The Prom (2020)

[starri]

This looks joyous enough for me to override my general aversion to James Corden.

Meryl's basically play Patti Lupone, right?

[Spartan Girl]

This is one of the many shows I wanted to see on stage. I'm in.

[Kromm]

I'll wait to pass judgement, but my first impression is not good. I mean other than the obvious huge talent roster involved.  The premise just seems weak and silly. Admittedly I never saw the show.  I hope to be proved wrong. Maybe this trailer doesn't do it justice.

[Bill1978]

I'm sold. Any time a trailer to a musical embraces the fact its a musical I can't help but want to see the movie. And throw in the fact that Ryan Murphy appears to have filmed a musical and not a realistic musical just makes me keen to see it even though I have no idea about the music at all. 

[starri]

14 hours ago, Kromm said:

I'll wait to pass judgement, but my first impression is not good. I mean other than the obvious huge talent roster involved.  The premise just seems weak and silly. Admittedly I never saw the show.  I hope to be proved wrong. Maybe this trailer doesn't do it justice.

It's the kind of show that lives or dies based on the audience, (bit like Hairspray in that regard, although the latter has better music).  I have no idea how that translates to a movie theater or living room.  This looks like it survived the transition to movie musical better than Hairspray did, but I've been fooled by trailers before.

[DollEyes]

Sorry for starting the thread, I looked on the list and I swear that I didn't see it before. 

Anyway, based on the trailer, it looks cute. Just the kind of harmless trifle we need right now.

Edited October 24, 2020 by DollEyes

[TwopLurker]

On 10/22/2020 at 8:31 PM, Kromm said:

I'll wait to pass judgement, but my first impression is not good. I mean other than the obvious huge talent roster involved.  The premise just seems weak and silly. Admittedly I never saw the show.  I hope to be proved wrong. Maybe this trailer doesn't do it justice.

It's a fun, sugar coated show that isn't Sondheim but I would have been thoroughly obsessed with as a teenager. 

When I saw it I was sitting behind some tourists who felt that the show was "attacking their beliefs and lifestyle," which tells me that this little story about a girl who just wants to go to prom with her girlfriend is very, very necessary.

Spoiler

I'm interested to see what they do with the romance between Beth Leaval/Meryl Streep's character and the Principal/Keegan Michael Key. It was a nice grounding story in show and it'd be a shame to lose it because of the age difference.

I'd like everyone to know that they replaced This performance by Brooks Ashmanskas for James Corden and it's a damn shame.

[SomeTameGazelle]

On 10/27/2020 at 1:42 PM, TwopLurker said:

It's a fun, sugar coated show that isn't Sondheim but I would have been thoroughly obsessed with as a teenager. 

The trailer really seems to be leaning in to the heartwarming angle. I've been looking forward to it because of Bob Martin so I was counting on the show being funny. I'm disappointed by the idea of the all-megastar cast and now I'm not sure what the sensibility will be.

[Spartan Girl]

On 10/27/2020 at 1:42 PM, TwopLurker said:

When I saw it I was sitting behind some tourists who felt that the show was "attacking their beliefs and lifestyle," which tells me that this little story about a girl who just wants to go to prom with her girlfriend is very, very necessary.

Ugh. Why the hell were those people even there if they felt that way?

But you're right: this is exactly why a show like this is necessary. Also it was based off a real life case.

[starri]

I'm calling Nicole Kidman as MVP.

[ClareWalks]

This was great! I loved how well it was adapted from stage to screen. Sometimes it's hard with movie versions to see the theater origins, but this married the two nicely. Also Meryl's pipes have improved from Mamma Mia, she really killed it.

[Spartan Girl]

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would. The LGBTQ community deserves their own corny prom movie too.

Meryl and Nicole were on FIRE, as was Andrew Rannells. And James Corden surprised me, maybe because they gave Barry a more emotional storyline. Still think they could’ve gone with someone else but he wasn’t terrible.

Keegan-Michael Key was great. And the girls that played Emma and Alyssa were fantastic; they had better get some offers soon.

