Merrily We Roll Along (2025)

A three-way friendship told in reverse: we see the sad end, then the growing apart, eventually working ourselves back to the joyful dependence on each other only to end on the first time the three were ever together. And I simply did not think it worked. I couldn't be devastated by the breakup of a friendship between bitter, angry people I've never met. 

Maybe it could've been saved by some catchy songs, but -- alas -- this has none, which really surprised me since it's Sondheim. I mean, sure, I'll probably always remember the oft-repeated time jump title tune (Nineteen Seventy-Twooooooooo!), but I don't really want to.

C

Mean Girls (2024)

First: Jenna Fisher and Angourie Rice truly look like mother and daughter -- just A+ casting there. Second: the "Stupid with Love" number (watch it below) is so charming and singable that I can't stop listening to it. 

This is a really solid remake and probably would be rated higher if the first movie didn't exist at all. But, since it does, comparisons are inevitable and the big detriments for me are the non-Regina "Plastics" (they barely register as individuals) and Cady's transformation to mean girl, which was about as convincing as Sandy's transformation in Grease.

B

Meet Me in St. Louis (1944)

I'm gonna sound like an awful grump here, but I really don't get the hype. Sure, there are a few songs in here that everyone (including me) knows and loves -- The Trolley Song, Meet Me in St. Louis, Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas -- but the movie that introduced them to the world is an empty (but pretty) affair.

The two elder Smith daughters are hormonal and looking for romance, the youngest is a tomboy, and the other one is just kind of around. There's also a brother and a grandpa. Mom is longsuffering and Dad is a sourpuss that the rest of the household has to tiptoe around to get what they want. But they live in St. Louis! And the World's Fair is coming to St. Louis! Yay!

Basically, I think this movie was wildly popular in 1944 because a colorful bit of escapism was welcome during World War II and it's been coasting on nostalgia ever since.

C+ 

A Very Jonas Christmas Movie (2025)

Though I don't care about their music at all and tend toward dislike for Joe Jonas (based on internet gossip), I was almost immediately on board with this silly and self-aware romp. The songs are truly fun and the script was full of both magic and nonsense -- perfect for the whole family.

In other words: oh, what fun!

B+

Annie (1982)

I know most of the songs by heart, thanks to a fuzzy cassette tape of the Broadway cast from my childhood, but I'd not seen this before. And, frankly, I kind of wish I hadn't bothered! While I enjoyed the 1999 television film, this just left me cold.

Mrs. Hannigan was definitely not G-rated: she's drunk, threatening, and weirdly sexual. The childrens' musical numbers had so much choreography that the lyrics almost got lost (though most of the kids could BELT). And then there's just so much unnecessary filler. The only explanation I can think of for that trip to the theater and showing a lengthy clip of Camille -- definitely not a child-friendly movie -- is that it was to give the movie audience an unofficial intermission.

Without the wonderful songbook, this would be a D, but the numbers pull it up.

C

Wicked: For Good (2025)

Maybe I should've rewatched the first installment before going into this one, but -- honestly -- should that be on the audience? I don't like this assumption that I should either have a good enough memory to have every plot detail locked in my brain OR be so obsessed to have rewatched the first multiple times. I mean, what would be so awful about a 5-minute refresher at the top of a sequel? But, no, we plunge right in and I felt seriously lost until I decided to stop trying to understand. Even with my lowered expectations, I still couldn't muster any enthusiasm.

The action felt too close and too fast. I was overwhelmed just trying to take in what I was seeing. There's also no standout song -- absolutely nothing I, as someone who has only heard "Defying Gravity" and "Popular" before these movies, would care to hear again. I did enjoy Dorothy showing up as a background player, performing the steps of her well-known storyline to push the "real" narrative forward, but that's where my appreciation for the script ends. Though Grande, Erivo and Bailey all play their parts well, the whole affair wound up feeling overfilled and muddy.

