4,171 posts
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Post by anthony40 on Nov 28, 2022 20:49:18 GMT
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677 posts
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Post by westendcub on Nov 28, 2022 22:02:35 GMT
‘Matilda’ is Dahl’s masterpiece & has been one of my favourite books for over 30 years, I loved the audiobook too, the 1996 film adaptation & the stage musical on the West-End!
This adaptation of the stage musical is an absolute triumph! Tim Minchin’s score is so strong & it shines throughout this motion picture, it features some of the best musical film choreography ‘(Revolting Children’ is out of this world & yes ‘Red Beret Girl’ kills it!) I’ve seen on the big screen. I do think loosing ‘Mr Wormwood’ & ‘Mrs Wormwood’ songs is a miss but I understand why, as the film needs to focus on the core story, the big emotional songs hit hard & are very effective, yes I cried through each of them (‘When I Grow Up’, ‘Quiet’, ‘My House’ & new song ‘Still Holding My Hand’.
I can’t wait to go see this again!! 🎞️📚
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Post by hadeswasking on Nov 28, 2022 22:12:52 GMT
Loved this. It felt like it was going too fast but then I checked my watch and 2 hours had passed.
A little annoyance, can we stop using the final shot of a movie as promotional material. Last 2 movies I've seen have done this, I hate it!
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Post by talkingheads on Nov 28, 2022 23:47:36 GMT
Very mixed feelings. I will say that I adore Danny DeVito's film so that probably biased me against this film. The music is fantastic, as is Alisha Weir, who does an astonishing job throughout.
But as a film? It didn't work. It had none of the heart of the original, nor did the story explore the characters nearly so deeply. It felt more like a cartoon, especially Miss Trunchbull, despite how much fun Emma Thompson was clearly having. Stephen Graham was the most entertaining character and was woefully underused.
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1,132 posts
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Post by Stephen on Nov 29, 2022 1:03:31 GMT
Thought it was excellent. A smaller film than I expected but thought that worked well here. True to the stage show. Thought it really hit the mark during Smell of Rebellion and Quiet. 'Bruce' was also fantastic and sounded great at the Dolby Atmos cinema screen I was in. I'd watch again in a while.
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155 posts
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Post by PhantomNcl on Nov 29, 2022 19:27:01 GMT
‘Matilda’ is Dahl’s masterpiece & has been one of my favourite books for over 30 years, I loved the audiobook too, the 1996 film adaptation & the stage musical on the West-End! This adaptation of the stage musical is an absolute triumph! Tim Minchin’s score is so strong & it shines throughout this motion picture, it features some of the best musical film choreography ‘(Revolting Children’ is out of this world & yes ‘Red Beret Girl’ kills it!) I’ve seen on the big screen. I do think loosing ‘Mr Wormwood’ & ‘Mrs Wormwood’ songs is a miss but I understand why, as the film needs to focus on the core story, the big emotional songs hit hard & are very effective, yes I cried through each of them (‘When I Grow Up’, ‘Quiet’, ‘My House’ & new song ‘Still Holding My Hand’. I can’t wait to go see this again!! 🎞️📚 Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes on every count! I love the stage production, and for me this was the perfect translation to film. The kids' choreography was incredible, especially in 'Revolting Children' when they're all outside the school. I wasn't sure how Emma T would be as Miss Trunchbull, but she pulled out every single stop. I don't think I've laughed as much than during the fantasy section in 'The Smell of Rebellion'! 'My House' had me in floods (I'm tearing up again now just thinking about it), and some of the moments in 'When I Grow Up' are just so beautiful. Returning to see it again on Sunday! |
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Post by stagedoorsally on Nov 29, 2022 21:25:22 GMT
I saw this yesterday. I was always slightly ambivalent towards the stage musical - love the songs, but don’t feel the production always worked well.
I thought the film was an improvement over the stage version - and Alisha Weir was absolutely excellent - but a couple of things really didn’t work for me.
