bobbiwibble

Normally I struggle to come up with a short header if I leave a review but with this i really don't know how to describe it.

Im not a massive musical fan so I think im missing a lot of jokes in terms of story - I don't think they make the "i just fell in love, now I fell out of love, now I'm back in love" on a really fake background stuff remotely accessible to people who aren't genre nerds but that's fine by me if it isn't aimed at me. I enjoyed it a lot more once I stopped trying to understand what it was going for.

I am vaguely aware of the cast being SNL regulars although that never really made it to my side of the pond so I recognise the faces but don't attach them to anything which helps? But Keenan seems either over scripted or very bad at improv, and the latter seems unlikely with his background. So I think he has way too much dialogue and even the stammering sounds like it was typed up. If he does sketch comedy/ improv then he should get to use that skill set because I can't think of a time he was on screen and not constantly talking.

Overall - (long review sorry, but I wanted to be fair as there seem to be 1* reviews from people who hate musicals) as someone with little understanding of musicals and musical theatre, I will come back and rewatch this when I need some nice comfy tv, like if I'm hungover or haven't slept. I think people with a better understanding of musical in-jokes will appreciate it more, but I liked it just fine once I switched off the part of my brain that was trying to recognise references.

I hadn't realised this was based on a novel and after Googling it, I understand why this movie was so speedy and disjointed - I assume they're jumping from plot point to plot point? Which is fair enough when you're turning an obscure YA novel into a film.

The only thing I really took issue with was the music. I haven't rewatched it (but I probably will at some point just to watch Saoirse Ronin being adorable as a messenger and reminding me of my whiteboard cleaning days) but the music really needs to chill out.

There's no build up in the score.