I watched Across the Universe a coupla days ago. It's got flaws on the whole, but the individual segments with Julie Taymor's visual/dramatic interpretations of the songs are reallyreallygreat, I just go home and watchem overanoveragain on Youtube. And check out Jim Sturgess as our Liverpudlian boy-hero, Jude:
Sigh... just the way he cocks his eyes, the way his regional English accent twists the vowel of "girl"... and also how he's not boilerplate handsome, but actually recognisable in a crowd...
I do feel like I somehow missed that magic boat which involves innocently falling in love with someone who's innocent enough to fall in love back with you. What I did was a whole lotta misdirected longing.
Speaking of which, I luv T.V. Carpio's rendition of "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" here:
But I'm kinda suspicious of the insertion of a token Asian lesbian character into the movie - yeah, it's hella important to reference the gay rights movement in conjunction with the civil rights, hippie and anti-Vietnam war movements, but what kind of historical validity do you have when the character is a femme who likes femmes and is apparently accepted by everyone around her in New York? '60s NYC was homophobic and lesbian culture was strictly gendered and ridden with violence and drug abuse and rape... plus I do wish she'd actually had a role that's active rather than incidental to the plot.
As it is, Asian lesbian just seems to mean => triple the hot chick quotient. Not good, Julie. Not good.
To close on a positive note tho, I wuv Joe Cocker's performance of "Come Together" here:
Buy the DVD when it comes out, it's got deleted scenes. :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Agree with you largely. I see "Across the Universe" as a string of great music videos.
T.V. Carpio was utterly wasted in her token Asian role as Prudence, especially with that clarion voice and great looks.
Not only were her origins shaky - how many Asian cheerleaders were there in Ohio in the 60's? - but she suffered from no character development whatsoever.
Carpio simply turns up at random to fulfill some bald plot device, like allowing Taymor to use "Dear Prudence" /rolls eyes
There's that scene at the circus where everyone is flabbergasted at seeing Prudence in the middle of nowhere. Y'know, so was the audience.
Post a Comment