called Euri Dervish (Kelvin Harrison Jr.), but true love is never an easy path...
I don't know how familiar Gen Z are familiar with Greek mythology. As a Millennial, I know some of it and have more than once compared things to the Augean stables.
Anyway, this movie is based very much on Orpheus and Eurydice, where a guy loses the love of life on his wedding day and goes to the underworld to bring her back.
Here it's rather gender-swapped and gender-bending as well. O'Dessa is Orpheus in this piece, who gives herself a rather dramatic short haircut when leaving her old life (do not try this at tome), dressing for much of the movie in a very male-coded way, including a leather jacket and later a white suit that makes her look rather like Elvis Presley.
Meanwhile, we've got Euri Dervish - Euridyce - who despite having a blue-tinged close shave worthy of Ncuti Gatwa, presents himself in a rather feminine manner and seems to be also working as a prostitute for his pimp Dion (Dionysus, the Greek god of fertility, wine-making and theatre among other things). Dion (Regina King) also happens to be the main enforcer for Plutonovich, aimed with a nasty electric knuckle duster and a very questionable haircut, of which there are a few in this movie.
There are some romance scenes, along with strongly implied sex, but you don't see anything explicit. Clearly they knew tweens might watch this even if Disney gave this a 16+ rating.
This androgynous status even goes to the wedding scene, where O'Dessa in the white suit takes on the groom role. Of course the wedding goes awry and she must voyage to Onederworld to rescue her love before he has to dance for his life on live TV.
This is not the deepest, most subtle story in the world. It's a rock opera musical, not designed for a close analysis of economics, governance or indeed physics on one occasion. But it's definitely an enjoyable enough one, with some strong beats and an ending that might be termed ambiguous.
The fact that this went onto Hulu/Disney+ directly instead of a cinema release suggests that there is not - yet - enough confidence to let Sadie Sink carry a tentpole movie. The best actress in Stranger Things is definitely heading in that direction; I would still want her to expand her range a tad from short-tempered teenager. Speaking of "short", O'Dessa is subjected to repeated jibes about her stature and a couple of microaggressions involving microphones. No, that pun wasn't intended.
Sink has the ability to convey great emotion just by fairly small movements on her still very youthful face; her character gets to fall in love and then have several large challenges thrown her way including one life-changing injury. The climax in particular serves her very well and I would say that one move of hers challenges the Stranger Things episode "Dear Billy" for sheer audacity.
I'm not a huge fan of musicals in general, but I've got some songs from that ilk on my Spotify list. The songs here are fairly decent and because O'Dessa is a musician, they can flow naturally into a story, rather than just spontaneously happen for no obvious reason. It helps that Sadie Sink is a very good singer, having started in Broadway musicals and recently returned there for a play called John Proctor is the Villain, currently in previews. Murray Bartlett also gets a good villain song with "Onderworld".
Like I said, this is not a subtle movie. There's an awful lot of neon and garish outfits; there is a real sense of desolation in many of the scenes, while the whole conceit is a tad unrealistic in anything but a musical.
It's also the sort of play that would translate well to the stage. The climax is done literally in a studio with appropriate blocking that leaves O'Dessa nowhere to hide as her very life is on the line, Plutovonich standing over her in seeming control. Seeming, mind. Like Max, O'Dessa is a rather quick thinker.
Also, there is one rather long bit in a tunnel where the obvious joke was made by me. Sadie Sink will not be able to run away from that role for a good many years. Pun fully intended.
Conclusion
I personally quite liked this movie - the climax makes up for some of the other issues in particular. There are worse ways to spend a commute.
Again, my apologies for the audible reaction. I will try not to do it again.
8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment