Remake of a lightweight (or is it heavyweight?) charmer 7/10

Probably very few Academy Awards will be in the offing for this remake of a rather obscure movie on which was based a more widely appreciated musical stage play. Though John Travolta playing a cross-gender Edna Turnblad may be worth a special category.

Some movie critics may comment on the formulaic nature of this 60s throwback. What was the movie that John Travolta starred in with that Australian hotty, Olivia Newton-John? Grease, I guess. I don’t remember what era that one went back to, probably the 1950s, because I don’t think there was any sex or black people.

On the other hand, Hairspray makes quite a deal out of the racial integration issue and learning to accept people as they are, especially people who are considered “rrroomy.” Edna Turnblad, being played by John Travolta with fluffy accouterments, is gargantuan while Edna’s daughter Tracy (Nikki Blonsky) may be considered dangerously short for her weight. Continue reading →

Lush tribute to the soul (and body) of New Orleans

Lawson Pines: Some people reach a place in time where they’ve gone as far as they can. A place where wives and jobs collide with desire. That which is unknowable and those who remain out of sight. See what it is invisible and you will see what to write. That’s how Bobby used to put it. It was the invisible people he wanted to live with. The ones that we walk past everyday, the ones we sometimes become. The ones in books who live only in someone’s mind’s eye. He was a man who was destined to go through life and not around it. A man who was sure the shortest path to Heaven was straight through Hell. But the truth of his handicap lay only in a mind both exalted and crippled by too many stories and the path he chose to become one. Bobby Long’s tragic flaw was his romance with all that he saw. And I guess if people want to believe in some form of justice, then Bobby Long got his for a song. Continue reading →