Thursday, February 22, 2007

Nostalgia at the Movies


The new Hugh Grant/Drew Barrymore movie, Music & Lyrics, is definitely a chick flick and would appeal to anyone who was an adolescent gal in the 80s. While K was a lover of metal in her youth, I embarrassingly gravitated to synth pop, mostly of the Brit variety. Being the baby of the family and always having to listen to my brothers’ music, this music was my own, no matter how crappy and dated some of the songs sound now.

Hugh Grant plays a very Andrew Ridgeley character, the unsuccessful half of Wham!, a favorite of mine back in the day. The character is now a has-been but is still living off of his former glory, playing high school reunions where grown women still flock to see his pelvic thrusts. These scenes were both hilarious and a little sad. There is also some commentary about the importance of a good pop song, has-been reality television shows, overtly sexy young singers, and manufactured versus more organic music. But of course, the scenes that got the most laughs were Hugh Grant’s band’s music video with Duran Duran outfits and 80’s hair. If you love Hugh Grant or that genre of music, you’ll love this. Others, probably not so much. --J

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