Colma: The Musical

well i went not knowing what this movie was about, or even 'what' Colma was! wow was i surprised, this movie was very well done for low budget. the writing witty and funny, also moving at times. The acting great, the music was real good too had me tapping my feet ;o) the musical numbers were well choreographed with some great touches. I think that Mendoza did a great job and i am looking forward to more from him. i loved L.A Renigan! she rocks. Please go and support this movie it really deserves it! I gave this movie 10 out of 10.. not because it was one of the best .. but because so much effort must have gone into the making of it, on such a low budget.

OK, as a Bay Area resident (albeit a transplant) and indie film maven, I couldn't stay away from seeing this film. I'm considerably older than the characters and I didn't grow up in the Bay Area so I didn't relate to the story (or maybe it was just the mediocre acting, which was overshadowed by the excellent singing). Still, I thought this movie was a guilty pleasure, kinda like your favorite Mexican restaurant or greasy spoon--you know you shouldn't, but you're glad you did.

Part of what makes this film fun is its foray into camp. Some of the musical numbers were just too over the top. Billy's musical declaration of love for "Tara" would have been sweet were it not for the two guys in the background scaling the facades of the buildings and each other. The real topper is where Tara releases the band holding her hair back so the breeze'll catch it--except she's got short hair and it hardly works. It's hard to take this seriously, particularly when you realize that Billy and Tara first met at a party where Tara's operatic "Is someone in the bathroom?" is responded to by Billy's "I'm taking a sh!!!!!!!t." The camp factor is equally present in the songs we see during the performance of "Friend Joseph" (some sorta spin-off of "Pal Joey"?), a show in which Billy performs. It's just "quirky quirky quirky, so damn quirky, quirky quirky...."

I guess it's a bit of a cinematic love letter to the area--there's even a shot of Maribel reading a book nearly every San Franciscan will recognize. I was at a screening that was followed by a Q&A with the director and one of the cast--there's a sequel in the offing if this is well-received. For some reason, I can't wait to see it. :-)

I only knew about H.P. Mendoza from his music. I didn't even know what he looked like. This movie blew my mind. If Ghost World were a musical, and They Might Be Giants helped out, you'd have Colma.

It feels like no other musical I've ever seen. It has that alternative edge that a lot of other musicals claim to have. And I don't mean alternative like Nickelback. I mean like that alternative sound that's been alternative since the eighties.

And the characters are so free and trapped at the same time. Every character has some major faults, but you can't help but like them all. Rent wishes it were this realistic.

I swear, if you like They Might Be Giants, Cake, Presidents of the USA, and all of those bands like that, you will absolutely love Colma: The Musical.

'Colma the Musical' is all about a trio of friends, 1 actor, 1 gay would-be poet, and their female friend (fag hag is a good word) and their growing up and becoming distant from the suburb they live in, and from each other. This is a really nice piece, as it sure hits home how friends can be fabulous one day, and the next, you're like, 'eh, get away from me'. The performances in this one were pretty great. The actor type guy was CUTE *ahem, sorry*, and wished the gay poet guy and the actor guy could have traded roles. JUST BECAUSE I WANTED TO HAVE FANTASIES ABOUT HIM. (ahem, sorry (cough) There were some great songs in this one too! I still can remember several, even after the screening I went to, well over a month ago.

My main problem is that the film looked the budget (eg not very much) in many shots.) I guess a lot was saved for the music and choreography first! That's all right I guess, because the movie does have some great ideas about turning the musical on it's head!

Flawed, certainly, but a bracing and energetic evocation of disaffected youth, and one of the most assured live-action musicals of the decade. This study of three young friends trying to escape dead-end futures in a dispiriting San Francisco suburb tracks along the same themes as, say, the Broadway musicals "Spring Awakening" and "American Idiot," but it's much less monotonous about conveying its theme of oh-I'm-so-young-and-sad-nobody-understands- me. And the soundtrack is varied and clever, the best musical moment being the "Cupid" number, the closest thing we'll get in 2006 to a great production number. Jake Moreno isn't the greatest actor, and the cinematography is muddy, and the idea that these three are living among the dead isn't sufficiently developed--we don't know how literally to take it. But writer-songwriter-actor H.P. Mendoza is clearly a very, very talented young man, and he catches familiar themes of youthful angst in fresh ways. And L.A. Renigen is a completely convincing wonderful-best-friend. All three kids are persuasively made up of good and bad traits, and we keep rooting for them even when they screw up. Made for nothing, it's an invigorating little movie, and at the end, when the credits thank "the town of Colma," you do get the impression that the whole town rallied behind these gifted young people to make their dreams come true. It's a nice feeling.