JUSTIIIIICE
Umm, so my Entertainment Weekly came in the mail today. The rest of the family usually takes a look at it too. I hadn't had a chance to look at it yet, but my little brother was flipping through it and he goes "Did you see the thing about Moulin Rouge! in here?" So of course I was like !!!!!!!!!!!
And then I come over and read this loveliness...
No review I've ever written for EW have I wanted to do over as much as my review of 200l's Moulin Rouge! I enjoyed some aspects of the movie - like Ewan McGregor crooning "Your Song" - but I also found it shrill and overly stylized, a jarring jumble of tones and moods. And so I said that and awarded it a B-. About a year later, I saw it again and swooned - for two hours. I thought it was a rapturous modern-musical masterpiece. What changed? On that initial viewing I thought the opening half hour was so frenzied that, on some level, it froze me out of the movie. The second time, I saw that director Baz Luhrmann was orchestrating a fabulous yin and yang: the cold, dark, inhospitable world and the promise of love that could lift you out of it-but only at moments,like a dream interrupted. The movie was a pop-art tragedy that gazed at an ecstasy just out of reach. Had I connected with Moulin Rouge! that way the first time, it would have been my movie of the year (and a straight A), elbowing aside Memento. Instead, it's my biggest mistake. -Owen Gleiberman
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
I literally squeed when I read this!! It's EW's 20th anniversary this year, and the movie reviewers are revisiting some of their initial judgments. I remember being pissed over that B- rating back in 2001 when it came out.
He TOTALLY captures the magic of my absolute favorite movie with this. I wish everyone who had a negative first impression after that initial frenzied 20 minutes could come back to it with this attitude and see it for the truly breathtaking, visionary piece of art that it is.
This makes me so happy. I seriously think I'm gonna write him a thank you note ;)
And then I come over and read this loveliness...
No review I've ever written for EW have I wanted to do over as much as my review of 200l's Moulin Rouge! I enjoyed some aspects of the movie - like Ewan McGregor crooning "Your Song" - but I also found it shrill and overly stylized, a jarring jumble of tones and moods. And so I said that and awarded it a B-. About a year later, I saw it again and swooned - for two hours. I thought it was a rapturous modern-musical masterpiece. What changed? On that initial viewing I thought the opening half hour was so frenzied that, on some level, it froze me out of the movie. The second time, I saw that director Baz Luhrmann was orchestrating a fabulous yin and yang: the cold, dark, inhospitable world and the promise of love that could lift you out of it-but only at moments,like a dream interrupted. The movie was a pop-art tragedy that gazed at an ecstasy just out of reach. Had I connected with Moulin Rouge! that way the first time, it would have been my movie of the year (and a straight A), elbowing aside Memento. Instead, it's my biggest mistake. -Owen Gleiberman
:DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD
I literally squeed when I read this!! It's EW's 20th anniversary this year, and the movie reviewers are revisiting some of their initial judgments. I remember being pissed over that B- rating back in 2001 when it came out.
He TOTALLY captures the magic of my absolute favorite movie with this. I wish everyone who had a negative first impression after that initial frenzied 20 minutes could come back to it with this attitude and see it for the truly breathtaking, visionary piece of art that it is.
This makes me so happy. I seriously think I'm gonna write him a thank you note ;)