Denby's "Dreamgirls" rave

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I don't know how I missed this two-day-old Dreamgirls rave from New Yorker critic David Denby: "The sigh you will hear across the country in the next few weeks is the sound of a gratified audience: a great movie musical has been made at last. Dreamgirls is a singing, not a dancing, musical, [and] we can tell from the easy fluency of the movie that [its] basic urge is to merge and join things, not to separate them. Again and again, director Bill Condon lets a declaration of love, an argument, a music-business event flow directly into the next moment, and then into the next, in an exhilarating organic structure with liquid joints."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on December 20, 2006 at 3:38 PM

comment #1

actionman says ...

more importantly, Denby said that The Good Shepherd was one of the best spy movies ever made. I am so excited to see Good Shepherd...sounds like this years Syriana

Posted by actionman at December 20, 2006 3:48 PM

comment #2

erniesouchak says ...

More evidence that Denby's judgment/taste is dubious.

Posted by erniesouchak at December 20, 2006 3:55 PM

comment #3

VedaPierce says ...

Dreamgirls is great. Easily the most entertaining and exuberant film of the year. And as an ardent fan of this rather outdated art form, it is infinitely superior Chicago -- a musical which did everything it could to camouflage its stars' lack of musicality.

Posted by VedaPierce at December 20, 2006 4:14 PM

comment #4

jeffmcm says ...

I thought Babel was this year's Syriana.
I'm hoping Good Shepherd is better than either of them.

Posted by jeffmcm at December 20, 2006 4:23 PM

comment #5

James says ...

Denby's judgment is often overly influenced by his politics. I worry that he likes the Good Shepherd because of its "message."

Posted by James at December 20, 2006 4:33 PM

comment #6

corey3rd says ...

"a great movie musical has been made at last." someone needs to dig up Bob Fosse and let him know that "Cabaret" has been exposed as a fraud by the New Yorker.

Amazing that Denby's knowledge of musical movies stretches all the way back to Chicago.

Posted by corey3rd at December 20, 2006 4:59 PM

comment #7

Mike Schaefer says ...

I seriously doubt Denby is dissing Cabaret, but come on -- that movie was 34 years ago. How many good, let alone great, movie musicals have been made since then? Personally, I think Crybaby comes close, but it's even more of a cartoon than South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut.

Posted by Mike Schaefer at December 20, 2006 5:34 PM

comment #8

RoyBatty says ...

2 days old???!!!!

DELETE THIS ENTRY IMMEDIATELY!!!!

Of course, forgotten in all this hubbub about "The Return of the Musical!" is the bottomline fact that so far none of these hits or would-be hits are based on NEW musicals. Ironically, the ones that are based on somewhat newer shows (PHANTOM, RENT) have performed the worst.

Posted by RoyBatty at December 20, 2006 5:54 PM

comment #9

Dixon Steele says ...

Denby's credibility with me took a major hit after I read AMERICAN SUCKER, his candid auto-bio in which he details how he lost a fortune on the stock market, after his wife left him. Then he became impotent and addicted to Internet porn.

I'm not making this up...

Posted by Dixon Steele at December 20, 2006 6:58 PM

comment #10

Rod32303 says ...

Bunch of HATERS...if you read Denby (and Jeff, for that matter) you know he is a lover of MOVIES. He writes exquisitely about what they succeed in doing...or what they don't. By the way, movies don't all have to be high faulutin or serious as it seems many on here feel a film must be. They just have to tell the story well and be, especially when it comes to a musical, entertaining. If it's maybe even more than that, entertaining and enlightening or brilliant, well, so be it. It's OKAY that he liked, maybe even loved "Dreamgirls." It's okay that you don't, though unless you live in Los Angeles or New York, you probably haven't seen it. Maybe you have no interest. I for one cannot wait and will be there Christmas Day.

And who the fuck can throw stones? For me, one's credibility as a lover and writer of film has nothing to do with previous jobs or failed relationships. Haven't lived his life, and am in no place to judge. No offense, Dixon.

Posted by Rod32303 at December 20, 2006 7:39 PM

comment #11

David Ehrlich says ...

dreamgirls is impossibly trite and absurdly overlong - the 2nd half is a nightmare. jennifer hudson, however, just KILLS, and earns an oscar within a single scene mid-way through. Dancer in the Dark is, IMO, the best movie musical ever made, absolutely no question. As far as traditional musicals go, West Side Story still reigns supreme.