Shame they didn’t completely rewrite the acrobat / escapologist thing as it’s still the most boring part of the show (although TBF I thought it was much better on film).
This may be controversial, but I also didn’t particularly like Lashana Lynch as Miss Honey. Or rather, I thought she worked from an acting perspective but I didn’t really enjoy any of her singing. I don’t know whether she has any musical theatre experience (Wikipedia suggests not), but I just wish they’d cast someone with a more “musicals” voice.
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Post by theatrelegofan87 on Nov 30, 2022 23:17:09 GMT
The original actress signed on for the role was Jodie Comer but she had to withdraw as after the lockdown lifts started the dates clashed with the final series of Killing Eve.
Ralph Fiennes was also originally meant to play the role of The Trunchball but due to sensitivity over a man in a dress in the film and offending the “snowflakes” he dropped out and was replaced by Emma.
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378 posts
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Post by ctas on Dec 1, 2022 7:45:20 GMT
To contradict the above post, I’ve just listened to an interview with Tim Minchin where he said Trunchball as a man on stage is somewhat of a necessity of needing a six foot tall actor to throw children around eight shows a week as well as a nod to pantomime. He said they said that’s not as needed on film, they opened the conversation out re: casting and were told Emma Thompson was very keen to play the role and that was the deal done.
On the Empire film podcast for anyone interested as he does talk a lot about song cuts and how he feels about it. They also talk Groundhog Day for anyone curious!
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7,050 posts
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Post by Jon on Dec 2, 2022 0:36:37 GMT
I saw this tonight and I really enjoyed it. It's a superb adaptation of both the stage musical and the book and some of the changes actually work really well. Emma Thompson is brilliant as Miss Trunchbull, so grotesque and OTT but she lifts every scene she's in, the kids are superb, the choreography they do would be hard enough for an adult but it's such a joy to watch especially The School Song and Revolting Children. Some spoilery thoughts: By removing Michael Wormwood and making Matilda an only child, it makes the parents' reason for resenting her more palatable rather than just being a bookworm.
The showdown between Matilda and Miss Trunchbull is expanded upon from just Matilda using the chalk to write a message to scare off Miss Trunchbull to Trunchbull dismissing it as a trick which means Matilda gets more creative using Trunchbull's own methods and apparatus against her. I personally think it's better because I've never liked that Dahl who was creative in offing the villains like The Twits getting stuck on the floor and getting the shrinks, the various kids in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Witches turning into mice just made the Trunchbull faint whereas here Dennis Kelly was able to create something that symbolises the power of imagination.
I quite the nod to The BFG with Crunchem Hall renamed the Big Friendly School and the giraffe which I assume is a nod to The Giraffe and The Pelly and Me. |
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526 posts
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Post by danielwhit on Dec 3, 2022 20:05:07 GMT
I'm as full of superlatives for the film as I was when I first saw the musical back in Stratford.
That final song is a perfect, and unexpected, finale.
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594 posts
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Post by og on Dec 21, 2022 10:26:56 GMT
Loved it. Great adaption with necessary and appropriate trimmings from the stage production.
New borns starting off 'Miracle' was a stroke of genius.
The look and feel was pure-Dahl to a T (or perhaps D).
Nice to hear the songs breath better and have some of the more intricate detail in the lyrics come through thats often lost on stage. I was yearning for it to come up a notch at times, especially elements of the music - but thats just modern musical mixing - questionable imo.
So good to sit back and enjoy movie musical without getting distracted by overzealous auto-tune use; its use was as required but not overtly (suspect Minchin's involvement may have been keeping that in check after getting stung on Superstar).
Got a little bored with the constant focus on Trunchball's teeth but Emma Thompsons performance consistently won the attention back.
Conversely to other option here, I enjoyed Miss Honeys performance and thought she nailed it.
Finally, a movie musical stage adaption that totally works. I suspect a lot of that is down to Warchus at the helm and his unique knowledge of the source material. Hurray.
