Review of Cabaret (1981) by Alex G — 11 Aug 2012

This movie is so ridiculous, absurd, stylish, and outlandish that those are the reasons I love it. Joel Grey is fantastic as the over the top Master of Ceremonies and Liza Minnelli is great as Sally Bowles.

I realized in watching them why playing a role over the top can work; it's because both of their characters are naturally larger than life characters, that going the extra step up works for them, and they both deserved their Academy Awards.

Michael York as Brian Roberts is worth mentioning; he was so good that at times I forgot he was Basil Exposition from the Austin Powers movies. That, of course, was a joke but he still did a great job.

His character was well handled from a writing standpoint. You actually did feel for what he was going through; at first being a loner in a new land and being constantly in a state of confusion and then as his relationship with Sally begins his jealousy of Maximillian.

I love how the music isn't there to just serve the plot. Besides being entertaining to watch, they connect to the actual plot and it works very well in my opinion. If there's something I have to complain about in romances in movies, it's the lack of chemistry.

In this movie, watching the chemistry between Brian and Sally is just fun to watch; it's so cute and real it's enjoyable to watch. As I mentioned earlier, the scenes in the cabaret are extremely entertaining, especially with Joel Grey and occasionally Liza there as well.

The film also know how to act in certain scenes. It knew how to be ridiculous in the cabaret scenes, and when it was being dramatic, it was natural; it wasn't forced at all. In the "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" Nazi part, it was clever irony there.

The film, however, is not without it's issues. The chemistry between Fritz and Natalia was rather underdeveloped (by the way it was very tragic to see her dog dead on her porch) and kinda thrown to the side, the fact that Brian was helping with English lessons and that he was translating a book for someone was kinda thrown away, the fact that he had gotten the shit beaten out of him by the Nazis but in the next few scenes seems perfectly fine, and the fact that Brian is bisexual is thrown away as well.

Although they were issues, they didn't keep me from enjoying the film. The overarching theme of the Nazi Party I thought was well handled; again, it didn't feel forced when it was happening. As for the ending, it was so weirdly handled, but it fit the tone of the movie so I didn't mind it that much.

Overall, I honestly have to say that although I'll need to watch it a second time to make sure, Cabaret might be my favorite musical.