Review of Judy (2019) by Compi24 — 08 Oct 2019

Considering the life that common knowledge tells us Judy Garland lived, I'm not sure how anyone can consider "Judy" anything short of sanitized. This woman's existence was horrific, and -- in a kind of metaphysically twisted way -- a considerable amount of that pain was caused by the same sort of forces that have disinfected the harsh bits from this story -- show business. Crimes committed against our protagonist are only alluded to. Tragic acts enacted by the protagonist are only mentioned and then nothing more. Pivotal, potentially dynamic characters are either tossed aside or entirely left out. It's a damned shame.

I know it sounds like I'm really chewing this movie out, but it's because of the few moments of brilliance throughout and what I'm sure are the very kind intentions behind this film that really leave me feeling cold in the end.

The in vogue approach for biopics nowadays is to pick a specific portion of a subject's life, and try telling the story behind that period to the best of one's abilities. For Judy Garland, I think I would've preferred the more traditional biopic approach. If you want to really make me feel for Judy Garland, give me the exhaustive, A to Z, warts and all approach. Because, from what I understand, her entire life was really that affecting.

"Judy" is fine. Almost frustratingly so. And not even the incredible efforts of Renee Zellweger can elevate an approach that really needed to be fine tuned from jump.