Review of Romance & Cigarettes (2005) by Bryan I — 19 Feb 2008

Quirky, sweet little movie. A little strange. Takes the piss out of the typical musical, by turning the conventions on their heads (people just bursting into songs, ludicrously having everyone else around suddenly start dancing as well, etc.), the songs are all previously recorded pop songs (some famous, some obscure) and most of the musical performances involve the actors singing along with the original recordings (or sound alike recordings)), which was also fairly weird...

...however, it's BEAUTIFULLY shot and acted with an eclectic mix of great actors. It's one of those movies that might prompt the quote "Is there anyone who ISN'T in this movie?".

The one odd bit of casting, which is more theatrical (meaning stage than film) is that there are people cast as others' children who are WAY TOO OLD to be the ages they would be, but that's fine, too, as Mary-Louise Parker and Aide Turturro (who is probably playing a gal who is partially retarded) really sink their teeth into these roles with gusto.

Also look for Amy Sedaris is an extremely too short role (looking so gorgeous when she's not playing Jerri Blank.