I hope I get the chance to see the stage show. Leave it to Ryan Murphy to remind how much I miss Broadway (and restaurants and fancy malls and parties).

Edited December 12, 2020 by Spartan Girl

[Wildcard]

I really enjoyed it also. I'm now' shipping Meryl and Keegan-Michael Key.

Edited December 12, 2020 by Wildcard

[ClareWalks]

I read a review of this that said the beginning of the movie was really boring and hard to get into. Um, no, must disagree. I have ADD so I know what I'm talking about. If something is too boring I stop watching. I loved the intro with "Eleanor: The Musical" and then the review from the Times was SO BAD, I LOL'd. Because I watched Smash so I know the Times review is EVERYTHING.

[Spartan Girl]

The “You Happened” number summed up why I’ve come to hate the elaborate promposals that everybody insists on doing these days.

I was afraid that this movie was going to “both sides” the situation and I’m glad they didn’t. Like yes, Dee Dee and Barry are wrong for acting like the small town was beneath them, but at the end of the day the town was horrible for treating Emma the way they did. And yes, the actors’ motives for getting involved were selfish and attention seeking, but once they met Emma and heard about everything she’d been through they genuinely were on her side.

[Wildcard]

Two more things:

- I wish James Corden was a stronger singer, since a lot of the numbers have him front and center. However, I did appreciate they toned down (a bit) the campiness of Barry.

- A nitpick would be how quickly Kerry Washington's character came around. However, if that was to get her in the final dance number - I'm all for that.

[shipmate]

I loved this! Was totally skeptical when I started it, but loved the music, the message and the cast! Totally a feel good show that's hitting the spot in this nutjob year.

[memememe76]

I liked this movie a lot, a lot of fun! I was surprised by just how much chemistry Meryl and Keegan had. Like, really hot? To me, really inspired acting. 

 

[QQQQ]

I knew nothing about the background of the Prom before watching today. So little that I kept thinking, "This really would make a great Broadway show!" 😂😂 

[SomeTameGazelle]

19 hours ago, Wildcard said:

A nitpick would be how quickly Kerry Washington's character came around. However, if that was to get her in the final dance number - I'm all for that.

I'm wondering about changes from the stage show. Based on the lyrics to "Barry is Going to Prom" I assumed that Barry had not attended his prom at all, but in the Netflix version he apparently did attend and his disappointment was that the boy he liked was there with a girl. 

[DearEvette]

I dunno.  I wanted to like this but in the end I was underwhelmed.  If could have been because I was a in a musical movies mood and watched it right after watching Guys and Dolls where every song was just so catchy.  This show's musical numbers just didn't have the musicality for me.  The only musical number that stood out was Meryl Streep's "It's not about me." number when they first show up in town.  I thought that was cheeky and the lyrics were clever and the performance was super fun.  Every other number just felt interchangeable and instead of adding to the story weirdly felt like it stopped the story for [insert obligatory musical number here].

Meryl was also the stand out for me.  Every time she was on screen I was riveted.  And oddly, I found that her cute romance with Keegan-Michael Key was not something I would have imagined in a million years but the way it played out worked.

I was prepared for James Corden to be terrible, but he really wasn't.  I didn't find him as over the top as so many of the reviews said he was.  He was fine. 

And Ryan Murphy continues his abysmal batting average with the way his black women characters are written.  Kerry Washington was good in the role, but I found the lack of acknowledgement of any sort intersectionality when she is talking to her daughter to be a huge ass elephant in the room.  The push to make her daughter excel in all things could have easily been because she is a black girl in a small, predominantly white mid-western town.  And when her daughter comes out , her on;y concern is that being a lesbian would make her life hard but the  zero  acknowledgement of how that being a black woman adds to that felt wrong, imo.  I am all for color blind casting but when you do that that does not mean the person you cast is color-less.  And especially in a film about identity and bigotry.

