1. Bugsy Malone
This is one of my very favorite movies of all time, and Edgar picked it for his list, too. I'm always amazed that so few of my friends have even heard of it, but I guess it was a much bigger hit in the U.K. than in the U.S. In primary school, we would stay inside during recess if it was raining and we would watch a movie. I'm sure there were lots of films in the rotation, but the ones I remember were Labyrinth, Short Circuit and Bugsy Malone. It rained a lot in England, so yeah, I've seen Bugsy Malone a lot of times. It's such an odd little movie - a cast full of kids in a gangster-ish film with a ragtime soundtrack - but it's so enjoyable. The songs, by Paul Williams, are so catchy and fun. They're always in high rotation in my iTunes. The cast, led by Jodie Foster and Scott Baio, do amazingly well, considering most of them had never acted before. I don't think I have the proper objectivity to judge this film because it's been a part of my life for so long, but it's just a lot of fun to watch.
2. Cabaret ("Money, Money")
I knew the songs from Cabaret long before I had seen the film or before I even knew the plot. The jazzy soundtrack has some real classics ("the title track," "Mein Herr," "Maybe This Time," so many more), and they're the kind of songs that make you (OK, me) feel like you can belt them out as well as Liza. Obviously, I can't - Liza's really great in this film, quirky, brassy, tough and vulnerable at the same time. In the scenes outside the club, she exists in her own world. She doesn't belong in Weimar Germany (and definitely not in Nazi Germany), but she also doesn't belong in her own skin. Liza shows those cracks in her armor really well. Speaking of not belonging in the world, it's not possible to imagine the Emcee (Joel Grey is amazing) in the outside world at all. He's like a little magic sprite who can only exist in the confines of the cabaret. Bob Fosse and the designers do a great job of balancing the opulence and the griminess of the club - it's almost luxurious, but it's mostly seedy. The luxury, like a lot of things, seems to be in their heads. Cabaret is a very moving film, but it's subtle. There are only the hints of the oncoming storm of World War II, but it's well done.
3. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
Now here's a weird movie. Based on the novel by Ian Fleming (yes, the guy who wrote the James Bond novels), the script was written by Roald Dahl, among others. How can that not be great? Well, there are some things that need to be overlooked. The plot in the first half is slightly meandering, and there are also two very poor, actually boring songs - those would be "Hushabye Mountain" and "Lovely Lonely Man." Other than that, it's perfect. Dick Van Dyke is at his most likable and funny, and he gets to show off a lot of physicality, particularly in the video above. There are some real standout performances from Lionel Jeffries as Grandpa Potts (he has two fantastic songs) and Gert Fröbe and Anna Quayle as Baron and Baroness Bomburst. Gert Fröbe! They also sing a brilliant song that gets stuck in my head regularly. In other supporting roles, Benny Hill plays the toymaker, and Alexander Doré and Bernard Spear absolutely kill in their minimal screen time as two Vulgarian spies. Oh, and this is all without mentioning the single most terrifying character in all of children's cinema: the Child Catcher. Genuinely the most evil reading of the word "lollipops" in the history of the world. It's always nice to throw a little terror into a fun musical.
4. Moulin Rouge! ("El Tango de Roxanne")
If writing this list has taught me anything, it's that I like bright colors. That's probably what Moulin Rouge! does best - bright colors, lots of movement, fast cuts, loud music. Seeing it in the theater was an overwhelming experience. I didn't know where to look, and I felt breathless in the bigger numbers. As far as the numbers go, the singing is quite good on the whole and the arrangements are mostly OK. In a few cases, I feel like the joke is taken a little too far. In "Like a Virgin," for example, I think the joke is maybe 30 seconds at best, but I didn't want to hear the whole song. Kind of like the brief snippet of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" - used sparingly, it was very effective, but it would have been dull and obvious to do the whole song. On the other hand, the original song, "Come What May," is cheesy and brilliant. I think that's much of the charm. You watch it and think, "This is cheesy and over-the-top," but you can't help but be swept up by it.
5. Alice in Wonderland
Did you know that Alice in Wonderland has the most songs of any Disney film? It's true. Many of them are only a few seconds long, and there aren't many that can be counted among Disney's best (Though I am quite fond of "Golden Afternoon"). While it's technically a musical, it's mostly a very strange film. The plot takes some of the best points of both of Lewis Carroll's novels and combines them into a surreal and psychedelic gem. Some of the animation in the tea party scene is great - there is a brief black and white shot that contrasts really well with the chaos before it (start at 7:20 in this clip). Alice in Wonderland is my favorite Disney film because it's not serious or heavy. There's nothing really going on, just a series of interesting narratives. I like that it's bright and colorful and also inventive. There are a lot of good minor characters - I like the brush-faced dog - and the voice performances for the major characters are wonderful. I particularly like it as a musical because the majority of the songs fit seamlessly into the dialogue. They're just snippets of music in a conversation, and it makes sense because the whole film doesn't make any sense.
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