The movie adaptation of Joseph Papp’s Broadway production has everything: swordfights, love affairs, comedy, and the original brilliant lyrics and music. In updating Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta for a modern…everything: swordfights, love affairs, comedy, and the original brilliant lyrics and music. In updating Gilbert & Sullivan’s operetta for a modern (i.e. 1983) audience, Papp cast the multitalented Linda Ronstadt and Kevin Kline in the leading roles. Ronstadt’s soprano is more than equal to Mabel’s vocal fireworks, and Kline embodies the over-the-top macho swashbuckler with panache. The sets are stylistically reminiscent of the stage rather than a…
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Cold Comfort Farm
This witty satire is based on Stella Gibbons’s 1932 comic novel. It’s clever, charming, hilarious, and delightfully twisted in that inimitable British way. A large extended family of eccentric (not…delightfully twisted in that inimitable British way. A large extended family of eccentric (not to say depraved) characters is brilliantly cast, featuring, among others, Kate Beckinsale, Stephen Fry, and Joanna Lumley. It milks every drop of humor out of its simple premise: a young woman, recently orphaned, goes to live with her relatives in the country and attempts to create order out of generations of chaos. The movie is remarkably faithful to t…
Little Miss Sunshine
This movie shows that life is an adventure. An imperfect, slightly dysfunctional family of six sets out on a road trip, and all their quirky personalities are crowded together in one bright yellow van that cannot hope to contain them. As they encounter ever more emotional and mechanical breakdowns the characters learn how to handle imperfection and failure. They encounter situations which are sometimes dark, yet still hilarious. With lots of situ…
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