C-

The Slipper and the Rose: the Story of Cinderella (1976)

An extremely dated and boring take on Cinderella, where everything was far too muted: the stepmother and stepsisters barely register as petty let alone evil, Cindy's not even the top five prettiest women at the ball, the humor is fairly easy to miss (except where the fairy godmother is concerned), the songs are almost entirely forgettable, and the romance is all told not shown. All that AND its runtime is overlong for such a thin story.

Obviously I understand what the slipper in the title signifies, but what is the rose?

D+

Emilia Perez (2024)

I'm pretty sure this is a weird experiment perpetrated by the awards system to see if heaping accolades on a pile of trash will work on the audience in a "The Emperor's New Clothes" way. Well, let me join the chorus of those who can see this for what it is.

It's a musical, but the songs are so hyper-specific that they can't be used outside of this story (they're also whatever the opposite of "catchy" is).  The character at the center is a cartel leader who transitions to being a woman, which apparently means she has also transitioned from bad hombre to benevolent nurturer. But, make no mistake! She can still turn scary when it looks like she may lose the children she didn't see for four years after traumatizing them with her "death" and their banishment to snowy Switzerland.

What an embarrassing mess.

D-

Wonka (2023)

Once upon a time, Willy Wonka was just a young man trying to make it in the candy business. He travels to the town with the best chocolate (according to his late mother) and runs afoul of a trio of resident chocolatiers. But he's got ingenuity and moxie on his side and he's collecting friends as well.

It was good-natured and good-looking, but it somehow felt like it was hedging a bit. Chalamet manages to be both delightful and a tad blank, like the best actor in any big high school. We were entertained but there's no way I'll seek this out again.

B-

Wicked (2024)

We went to see this on Thanksgiving because both of my daughters-in-law were pumped for it. I was low-key dreading it for both the runtime (I prefer to be at home when I tackle films over 2 hours) and the casting of Ariana Grande (whom I consider to be a below-average actress with an exceptional voice). I'm so happy to report that I had a fantastic time which I don't believe can be chalked up entirely to the effect of that post-dinner edible. 

I will say that it seemed to me that Grande may have been doing a straight-up impersonation of Kristin Chenoweth; though I have not seen the stage play, I've heard the soundtrack and she sounded pretty similar. Note that this is simply a thought I had and not in any way a complaint!

B+

Come From Away (2021)

A filmed Broadway performance of the musical that tells the unique story of those airline passengers diverted to Newfoundland on 9/11 and the residents who welcomed and cared for them until they could get back in the air to go home.

I didn't have high hopes for this -- I'd seen a number performed on one of the late night shows and it seemed too specific to resonate -- but I was proven wrong. With a bare-bones set (think Our Town) and performers handling several roles each, this felt crammed with life. To be fair, some of the songs are very specific, but they flesh out the characters wonderfully and remind us that no adult American was spared fallout from 9/11.

A-

Matilda: The Musical (2022)

Matilda, a top-notch brain born to parents who simply don't see the point of her, is enrolled in a school run by a headmistress who doesn't see the point of children in general. It's a grey place with punishment around almost every corner, with the exception of Miss Honey, Matilda's sweet-natured teacher.

Truth be told, I've never read Matilda nor have I seen the earlier film, so I have no idea if there's a huge departure from the material. But I can say that the choreography is manic, the songs are unmemorable, and the caricatures of evil adults are so far over the top that there's barely any humanity there. I had a hard time seeing why this is an enduring story.

D+

The Color Purple (2023)

I do not understand how this went so wrong. The cast is fantastic, the source material is devastating yet hopeful, and making it a musical should've been a slam dunk with Fantasia in the lead role. But it felt so small. Even Barrino's voice felt swallowed up -- as though she had one of those trumpet dampers in her throat.

I was bored and disappointed.

C-

Dicks: The Musical (2023)

It's parent trap but with men instead of girls and Sewer Boys instead of a fiancee for dad. Yeah, I know that doesn't make much sense if you haven't seen it. Honestly, it doesn't make much sense even if you have seen it. Basically, long-lost identical twins (shut up, they are) meet, compare notes, switch places to get to know the parent they never met, and conspire to get them back together. It doesn't matter to them that Dad's gay and is devoted to a couple of tiny monsters he found in the sewer and that Mom's insane and her pussy is now living off-body -- they just want to be a family!

