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Trailer dropped for Ryan Murphy’s remake of the Boys in the Band directed by Joe Mantello and starring Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells and many more. It’s coming out on Netflix tomorrow and looks great.
ReplyIt looks fine. Ryan Murphy’s fingerprints are all over this. People will be satisfied to see gay actors portraying gay characters.
I actually think it looks refreshing for Murphy, being something that he neither wrote nor directed. I’m fairly certain this will be his best Netflix project.
ReplyCopy URLAnyone seen this? Is it good?
It’s very good. It’s easily Murphy’s best Netflix project, though that’s not really saying much.
ReplyCopy URLFYC Oscars: Licorice Pizza (Best Picture, Best Director, Original Screenplay), The Mitchells vs The Machines (Best Picture, Animated Feature, Original Screenplay), Wes Anderson (Best Director), Denzel Washington (The Tragedy of MacBeth), Andrew Garfield and Robin de Jesus (Tick, Tick...BOOM!), Jayne Houdyshell (The Humans), Stephen Karam (Adapted Screenplay), Attica and Summer of Soul (Best Documentary)
FYC Razzies: Dear Evan Hansen (in all eligible categories)
Saw it yesterday and thought it was terrific. A fantastic ensemble with standout work from Parsons, Quinto, Bomer, and De Jesus, along with impressive direction and cinematography. A lot of other play adaptations that take place in one spot never feel cinematic, but this pulled it off, likely helped by a few strong additional scenes. Highly recommend.
ReplyCopy URLI watched it yesterday. I’ve never seen/read the original stage play nor have I seen the 1970 movie directed by William Friedkin, so this review is based strictly on this version:
The results of film adaptations of theater works that keep the exact same principal cast and director from their stage productions intact can be hit or miss. Sometimes, you have a masterwork like Elia Kazan’s A Streetcar Named Desire. Though other times, you have something like Susan Stroman’s The Producers. Yet, Joe Mantello’s The Boys in the Band proves why Hollywood should (at least) consider taking the same cast and crew from the stage to the screen more often.
Joe Mantello, being the accomplished theater director that he is, has managed to come up with quite a few tricks to make this theatrical work come across more cinematically than just a filmed stage play, keeping the audience’s attention throughout. Which especially shows with how he is able to introduce all principal characters in the opening sequence. Not to mention that the added flashbacks are also a nice touch.
Everyone in the cast gives terrific performances. Each of them show a wide range of emotions from enthusiastic to empathetic. The fact that they’ve all spent about three months doing the play on Broadway really helped them feel at home in their roles in this movie.
As a straight man, I was very fascinated by how this movie was able to provide a look at what gay life was like back in the late 1960s. No matter what sexuality you are, I think this new interpretation of The Boys in the Band is worth seeing.
ReplyCopy URLI watched this last night, and I was surprised by how good it actually was. The stage-to-screen adaptation worked so smoothly; I sincerely hope Joe Mantello goes on to direct more stuff, because he had such beautiful control over the camera here and captured the performances perfectly. As a gay man myself, there was a lot to which I could relate, but obviously that isn’t the era in which I grew up, so it was still very much an eyeopener. The fleshing out of Michael was fascinating and truly heartbreaking; so many people still go through that, and so often do they have no one to help them overcome the shame they, unfortunately, feel. The performances were all terrific, but Parsons did ultimately steal the show with those final 15 minutes. I wasn’t a fan of everything he did, but he was undeniable toward the end. I would love for this to get traction somewhere, but I am pretty sure Netflix will prioritize other projects. Plus, it came out way too early, unfortunately. Nevertheless, a wonderful watch.
Side note: Matt Bomer continues to be gorgeous in every way possible.
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