Knowles on "Sweeney Todd"

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There is nothing on the face of this earth as 100% unreliable as a Harry Knowles effusion about a movie he's been privately shown by some chummy, back-rubbing distributor. His early-bird Sweeney Todd review is therefore totally theoretically dismissable because everyone knows it might well be another Armageddon ejaculation. I love Harry personally, but he's shown time and again that he's too emotional and too susceptible to be trusted out of the gate.

Johnny Depp, James Cagney, Rex Harrison -- the three most famous sing-talkers in Hollywood history

That said, he's calling Sweeney Todd "Tim Burton's best film since Ed Wood -- which I consider to be his very best film to date. That said, upon multiple viewings it is possible this film will become my favorite Burton film.

He's also calling it "a hybrid of Disney and Bava and Corman." Mario Bava? Jesus H. Christ...that's it as far as the Academy is concerned. Bava is an acquired taste (ivory-tower elitists like Dave Kehr are among the celebrators) but Academy squares aren't sophisticated enough -- the Bava thing goes right over their heads, or under them.

"In structure [Todd] is a sweeping love story between a young innocent man and a caged would-be Repunzel...but then there's that rare character that you never see in a Disney fantasy musical. A bitter psychopathic father figure that is out to revenge the horror of his own life." [Note: it's actually spelled Rapunzel -- Knowles should have spell-checked.]

"I would call this Tim Burton's Grimmest Fairy Tale....a delicious Grand Guignol tale that is, simply irresistible. And as a work of film, set to Sondheim's songs it is very much the great dark musical-fantasy horror work."

The most interesting part of the essay is Knowles warning readers that Todd is "almost entirely a singing film" but not really. To hear it from Knowles, Johny Depp (who plays Sweeney) doesn't really sing as much as channel Rex Harrison in My Fair Lady and James Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy by half-grooving and half-posturing with "that form of dialogue known as sing-talking."

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Posted by Jeffrey Wells on November 2, 2007 at 11:27 AM

comment #1

christian says ...

The Academy gave Tarantino an Oscar for referencing Bava in PULP FICTION...

Posted by christian at November 2, 2007 12:15 PM

comment #2

thorsen1nk says ...

Harry Knowles is a blight on this toilet earth. He is the triumph of mediocrity personified, the bane of all things intelligent, holy, or good. I wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire, though that shouldn't dissuade anyone from trying to set that 400 gallon barrel of tallow ablaze.

Posted by thorsen1nk at November 2, 2007 12:16 PM

comment #3

gruver1 says ...

Wells to Christian: No, they didn't. They didn't do that at all.

Posted by gruver1 at November 2, 2007 12:16 PM

comment #4

BurmaShave says ...

Well sing-talking did the trick for those two guys. I too am somewhat skeptical, though I do always love his enthusiasm. Hasn't he has 11 years to improve his writing though? He's got some excellent writers on the site, Moriarity, Capone, etc. He'd be wise to emulate them.

Posted by BurmaShave at November 2, 2007 12:19 PM

comment #5

BurmaShave says ...

Haha gotta love the typo in my criticism of his writing.

Posted by BurmaShave at November 2, 2007 12:21 PM

comment #6

christian says ...

How so? Bava is an influence on the filmmaking and Lance the drug dealer sells Travolta his special blend calld "Bava." It's just as much Bava influenced as Harry pointing it out in ST.

Posted by christian at November 2, 2007 12:25 PM

comment #7

Dave says ...

" [Note: it's actually spelled Rapunzel -- Knowles should have spell-checked.]"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha. . . stop it, Jeff, you're killing me!

I don't believe it is possible that Harry has spell-checked a single thing he's written in his entire life, and that includes DMV paperwork and his marriage license.

Then again, judging by what he writes, I doubt he's ever read through them after he's puked up his thoughts on the electronic page.

Somewhere in this universe, there's an editor thanking God that they don't have to edit Harry Knowles.

Posted by Dave at November 2, 2007 12:31 PM

comment #8

BNick says ...