[TheOtherOne]

3 hours ago, DearEvette said:

And Ryan Murphy continues his abysmal batting average with the way his black women characters are written.  Kerry Washington was good in the role, but I found the lack of acknowledgement of any sort intersectionality when she is talking to her daughter to be a huge ass elephant in the room.  The push to make her daughter excel in all things could have easily been because she is a black girl in a small, predominantly white mid-western town.  And when her daughter comes out , her on;y concern is that being a lesbian would make her life hard but the  zero  acknowledgement of how that being a black woman adds to that felt wrong, imo.  I am all for color blind casting but when you do that that does not mean the person you cast is color-less.  And especially in a film about identity and bigotry.

I get that they wanted more diversity in the cast, but that's the one character that shouldn't have changed. The character as written (and they didn't rewrite it at all after Washington was cast) was very much a white Karen. As someone who grew up in the Midwest and very much knew women like that (shudder), that kind of small town Midwestern religious fanatic/entitled and demanding woman needs to be played by a white actress. The Angie character could have been played by a black woman (I don't know how much of a dancer Washington is, but she couldn't have been any worse than Kidman. I thought it was funny how, in the dance break in "It's Not About Me," it was Barry and Angie who backed up Dee Dee on Broadway--which makes sense because Angie's supposed to be a dancer...but in the movie they stuck Angie (the dancer!) in the background with the cowbell and had Barry and Trent as the backup dancers). The Trent character could have been played by a black man (Tituss Burgess, anyone? I know Rannells is claiming he played Trent as a straight man...but come on). When Awkwafina dropped out, they could have continued with the original idea of gender (and race) swapping the publicist rather than reverting him back to a white man. I could even see POC as Dee Dee and Barry. But Washington's casting seemed wrong to me when it was announced and seeing her play it just confirmed it. Mrs. Greene is a Karen. Apologies to anyone offended by the term, but...that character is a very specific type of person whose brand of menace is aided by her whiteness. (Ariana DeBose still could have played her daughter. A white woman with a non-white child still being a bigot? Not unbelievable.)

The movie wasn't as bad as I feared, but not good either. It was fun at times, but was too Ryan Murphy-ized--too over-directed, the songs too processed (Glee-ified?), too glossy in a way that killed some of the heart and charm. I'm just going to leave this here. This is the Broadway cast doing "It's Not About Me." The timing is better on the jokes (the movie rushes over the not-knowing-Emma's-name bit); the actress playing Emma is reacting with confusion that's natural for the situation, not standing there with a big, dumb grin on her face; Leavel is letting most of the lyrics speak for themselves instead of acting them out (Meryl acting out "blind, deaf, and dumb" was so cheesy). (Also compare this Mrs. Greene demanding the principal get them out of there vs. Washington's version. One is infinitely scarier. Karen's gotta Karen.)

 

Edited December 13, 2020 by TheOtherOne

[Spartan Girl]

I agree that if Ryan Murphy could give Barry a deeper storyline, he could rewrite Mrs. Greene’s role to fit Kerry Washington better (make it clear that her own prejudices and strive to have Alyssa excel at everything was motivated by fitting in a predominately white Midwestern town). 

Although I have to say that when she told Alyssa that she didn’t want her to “have a hard life”, I yelled, “People like you MAKE it hard for them!”

[GHScorpiosRule]

Watched this to get away from depressing stuff lately. What has me squeeing! was seeing Tracy Ullman! Huge fan here. Even if her scenes with Barry had me tearing up.

[DearEvette]

42 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

Although I have to say that when she told Alyssa that she didn’t want her to “have a hard life”, I yelled, “People like you MAKE it hard for them!”

Right.  @TheOtherOne articulates my issues with Kerry as Mrs. Greene better than I did. There is a legitimate way for a character like Mrs. Green being black (because self-righteous homophobia exists across all racial boundaries)  but that would involve dredging up a lot of underlying stuff that a feel good musical simply can't delve into.  Yet, otoh, it also feels disingenuous to ignore.   I know that the idea is to simply let go and enjoy it, the performances and the actors, but there were other places where story logic kept taking me out of the moment and this was just one more.

[caracas1914]

Agree that the witty "It's not about me" was the best number in the movie.  I dunno, it would have been nice to have had a musical with some bite along with the usual Ryan Murphy schmaltz poured on.   Murphy wouldn't know nuanced if it hit him on the head.

