![]() ![]() ![]() Unlike Opera, Dario Argento’s very unofficial interpretation of Leroux’s Phantom, it’s amazing how little Schumacher grapples with notions of commerce throughout the film, which is surprising considering how obsessively Colin Farrell’s character is forced to deal with the semiotics of the world around him in Schumacher’s best film to date, Phone Booth. A slave all his life to different kinds of freak shows, the Phantom seems to attract an audience, but the man’s mystique and populist appeal is scarcely on Schumacher’s mind. It asks us to believe that the owners of the Opera Populaire would pay a crazed madman to live inside the bowels of their opera house, ostensibly because he’ll stay out of their hair (and produce musical or two, if they’re lucky). Phantom isn’t fun-hell, it isn’t even campy. Is this Schumacher’s idea of self-parody? Hardly. ![]() OPERA NEON TRAILER DRIVERBless her little heart, Driver tries to make sense out of a character that doesn’t-truly, it’s strange that the character even exists, because Carlotta is really no different from Phantom itself: soulless, ostentatious, and irritating. In the film, Carlotta is inexplicably allowed to perform despite the fact that the 19th-century Parisian bourgeois that goes to the opera hates her singing. The story should be familiar to anyone who’s come to New York since 1988: When Christine (Emmy Rossum) upstages the diva Carlotta (Minnie Driver), thanks to the help of the mysterious Phantom (Gerard Butler) who haunts the Opera Populaire, her childhood sweetheart, Raoul (Patrick Wilson), woos the girl and, in turn, incurs the wrath of the Phantom. Fans of Webber’s musical can rejoice, then, because it’s a testament to the faithfulness of Joel Schumacher’s film version of Phantom that it stands toe-to-toe with the original stage version in sheer awfulness. Like overpriced costume jewelry, this tacky Broadway version of Gaston Leroux’s 1910 novel-with its soulless histrionics set to music and pedestrian lyrics Hilary Duff could have written during a bad break-up (sample contrivance: “We never said our love was evergreen”)-seems to appeal to the same people who like Celine Dion and Meatloaf albums. Tuscaloosa hits theaters, On Demand, and digital on March 13 via Cinedigm.Quite possibly the worst thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera represents everything that’s wrong with much of today’s musical theater. Check out the trailer and tell us what you think! Rounding out the ensemble in the film, which takes place in 1972 Alabama, is rapper YG ( White Boy Rick), Nathan Phillips ( Snakes on a Plane), and Ella Rae Peck ( Gossip Girl, The Looming Tower). This romantic drama is set amidst a civil rights movement that is forming against the elite denizens of Tuscaloosa. Complications arise when Billy falls in love with Virginia ( Natalia Dyer), one of his father’s patients. Details on the film, as well as the trailer, are featured in our post!īased on the novel by Glasgow Phillips, Tuscaloosacenters on Billy ( Devon Bostick), an early twentysomething who lives with his father ( Tate Donovan) on the grounds that houses a mental asylum. Advertisement Devon Bostick ( Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The 100) and Natalia Dyer ( Stranger Things) topline Tuscaloosa, an indie drama directed and penned by Philip Harder. ![]()
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