Dreamgirls

Ok, you're all going to think it's just because I'm all gay, but it's not. You all really really have to go see Dreamgirls. Now.

It won the Golden Globe for Best Picture - Musical or Comedy, so that's something. Though I really don't understand why they just shove musicals and comedies together. Musicals themselves usually fit into one or the other category, but whatever.

As you know, I'm not good at talking about why I like things, but the movie was totally solid. Jennifer Hudson made me cry like a woman (I don't mean that) during her big number, and I never cry. Not ever... especially not uncontrollably like I was. Hell, even Jamie Foxx convinced me, and I've hated him ever since The Jamie Foxx Show.

Eddie Murphy won an award too, but he's not fooling anyone. He may have been good in Dreamgirls, but he's still wearing a fat suit in his next movie.

P.S. I'm going to ruin the ending soon if you care. It's not really one of those movies where the end's all that important, so I suggest you suck it up and read on.

I found myself feeling really bad for both Jennifer and Beyoncé the whole time because the plot of the movie was: "Jennifer's too fat and Beyoncé can't sing." People kept saying that over and over, and it makes for a good story, but how would you like to be hired to play "the fat one" or "the untalented one"?

Incidentally, I want to point out how Jennifer Hudson looked amazing and elegant at the Golden Globes while Beyoncé looked like she hand-made her gown from the foil of 10,000 Hershey's kisses with almonds even though she had sadly not eaten enough (or eaten too many) to properly close the dress over her own golden globes.

But I digress.

Dreamgirls had two problems:

1) that Family song where they're all standing on the empty stage. H to the okey. I may have cried at the big Jennifer Hudson number, but I still can't stand such overwrought sentimentality. "Oh, we're such good friends, oh we'll be together forever." Save it. Give me something with substance.

2) Some of the music (like that Family song) wasn't integrated into the narrative very well. It's because for the first 40 minutes of the movie, all the singing the people do is part of a performance. Then, suddenly people are bursting into song during their daily life. It's jarring. I was thinking "Oh, we're doing this now? Ok... I guess that's fine. Wait, maybe they're rehearsing." A musical has to establish the role of its music at the outset. For instance, keeping with the movie-musical thing, Moulin Rouge established that it was going to do the typical "Characters burst into song when they can't express themselves in words" thing. Good, fine. Chicago did the "alternate-daydream-land where life is a cabaret, ol' chum but nobody sings outside of it" thing. And it worked. Dreamgirls was a little schizo, though the problem ended after the initial shock.

Also, the ending was stupid, I hate when people end things with "And then Effie got over years of being pissed upon and came on stage and everyone knew who she was and Jamie Foxx saw a girl sitting amongst a million people in the auditorium and automatically knew it was his daughter who he didn't even know existed" as so many do. Lame.

I give Dreamgirls 4.5 stars. It lost points for Beyoncé's Golden Globes dress and the looming threat of Norbit.

In conclusion, if you like awesome movies, see Dreamgirls. If you like awesome movies with violence, see Pan's Labyrinth.