We were laughing for the first 15 minutes or so, but every scene with Mullally was a chore to get through. In a script full of "what the hell" she stood out as incredibly annoying -- even more annoying than the eventual brother-on-brother 69ing. Yikes.

C

Disenchanted (2022)

The idea of exploring what happens on the other side of "Happily Ever After" is a great one. But though Amy Adams as Giselle is still a delight, not much else works here. 

The brilliance of the original film was that a fairy tale princess remains herself even when removed from her original world. Somehow, this film forgets that formula entirely and has people from the "real" world transform when put into a different reality. What a shame.

C

Bells Are Ringing (1960)

Ella works for an answering service and simply cannot stop herself from doing what she can to improve the lives of the clients. She has to get creative in order to keep helping without raising the notice of the cops, who are sniffing around on suspicion of unsavory activities. Things get especially sticky when she finally meets her favorite client and they begin to fall in love.

I've seen this at least four times and listen to the soundtrack regularly. It's a spectacular musical: goofy, charming and life-affirming. The songs are also top-notch (fun fact: the one time I auditioned for a local theater musical, I used "It's a Perfect Relationship"). Dean Martin is all rumply charm while Judy Holliday is what a rainbow would be if it were transformed into a person. 

It's a delight.

A

Aladdin (1992)

I saw this when it first came out and my boys watched it a few times on VHS when they were kids, but it never really stuck with me. Though I enjoyed it more this time around, a key piece of Gene Siskel's original review kept going through my mind. It was something like "It should've been called 'Genie'" and he got that exactly right. Without Robin Williams' brilliant voice work, this would be just another one of Disney's "sad princess needs rescuing" tale.

B-

West Side Story (1961)

I've seen this at least 4 times (probably more) -- it was one of those films like Wizard of Oz and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang that, when it was on TV, the whole family gathered for it. On ad breaks, we'd spring up and dance our way to the kitchen for drinks or to the bathroom. Magic.

My guess is that it's been more than 25 years since I've seen this, but it really holds up especially in comparison to the 2021 remake. The dance fights seem inspired rather than silly and I had tears streaming by the end, which the remake didn't come near to generating.

A

Cyrano (2021)

This just doesn't work, and I think both the script and the casting of Dinklage are to blame. Cyrano doesn't feel like a cunning wit so much as a presumptuous jerk when he's bullying a popular (but mediocre) actor off the stage. I also didn't buy his ability to dispatch 10 soldiers and, apparently, neither did the director since some of that battle takes place off-screen. But, worst of all, I didn't feel the passion he was supposed to hold for Roxanne. Rather than hiding his longing with brittle humor, he just seemed perpetually mopey.

And then there are the songs: the too-infrequent and extremely forgettable songs. Roxanne and Christian have lovely voices, but the lyrics let them down. That said, one song -- having nothing to do with Cyrano, Roxanne, or Christian -- yanked this movie up an entire letter grade just by its existence. I was a blubbery snotty mess within the first minute of the song below, "Wherever I Fall, Pt 1."

 

C

Dear Evan Hansen (2021)

Evan's a social outcast with only one friend -- and even that friend wants to make it clear that they're only "family friends." When another social outcast commits suicide and his family draws the incorrect conclusion that Evan and their son were besties, Evan can't let them down. And he just keeps digging himself in deeper.

So.... this story is pretty great. Amy Adams, in particular, turned in a heartbreaking performance and the songs are truly wonderful. The glaring issue here is Ben Platt in the lead. I know that most people cited his age as the issue, but I found Platt's mannerisms and "singing face" to be extremely offputting. I literally grimaced through several of his songs because he's difficult to watch. It is an important subject and should've been an effective film, but I kept being pulled out of it by his yuck-factor.

C+