The rest of the musical numbers just fell flat, there is nothing more glaring than forced exuberance.  

Nicole Kidman tried her best but her dancing was so subpar that it was the elephant in the room, a veteran chorus line hoofer she's not in any way, shape or form.  

I could see how they felt they needed all the star power, but the musical itself was fairly flimsy so it seemed to collapse under all that weight.

[caracas1914]

Agree that the witty "It's not about me" was the best number in the movie.  I dunno, it would have been nice to have had a musical with some bite along with the usual Ryan Murphy schmaltz poured on.   Murphy wouldn't know nuanced if it hit him on the head.

The rest of the musical numbers just fell flat, there is nothing more glaring than forced exuberance.  

Nicole Kidman tried her best but her dancing was so subpar that it was the elephant in the room, a veteran chorus line hoofer she's not in any way, shape or form.  

I could see how they felt they needed all the star power, but the musical itself was fairly flimsy so it seemed to collapse under all of it.

[tennisgurl]

Does Ryan Murphy even need to put his name on his work in big shiny letters, we all know his stuff from a mile away, we all know the trappings and the tropes and the good and the bad...but I keep coming back so I guess he is doing something right. This was pretty much exactly what I was expecting it to be, it was fun and the music was mostly good, and while it lacked the satirical bite of some of his best work, it also managed to keep from descending into pure self indulgent camp and kept its story focused and its heart in the right place. For the most part anyway, its not Ryan Murphy without a bit of self indulgence on his part, like some of the really long songs and speeches of course. The biggest surprise in this movie was the successful pairing of Meryl Steep and Keegan-Michael Key, who had really nice romantic chemistry, and its really nice to see an on screen couple with a noticeable age difference where the woman is the older one. I had never heard of the play before, but I bet it would be a real crowd pleaser, especially touring. 

As others have said, I feel like casting Kerry Washington as Mrs. Green was a real missed opportunity. I can totally buy a black woman being the bigoted jerk villain, there are bigoted jerks in every group of people imaginable and being part of a minority group does not mean that you cant be prejudiced against other minority groups, but I think they really missed out on an opportunity with her. I kept waiting for her to tell her daughter how she pushed her so hard to be perfect because she knew what it felt like to be a black woman in a mostly white community and that she thought that being perfect was the only way to save her daughter from prejudice and racism, that Mrs. Green dealt with racism growing up and has worked to get to where she is and now refuses to do anything to jeopardize her position of power in the town, or even that she was pushing so hard against gay people to deflect any racism she and her daughter might feel, or that she always suspected her daughter was gay and that she was trying to keep her in the closet because she already knew that being a black woman is often tough enough, and also being LGBTQ, especially in a mostly white conservative community, would make it even harder for her. It wouldn't justify her horrible bigotry or her cruelty towards Emma, but it would be a way to have an interesting talk about the intersection between race, gender, and sexuality and to add more layers to the story. 

So I liked this, I was engaged and the performances were all really good (although as good a singer as Nicole Kidman is, she isn't much of a dancer, especially for a chorus girl) and I thought the staging of the songs worked well, and probably the main complaint I have is that it wasn't exactly treading any new ground as far as musicals and lacked the bite of the best Murphy productions (the Its Not About Me song being the exception) but I think it did what it wanted to do. 

I would totally be down to watch Eleanor the Musical. It sounds like the best kind of hot mess. 

Edited December 15, 2020 by tennisgurl

[angora]

On 12/13/2020 at 11:41 AM, SomeTameGazelle said:

I'm wondering about changes from the stage show. Based on the lyrics to "Barry is Going to Prom" I assumed that Barry had not attended his prom at all, but in the Netflix version he apparently did attend and his disappointment was that the boy he liked was there with a girl. 

The way I saw it, teenage Barry got dressed up for his prom and ARRIVED there with the intention of going in, but when he saw his crush there with his date, it hurt him more than he was expecting and he never wound up going inside. So, even if he got the tux and made it to the point that he was standing outside the school, he didn't really "go to prom."

