Z/Web

Director: Tim Burton

I’d heard of the muscial Sweeney Todd and the premise of a murderous barber always intrigued me, but I’d never seen it, so I was looking forward to this presentation. Unfortunately, what disappointed me the most was the music: it’s definitely poor, with zero memorable songs and only one or two even singable. The rest are boring or tedious, with a few just downright awful. Everything else about the film — the story, the cast, the acting, the atmospheric sets, the direction — I loved. But music is key for a musical and this was disappointing. So see it for the black comedy story and great performances from Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter and wear earplugs.

This is a funny parody of Walk the Line, the Johnny Cash bio, this time about a fictional singer named Dewey Cox. It’s an almost literal remake with the key momments of Cash’s life mocked and mixed up, with hilarious results. What’s interesting is the realism that’s preserved: the singing’s actually good, the story’s good (not just silly), and the acting’s excellent. Many parodies are so cheesy they demean themselves as well as the original work: here everything is celebrated. Only occasionally does the film lower itself into silliness, like the bit about Dewey accidentally cutting his beloved older brother in half with a machette — and even there it’s done in such a way that it’s not so realistic that it’s disturbing yet realistic enough that it doesn’t ruin the tone. All-in-all, other than a few moments of questionable humor, I liked this. It’s fun, silly, entertaining, and clever.