Posted by David Ehrlich at December 20, 2006 8:50 PM

comment #12

T. S. Idiot says ...

Hasn't been a good musical since Funny Face. Astaire, Hepburn, and Gershwin--can't beat that combo.

Posted by T. S. Idiot at December 21, 2006 5:28 AM

comment #13

Dave Polands Gut says ...

"I am so excited to see Good Shepherd...sounds like this years Syriana"

Thats a joke right? I couldnt think of a worse advertisement for a movie.

Posted by Dave Polands Gut at December 21, 2006 7:28 AM

comment #14

sardine says ...

denby, lane, and dargis are the 3 worst critics wirting for a major magazine and newspaper in the u s a.....Dreamgirls is shitty and so is Letters. if you don't see THAT, well, you just don't see it.

Posted by sardine at December 21, 2006 8:33 AM

comment #15

actionman says ...

"I am so excited to see Good Shepherd...sounds like this years Syriana"

"Thats a joke right? I couldnt think of a worse advertisement for a movie."

Not a joke at all...Syriana was brilliant and I expect The Good Shepherd to be excellent as well.

Letters from Iwo Jima is the best film of the year...anyone who doesn't see THAT, is blind.

Posted by actionman at December 21, 2006 8:39 AM

comment #16

corey3rd says ...

Denby replies to me:
Who said "Cabaret" wasn't a great movie? But that was thirty-four years ago. You might as well go back to ""The Band Wagon" and "Les Girls" while you're at it. I was thinking of the last couple of decades or so--"Chorus Line" and "Phantom of the Opera," and "Chicago," and "Rent," and "The Producers" and so on. It is certainly great in comparison to those.Ã‚Â David Denby

My response:
Dear David Denby,

You wrote: "a great movie musical has been made at last." That's pretty much a definitive statement that until you witnessed "Dreamgirls," every Hollywood adaptation of a Broadway musical has been not "great." You did not qualify your declaration by declaring what the last "great movie musical" was before "Dreamgirls" was projected into your life. You sound like Donald Trump pimping a project.

You are writing for the New Yorker - not quickstopentertainment.com. You really should make sure that the words you are writing match up with the words you think you think you're writing.

Joe Corey

Posted by corey3rd at December 21, 2006 9:32 AM

comment #17

Rod32303 says ...

To The Sardine (won't include a pun)

I haven't SEEN either film. I should base my opinion about these films on what...YOUR word? Denby, Lane and Dargis must suck like you say...of course, they are still employed, and in the case of Denby and Lane, have been since Pauline Kael retired. She was an amazing writer also... but to someone who doesn't know to spell out THREE instead of lazily using the "3" number, she probably sucked in your book as well.

The movies are "shitty" and the writers are the worst because...? Because you say? Without any support? THOSE writers SUPPORT their opinions. You STATE yours without example. Typical lazy writer.

You started this...

Posted by Rod32303 at December 21, 2006 11:55 AM

comment #18

Argen says ...

Rod, you are very close to becoming my personal hero. Keep up the good work.

Posted by Argen at December 21, 2006 1:02 PM

comment #19

corey3rd says ...

Part 2 of email fun with Denby:

Joe: No one around here took the remark to mean that this was the greatest movie musical ever. The sentence that follows immediately is about Ã¢â‚¬Å“Chicago.Ã¢â‚¬Â

David,
I can't speak for the fine citizens of Manhattan (because I'm in lowly North Carolina, home of the Stanley Cup - talk about something that hasn't been seen in Manhattan in years), but I don't see how anyone can read that without thinking that in your eyes, movie musicals is an underwhelming genre. You didn't have to say that Dreamgirls was the greatest musical ever because when you wrote, "a great movie musical has been made at last," it states there are no great movie musicals for it to compete against. That somehow a movie like "Cabaret" was overhyped. Would you say that Dreamgirls is the best musical since Cabaret? You made a statement that I'd expect Donald Trump to blurb to Billy Bush on the red carpet. It's not like you said "Dreamgirls" exists on the same level as other great movie musicals. Did you? You only bashed "Chicago" without giving a good example.

Posted by corey3rd at December 21, 2006 1:06 PM

comment #20

David Ehrlich says ...

okay, corey, talking about movies here is all well and good, but when you insult the glorious new york rangers you're crossing the line and deeply hurting other HE readers.

Posted by David Ehrlich at December 21, 2006 1:15 PM

comment #21