Wait, is this the same guy who got a special screening of Attack of the Clones and went all over TV claiming George Lucas had turned the corner?

Posted by BNick at November 2, 2007 12:31 PM

comment #9

Jackrabbit Slim says ...

And isn't he the same guy who creamed all over Van Helsing, which was pure offal?

Posted by Jackrabbit Slim at November 2, 2007 12:43 PM

comment #10

Aguirre says ...

burma, that the woefully poor par of online film criticism has you convinced that moriarty and capone are excellent writers on the matter is indicative of how sad a state of affairs this really is. they're all quite endearing - quint being my personal favorite - but their posts make me eternally grateful that the printed word still exists as a haven for truly intelligent ruminations on cinema. unfortunately, the rise of AICN and other such sites has confined the jonathan rosenbaums of the world to analytical texts and the like (his Kiarostami book is fantastic), and forcibly bequeathed the realm of opening day reviews to local fox correspondents and well-meaning people like knowles who are too dazzled by the flashing lights on the screen to allow intelligent critical thought to taint their love of the medium. i know how ridiculously pretentious this all makes me sound, but the lower the discourse sinks, the worse the films will get.

Posted by Aguirre at November 2, 2007 12:43 PM

comment #11

Jackrabbit Slim says ...

And isn't he the same guy who creamed all over Van Helsing, which was pure offal?

Posted by Jackrabbit Slim at November 2, 2007 12:44 PM

comment #12

Jackrabbit Slim says ...

And isn't he the same guy who creamed all over Van Helsing, which was pure offal?

Posted by Jackrabbit Slim at November 2, 2007 12:44 PM

comment #13

JD says ...

Wells, don't you understand that, by derisively labelling intelligent and informed people "elitists," you are contributing to the dumbing down process that you so frequently complain about. One of the reasons people avoid complex, dramatic films is because they've been trained to think that appreciating these films is "pretentious," "elitist" or otherwise uncool. Can't we all just grow up and treat smart people with a little more respect?

Posted by JD at November 2, 2007 12:51 PM

comment #14

Jesse Perry says ...

At this point, an early Knowles rave is a bad, bad sign. I'm now skeptical of Sweeney Todd's quality, and I wasn't before.

Posted by Jesse Perry at November 2, 2007 1:07 PM

comment #15

dixiedugan says ...

I understand the comparison he's making, but I dunno if I'd put Depp up with Cagney at this point.

Of course, I haven't seen the movie.

Posted by dixiedugan at November 2, 2007 1:07 PM

comment #16

MichaelC says ...

The sing-talking technique can be effective with the right material, but isn't it entirely unsuited to Sweeny Todd? I haven't seen it but every thing I read suggests it's an incredibly demanding vocal part. So isn't it going to come across not as "Here's this artistic choice we made" but as "We could've got someone who had the pipes, but we wanted Johnny Depp, so deal with it."

Posted by MichaelC at November 2, 2007 1:31 PM

comment #17

Sean says ...

If you want to try and argue that Bava had an influence over 'Pulp Fiction', feel free. However, the fact that Tarantino used the name is not an influence (and, that said, Lance sells Vincent "Choco", his own blend; "Bava" is one of the ones he mentions but does not sell).

Posted by Sean at November 2, 2007 1:58 PM

comment #18

Sean says ...

Keep in mind, since Tarantino won his Oscar for screenwriting, you have to post examples of Bava's influence on the screenplay, not the direction, to prove your point.

And, to Jeff: What, no love for Robert Preston? The man was the lead in a musical and literally had never learned how to sing -- and his talk-singing enhances the part amazingly!

Posted by Sean at November 2, 2007 2:01 PM

comment #19

Mr. Peel says ...

Hasn't Tarantino said that the original impetus for PULP FICTION was that he wanted to make an anthology film that would be to crime what Bava's BLACK SABBATH was to horror?

Posted by Mr. Peel at November 2, 2007 2:42 PM

comment #20