char treuse

Big, bubbly, euphoria-filled musical based on John Waters' most accessible, even beloved, 1988 film. There's not a bum number in the Marc Shaiman/Scott Wittman Broadway score, all wonderfully enhanced in this soundtrack, brilliantly lampooning a variety of 60s pop styles and Broadway classic showtunes. (Sadly, three numbers were trimmed for time.) An excellent cast of young talent and old vets, notably Michelle Pfeiffer, Queen Latifah, Christopher Walken (who knew he was such a good dancer?) and Allison Janney. Divine left big fluffy slippers to fill and, though I had my reservations, John Travolta fills them nicely indeed, bringing new depth to the Edna Turnblad character. When it comes time for Edna to bust a move, we're in delicious anticipation; this IS Travolta after all! And we're not left disappointed by his showmanship. Newcomer Nikki Blonsky stars as Tracy, Edna's urban Gidget-as-chubette daughter, whose optimism and idealism transform the existence of those around her in Kennedy-era Baltimore. Addictive, gotta-sing-gotta-dance, Technicolor hullabaloo with a positive message that'll have you wanting to move your feet and sing out, Louise. Welcome to the Sixties!

Johnny Guitar, as played by Sterling Hayden, is but a secondary character to Joan Crawford's Vienna in this star-vehicle Western unlike any other. Crawford's nemesis is Mercedes McCambridge's Emma Small, and all the menfolk kowtow to these women, basically p-whipped throughout. This 1954 film has correctly been called both an allegory about McCarthyism and a Freudian parable.

Crawford is referred to as "more man than woman" early in the film, but she becomes feminized by the closing credits as she smiles, staring lovingly into Johnny Guitar's eyes. Taking place over 3 days, Act 1/Day 1 is set almost completely within Vienna's saloon. We first see Vienna in a mannish black outfit: blouse, slacks & boots. Later, rekindling her affair with Johnny, she is seen in a burgundy nightgown under a parted black cape, her passion beginning to show. By the end of the second Act/Day 2, Vienna is dressed in a white gown, purified by the love she has cast out of her life. She becomes a Christ figure when betrayed by a Judas in her midst and sentenced to hang (crucifixion).

Rescued by Johnny, Crawford is resurrected and must don a man's outfit on the third Day/Act 3 -- yellow shirt, blue jeans -- and ultimately duel to the death with Emma, a mannish and sexually inhibited woman who may well be seen as her "other half," as they strap on their six-shooters. (Phallic symbolism anyone?) Character motivation in this film oftentimes seems demented and Joan's emotions turn on a dime. But the film's fascinating realism lies in its subtext of sexual identity.

A film in which the cowboys are named Dancing Kid, Corey, Turkey and Johnny Guitar, and in which the women exhibit more machismo than the men, is certainly toying with gender. Johnny Guitar plays and the Dancing Kid -- whose admiration for Johnny turns to aggression -- dances for him with Emma in a waltz of sexual ambiguity.

Vividly directed by Nicholas Ray, this is, in a sense, the "Brokeback Mountain" of its day; audacious and groundbreaking.

An extremely charming fantasy from Disney with accents straight out of an Irish Spring commercial. Darby O'Gill, teller of tall tales, captures the king of the leprechauns and hopes to get his pot'o'gold. The cast of character actors are a delight to watch -- Albert Sharpe as Darby, Jimmy O'Dea as the leprechaun, Estelle Winwood, Kieron Moore, Walter Fitzgerald and Denis O'Dea. Sean Connery and Janet Munro ("The Crawling Eye") are the romantic leads. The ending, complete with scary banshees and a death coach, approaches the death of Bambi's mother on the childhood-traumameter, and will possibly leave adults and kids alike teary-eyed.