I'm with @tennisgurl - at this point, I know that Ryan Murphy is always gonna Ryan Murphy, and I'm always gonna find it at least mild-to-moderately uneven, but I keep coming back, so I guess what do I know? The Prom turns out to be an apt musical for him to adapt, because it various feels like both a really good episode of Glee and a really subpar episode of Glee. For me, I think the more earnest scenes are more successful on the whole than the more over-the-top comedic scenes (although there are some genuinely good laughs in here.) The "Unruly Heart" number was really beautifully done, and I'll always appreciate Murphy for giving young LGBTQ folks scenes like that. I dunno, I think a lot of the "narcissistic celebrity" shtick from Meryl Streep and James Corden (as well as from the script itself) is the kind of broad humor that might work well onstage but is harder to sell onscreen, and those are the kind of moments that don't work as well for me. I also agree that casting Kerry Washington as Mrs. Greene should've been an opportunity to bring some intersectionality to the character and her concerns about Alyssa.

But even if I think some of the humor falls flat and some of the writing is clunky, I did still have a good time watching this movie. Emma's a very endearing character, and Jo Ellen Pellman is great. Ariana DeBose sells me on Alyssa's fears/dilemma - that scene in the gym where she breaks down after coming out to her mom is rough. Keegan-Michael Key is terrific, and like others here, I'm surprised at how much I like the chemistry between him and Meryl. Nicole Kidman is a hoot, Meryl's belt really impressed me, and while Corden was far from my favorite here, I feel like he ultimately did fine. I love Andrew Rannells in everything he does, and he both totally cracked me up (I loved the line, "'Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows'... that's from The Tempest") and completely killed it with his big number - adored "Love Thy Neighbor." Side note: it made me smile that Trent, with his early-aughts sitcom, had more pull in rural Indiana than Dee Dee and Barry with their Tonys and Drama Desks. That tracks.

Honestly, pretty much all the production numbers, even on the songs that don't interest me as much, are so well done. In way too many movie musicals, there's just this awkward air to how a lot of the songs are blocked and shot, and either what's amazing onstage falls flat onscreen or the film never fully embraces the fact that it's a musical. Here, though, Murphy's experience serves him well, because all the songs are filmed in fun, cinematic ways that are engaging to watch. In addition to the songs I've already mentioned, I thought "We Look to You" was really lovely, "Zazz" was a lot of fun (even if I agree that Kidman doesn't move like a chorus dancer,) and "Just Breathe" was great.

[Bastet]

I found this underwhelming, but an enjoyable enough way to pass the time.  (I've never seen anything else of Ryan Murphy's, and I would never have gone to see this at the cinema, but scrolling through Netflix when I couldn't get back to sleep overnight, I figured why not?)  The only musical numbers I really liked where "It's Not About Me" and "Tonight Belongs to You".  "Just Breathe" and "Alyssa Greene" were pretty good, too.

Alyssa's mother doing a 180-degree turn in about five minutes was utterly ridiculous, and I agree with those who say ignoring the Greenes' race in the mother-daughter confrontation over high expectations was noticeably weird and rather problematic.

But I loved the relationship between Dee Dee and Principal Hawkins.  It made the whole thing worthwhile.  (I absolutely adore Keegan-Michael Key in everything I see him in.)

[vibeology]

Watched this last week and parts of it were silly fun but the casting held it back.

I'll say that I think James Corden was terrible. Any of the drama related to his issues with his family or his teenage years felt so hollow to me. He knew he was supposed to act sad but it didn't seem like he knew why he was supposed to act sad. His character gets the serious storyline so it needs an actor who can pull that off and James didn't for me in the slightest. Plus, he clearly struggled with the accent some of the time. 

Nicole Kidman is someone I adore but she didn't have the dance skills for that part and her Zazz number was so heavily edited that it sucked the energy out of what clearly would have been an amazing scene in the right hands.

Everyone else was good. Jo Ellen Pellman and Ariana DeBose were actually great and it's a shame that they don't get more to do while the adults steal the focus.

[SomeTameGazelle]

7 hours ago, vibeology said:

Everyone else was good. Jo Ellen Pellman and Ariana DeBose were actually great and it's a shame that they don't get more to do while the adults steal the focus.

