A couple of movies I caught screenings of this week: "Dreamgirls" totally lives up to the hype, with great music, an engaging story, and an absolutely amazing performance from "American Idol" vet Jennifer Hudson, who I would say is a better-than-even bet to win an Oscar for her first-ever movie. The audience we saw it with was about 95% theater queens, who knew every word of the score and applauded after every song (and sometimes in the middle of them.) If the movie didn't meet with their approval, it would be DOA, but that's not the case this time.
Much less impressive? "The Fountain," 90 minutes of cinematic gibberish from "Requiem For a Dream" director Darren Aronofsky. He's clearly going for a "2001"/"Solaris" homage, but I was reminded more of "What Dreams May Come." The film makes little sense, is difficult-to-impossible to follow, and the nicest thing I can say about it is that it was short. I do expect, though, for it to have a small but vocal minority of fans who get it, love it, and call it the best movie of the year. I love Rachel Weisz, but boy, does she pick some bad movies.
Posted by Stephen Silver at November 17, 2006 11:00 AMI saw the Fountain a couple of weeks ago and it was extraordinary.
Great film.
Posted by: Greg at November 17, 2006 02:59 PMSounds like I should see this movie. I didn't want to before. But I actually understood and liked What Dreams May Come. So from you are saying, I will like this.
Posted by: A at November 18, 2006 03:32 PM