filed under Film | Good Ideas | Music
rent this now
12:49PM ON
08/03/2008
BY
Beth Comery
What the hell was I so busy doing last October that I didn’t get out to see — and hear — this amazing movie in a theater? Oh yeah, the Red Sox were in the World Series. No excuse! The reviews had certainly been great; The New York Times loved it, Ebert swooned. But perhaps I was not the only Beatles fanatic fearful that the music would get Idol-ized and belted out in that dreadful Broadway howl. And maybe I was conflating it with the Vegas-y cheese that is Cirque du Soleil:Love. Maybe I was just out of weed. But I am here to tell you, these arrangements and performances are so original and beautiful, you will hear this music in a whole new way*. The movie holds up in every other respect as well. The story is genuinely poignant, never cloying. As to the visuals, they are so astounding, getting high would be redundant. Love is all you need.
*’I Want to Hold Your Hand’ made me cry.
August 3rd, 2008 at 7:18PM
Pat Crowley Says:
I thought this movie was going to pure cheese too, but after I saw it I went on a big Beatles kick. I think it really showed how radical and timeless the music was. They were pretty damn edgy, too.
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August 4th, 2008 at 9:26AM
Annie Says:
I’ve only bought two DVDs in recent memory, and “Across the Universe” was one of them. Terrific stuff. It’s impressive that the cast sang their own songs, even if the lip-synching doesn’t always match up in the filmed scenes.
Not that you asked, but “Once,” another 2007 release, was the other.
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August 4th, 2008 at 1:30PM
Beth Comery Says:
This is the only time I’ve ever bothered watching the extra features on a dvd, and they are really interesting. Not only did the cast do their own singing, but it was estimated that about 3/4 of the performances were filmed/recorded live. It’s really interesting seeing how some of those sounds were achieved. ‘Come together’ involved an upright bass and Super balls!
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