 

On 12/13/2020 at 3:55 PM, TheOtherOne said:

the actress playing Emma is reacting with confusion that's natural for the situation, not standing there with a big, dumb grin on her face

I was frustrated because Emma seemed to start out as too sunny and calm, especially in "Just Breathe" with the smiling and the yellow and so on, so it didn't seem like Zazz was actually required to help boost her confidence. Jo Ellen Pellman was very sweet and sang well but either she or the director made the choice to minimize character growth in favour of that simple sunniness.

Edited December 23, 2020 by SomeTameGazelle
quotation marks

[Spartan Girl]

I didn’t really mind Emma smiling so much because I took it as her trying to hold it together through all the crap flung at her. Plus, I try not to make any criticisms about actresses smiling/not smiling because that complaint is so tiresome. 

[Mabinogia]

2 minutes ago, Spartan Girl said:

I didn’t really mind Emma smiling so much because I took it as her trying to hold it together through all the crap flung at her. Plus, I try not to make any criticisms about actresses smiling/not smiling because that complaint is so tiresome. 

Yeah, I took it as her smiling to stop from breaking down. I also thought her smile was totally infectious so I didn't mind it at all. She was like a bright ray of sunshine and I need as much sunshine as I can get this year. 

[Chaos Theory]

Considering the only Ryan Murphy show I haven’t liked is Glee I didn’t expect to like this but maybe because it was a movie and not an increasingly problematic tv show I found it very sweet.   Yes it had a few problems but it mostly worked for me.   

Edited December 24, 2020 by Chaos Theory

[TheOtherOne]

18 hours ago, Spartan Girl said:

I didn’t really mind Emma smiling so much because I took it as her trying to hold it together through all the crap flung at her. Plus, I try not to make any criticisms about actresses smiling/not smiling because that complaint is so tiresome. 

I understand criticism about actresses smiling/not smiling in real life being tiresome. What's tiresome about criticism of any actor doing something that is completely out of character for the person they're portraying when they're performing that role?

Nothing about the big, dumb, mooney smile she had on her face through the movie looked like someone trying to hold it together. This morning I saw a screenshot from the movie and cringed all over again at her expression. It looked like someone who was being poorly directed, or who simply didn't understand what was happening in the scene, certainly not someone experiencing the level of trauma being directed at the character in the story.

Edited December 24, 2020 by TheOtherOne

[choclatechip45]

I saw the broadway show and I thought this was a good adaptation. I wish they had used the actress who played Emma in the musical, but I thought they did a good job with the actress they cast. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Golden Globe nominations!

BEST MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY

BEST ACTOR – MUSICAL OR COMEDY - James Corden

[Cranberry]

James Corden, really? He was the worst part of this movie, for me. Figures that they'd make an LGBT movie and then nominate the straight dude playing stereotypically gay.

[Spartan Girl]

I wish the girls had gotten nominated for supporting actress. They were great.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Critics' Choice Award nomination!

Best Comedy

[Avabelle]

On 2/3/2021 at 4:47 PM, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Golden Globe nominations!

BEST MOTION PICTURE – MUSICAL OR COMEDY

BEST ACTOR – MUSICAL OR COMEDY - James Corden

How is James Corden the one with a nomination here? That’s insane to me. He was awful. Even Putting aside the accent struggle, he was so miscast. He’s not a great singer and I’d seriously question if he’d should even be acting after this so I’m flabbergasted out of everyone he got an award nod.

Even the positive reviews of his performance are just confirmation that he wasn’t as awful as people expected. I just don’t get this guy and the power he wields in Hollywood. Everyone seems to love him. 
 

Favourite performance was Love thy Neighbour - Andrew Rannells brought an energy to it that I didn’t see with any of the other performances. 

Edited February 21, 2021 by Avabelle

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Costume Designers Guild Award nomination!

Excellence in Contemporary Film
Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar – Trayce Gigi Field
Birds of Prey – Erin Benach
Da 5 Bloods – Donna Berwick
Promising Young Woman – Nancy Steiner
The Prom – Lou Eyrich