MOVIE: Hamilton (2020)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Hamilton Year: 2020 Rating: PG-13 Length: 160 minutes / 2.67 hours I'll admit I'm late to the game on this musical. Luckily, Disney+ helped give me the option of seeing this modern masterpiece. Granted, I know it's not the same experience as seeing it in the theatre (aside from the modifications to allow it on Disney+), but I'm glad I had the opportunity to see it nonetheless. While Hamilton (2020) is not the first musical about the early United States I've heard, it certainly taught me way more about this time period than I had previously thought possible. A word to the wise: be prepared for almost three hours of fast-talking politicians. Subtitles might help, but it's awe-inspiring to hear these rhymes fly through the air at a frenetic pace. I was a little exhausted after I finished watching this since I felt it crammed a six-hour history lecture into less than half the time. It helped that the artistic license Lin-Manuel Miranda had with...
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MOVIE: Mary Poppins Returns (2018)

by benmweilertNo Comments
Mary Poppins Returns Year: 2018 Rating: PG Length: 130 minutes / 2.17 hours While it’s a somewhat rare occurrence, it usually doesn’t take Disney over five decades to release a sequel to a critically-acclaimed movie (like how Fantasia 2000 (1999) came out sixty years after Fantasia (1940)). The original Mary Poppins (1964) was a triumph in live-action for a studio known for its animation—which also makes an appearance. It raked in the Oscar Nominations, even gaining a nod for Best Picture. As far as sequels go, Mary Poppins Returns (2018) is a sharp and polished upgrade compared to the original but hits most of the same beats for the sake of nostalgia. Emily Blunt was more than passable as the title character, even if her representation seemed a bit more on the sarcastic and irritated eye-rolling side of the spectrum from Julie Andrews’ measured patience in the original. The songs in Mary Poppins Returns were certainly catchy—a trait undoubtedly inherited from Lin Manuel-Miranda—but didn’t seem...
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