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Post by originalconceptlive on Dec 25, 2022 23:24:10 GMT
Saw this through the wider release on Netflix. I have mixed feelings on it, as I did with the stage show. For me, the sections about the emotional core of the story, Matilda and Miss Honey, were mostly great and moving. Everything else (the Trunchbull's songs and all the children ensemble stuff), I did not care about at all. Funnily enough, I actually like the escapologist story, both on stage and in the film, because of - for me - its emotional payoffs.
I'm trying to think about what might have made me care more about the ensemble numbers and the kids in them. Assuming that we want to keep the existing songs... maybe if the Trunchbull was enforcing some rigid rules to make the children's day-to-day lives constrained and miserable? No running, no shouting, no tree-climbing, no lollies, and absolutely no singing and dancing (outside perhaps the mandated instances that she controls). Or maybe singing and dancing wouldn't even have to be "diegetic-ally" banned, but they would still serve as a metaphor for freedom and dissent. The earlier ensemble songs would be whisper-sung or otherwise conveyed in a covert way, without any fancy choreography. 'When I Grow Up' and 'Revolting Children' would show the kids breaking free, first in their own imaginations and later in reality. There would be some emotional and 'political' meaning to their eventual uninhibited singing and dancing. I don't know, it might or might not work.
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Post by Matt on Dec 27, 2022 0:35:00 GMT
I saw this today. I’ve never seen the musical on stage and I also hadn’t seen the original film until a couple of months ago. I thought this musical film was a lot better than the original movie, but I didn’t love it. It’s not making me want to go and see the show. I thought the songs were great, I'm a big Tim Minchin fan anyway, but I thought the film dipped a lot after the first 40 minutes. The first chunk had me really expecting great things after how good it started, but it just felt a bit flat for me at times.
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631 posts
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Post by ncbears on Dec 27, 2022 20:00:58 GMT
The US YouTube channel "Still Watching Netflix" appears to have all the musical numbers. They have been up for two days, so maybe they won't get taken down.
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311 posts
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Post by olliebean on Dec 27, 2022 22:08:14 GMT
The US YouTube channel "Still Watching Netflix" appears to have all the musical numbers. They have been up for two days, so maybe they won't get taken down. Unless they're hiding, I think they already have been. |
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631 posts
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Post by ncbears on Dec 27, 2022 23:01:54 GMT
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631 posts
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Post by ncbears on Dec 27, 2022 23:06:11 GMT
School Song (I also see Naughty, Bruce, My House, The Hammer, Quiet and Revolting Children)
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374 posts
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Post by theatrenerd on Dec 27, 2022 23:21:30 GMT
Those videos unfortunately come up with a message saying they're not available in this country.
If you have TikTok you should be able to search and find those two songs (for now at least).
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631 posts
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Post by ncbears on Dec 27, 2022 23:37:48 GMT
Those videos unfortunately come up with a message saying they're not available in this country. If you have TikTok you should be able to search and find those two songs (for now at least). Alas, I feared such might be the case hence my statement that these were available on US YouTube, but twas worth the try! |
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Post by mrnutz on Dec 28, 2022 13:21:00 GMT
Saw this on Christmas Eve with the kids and absolutely LOVED it. Fantastic in every way. 5/5
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Post by joni89 on Feb 7, 2023 9:43:42 GMT
I don’t think there should be movie adaptations of Musicals.
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5,138 posts
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Post by Being Alive on Feb 7, 2023 10:31:09 GMT
I don’t think there should be movie adaptations of Musicals. This is quite a statement |
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Post by joni89 on Feb 7, 2023 11:44:12 GMT
I don’t think there should be movie adaptations of Musicals. This is quite a statement Having said this, I did see a recording of a live show of Kinky Boots in the cinema and very much enjoyed that. |
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Post by joni89 on Feb 7, 2023 11:47:27 GMT
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