I am a fan of some musicals and with this impressive all-star cast featuring Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, Meryl Streep and Keegan-Michael Key I had to give this one a shot. Especially since they are not the type of people that I would typically think would apart of a campy movie musical. They did not disappoint with their performances, especially given the one-dimensional character development, corny plot and script. There was also quite a bit of overacting from a couple of the leads, James Corden and the newcomer, Jo Ellen Pellman; as well as some of the smaller cast members. What I did appreciate most in the casting though was the attempt at showcasing a very diverse looking group of people.
I know that this was set in small town America, but the costumes and hair styling were terrible. I am sure some of that was intentional but it almost seemed like the cast wore their own clothes and didn’t have a stylist or costume designer on set.
The plot was well-intended and I liked the themes of acceptance, poking fun at Broadway elites, faux activism, and class superiority. I did however think that it was good 45min too long and the soundtrack was painful to listen to. Also, the dance sequences felt unoriginal; giving me She's All That vibes mixed with Disney's High School Musical or Glee and most importantly, instead of normalizing the gay experience like some recent award winning television shows have done of late, like Euphoria and Schitt’s Creek, they played on the stereotypes and made it feel unauthentic.
Over all there were a couple of good jokes, a couple of heartfelt moments and a string of great performances. Unfortunately the writing, soundtrack and the story sunk this experience for me. If it takes you multiple times to finish a movie, like it did for me, it’s not the one. Even though I really wanted to support this one, I would have to say skip it.
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