This morning, the Genre-ary DailyView pulled another well-known musical film, the 1979 film, Hair. Hair was based on the 1968 Broadway musical  Hair: The American Tribal Love-Rock Musical. 

Hair focused in on the hippie counterculture of the late 1960s/early 70s. It was an anti-Vietnam play, though the movie rolled that back somewhat. 

The film featured a rollicking debut performance from Trick Williams as George Burger, the main hippie from the group in the film. Burger’s friends met Army draftee Claude Bukowski (John Savage) and they bonded in the last few days before Claude needed to report.

There was really not much of a plot here. It felt more like a compilation of misadventures of the group than it was any sort of real throughline. There was a connective tissue involving higher class woman named Shelia (Beverly D’Angelo) and she had some kind of relationship with Claude, kind of.

The music is great. ”Aquarius” is a classic that started off the film and ended up with “Let the Sunshine In.” Everything is catchy and the performance inside the movie were enjoyable and the choreography was well done too.

The success of this film is absolutely on the back of Treat Williams and he carries it through some ridiculousness, especially the final scenes of the movie which are so silly that it removes any of the emotional stakes of the film.

In the end, I am glad I watched the movie, and it does have positives to it, but there are just too many drawbacks for me to full recommend it.

If I am being honest, it is pretty clear that Zac Efron has come a long way to his role as Kevin Vin Erich in The Iron Claw. He is a legitimate Oscar contender for that role, while he was, let’s say, less than that for High School Musical.

However, while he may not have been too deep here, he had some energy and he did have some chemistry with his co-stars, in particular with Vanessa Anne Hudgens, which helped to elevate this ridiculous high school film.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “Troy Bolton (Zac Efron), the star athlete at a small-town high school, falls for nerdy beauty Gabriella Montez (Vanessa Anne Hudgens) at a holiday karaoke party. When they return to campus, Troy and Gabriella audition for the upcoming school musical. Meanwhile, the jealous Sharpay Evans (Ashley Tisdale) conspires to squelch their chances. The two must struggle to make it to auditions while also meeting their existing obligations to the basketball team and the academic decathlon.“

I mean… story-wise, this thing is terrible. The high school is pure fantasy, and things happen here that just never would happen in any high school in the world. And I am not just talking about the choreography. It is predictable and the characters are all weak.

However, the music is catchy and fun to listen to. I won’t be remembering it much or buying it on iTunes, but it was fun and enjoyable during the movie. The dancing was great, in particular the big lunch room number. 

It may be way too sugary and these kids would never exist anywhere, but it does have a positive message about doing what makes you happy and acceptance of it. That is an important message to the youth of the world.

I really thought that I would be rolling my eyes at this thing throughout, but it was more engaging than I thought it was going to be. I’m not saying that this was a good movie, but it was not a terrible one either. The weak parts and strong point kind of balance out here. I did not hate myself for watching it, and that is a bonus.

I was a big fan of the two seasons of Schmigadoon on Apple TV +. I came on it late, but binged the two seasons quickly, really enjoying the set-up and the parody of the musical genre. I had not seen the film that Schmigadoon was originally parodying, but this morning, that changed as I watched 1954’s Brigadoon starring Gene Kelly and Van Johnson.

Two men went to Scotland to go grouse shooting, but they stumbled from out of the mist into a mysterious village called Brigadoon. 

Gene Kelly is very charismatic and his singing and dancing is, again, top notch. Van Johnson played the more grumpy of the two. 

There are few songs that I recognized from the film. The one that I had heard before was “Almost Like Being in Love.” 

The film is romantic and lovely. Good music and good choreography. The storytelling is solid.