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When whizzer died I cried for like an hour. Then I realised Marvin probably caught AIDS/HIV and might of died afterwards. So I cried again. Then I remember Jason and... I cried again. Its such an incredible musical.

I started viewing this film with a different take on it after attending a Q and A event with John Cameron Mitchell around 2005. During the Q & A he repeatedly kept telling the audience to maintain their creative integrity. But he kept saying that ‘creative integrity’ can mean just being true to who you are, or how you raise your kids. The next time I watched the film I realized that it could be an analogy for musicians, or film makers, or artists, or, well, just about anybody who has given up ‘creative Control’ in order to achieve the ‘American Dream’. These people, myself included, can then start to believe that they’re being punished for whoring themselves out for material gain. And they also feel unworthy because they then see others (Tommy Gnosis) attaining success by riding on the true artists coattails. As an example I would use how Trent Reznor would copy Bauhaus but achieve infinitely greater wealth and fame. And this is even visually shown when Yitzhack leaves Hedwig to join the cast of ‘RENT’. In other words, Yitzhack has sold out their artistic integrity simply to pay their rent. I’m not saying that this isn’t about queer issues. But I am saying that it’s a queer perspective on much more universal issues. Think about the image of young Hedwig looking over the wall at a McDonalds sign that is only within their grasp if they sell out to the ‘Man’.

Rent is... so overrated. I hate most of the songs, and am so glad you share many of my criticisms. My favourite rhyming lyrics are in the Tango Maureen - "Pookie" with "spooky" WOW! And La Vie Boheme has a great feel to it but it feels like it was written by A.I. with several exclamations of buzzwords >_<

this is one of my favourite movies ever and the songs are masterpieces

All through composed does not equal opera. Rent is a musical. There are plenty of opera's that have dialogue interspersed with numbers. In fact whole genre's in opera are defined as such, the two biggest being Singspiel and Opéra comique with Operetta possibly being it's own category, possibly not. There are other instances where dialogue was used even outside of those genres throughout operatic history.

Why is Bruce shown when discussing Asher??? They look nothing alike. Lazy man lazy.

mark sings a whole song about how he films everything and feels disconnected

you def missed the point of la vie boheme

Falsettos is the best musical of all time

Great ranking except for White Album and I Want You slander (jk jk) You should do one for The Beach Boys (though that would take a while)

I just watched this last night and I'm in love with it

Ding Dang hate will not be tolerated here

Thank you for proudly proclaiming you dont like Lin Manuel Miranda! We're haters and We're out here!

Had to quit. The “message” just gets worse and worse. All of his stuff is like this.

as a strait male i couldn't look away the first time i watched it. it was hypnotic and hit me with every emotion.

Trans Here and Agree with you. I'm not the Militant Angry People this world needs to be rid of. Your vuid is great and I Associate. Fuck those girls that are Ubber MUST BE OUR WAY!!!! Yeah, We are sick of them. I prefer to be Female in my little world where I'm happy. I don't judge a single prson and i don't think people are worth judging. We are just people. Political or social . I'm not QUEER. I Am Trqans Female and Attracted to Women. But i ... oh what is the point. nobody cares or even wants to care you all just say you are great people that respect trans rights. I don't want thta. I want a Friend that I can talk to .. yet i get Respect and Respect your rights . over here in Shetland and it is impossible to find anything as Shetland has ZERO LGBTQI things. This place is So homophobic that people get fired up here for being gay!! I am not lying. I Got sacked when i came out as Trans. they disguised it as they needed to have a better image?? That was even worse!!! Yeah. Shetland accepts gay and TOTALLY LOVES Drag queens for some reason. But aGuy that is actually a Woman? Nope.. They just treat you like a medieval witch. A hated thing. I no longer go out and i don't know why my self belief is zero. Yeah. Welcome to Shetland. A place that accepts Straight, Gay of both genders..... But nt Trans. Nope that is not Shetland at all! I'm sorry but I'm just saying the truth i live every day

Honestly I love them both for different reasons. Rent will always be nostalgic for me and was a key component in me grappling with my sexuality as a teen. But overall, I think Falsettos definitely packs a bigger punch.

It's NOT a "queer masterpiece." It's a fucking masterpiece. Kinda pisses me off someone saying it's a "queer" masterpiece.

I bought "Heroes and Villains" as a 45 in 1967, and played the shit out of it, then heard some of the other songs on subsequent LPs in the 1970s. But I was unaware of the existence of the Smile album until I heard the 30-minute version on disc 2 of the GV box set in 1993. Then there were all the Sea of Tunes tracks on the internet. I may have listened to this album more than any other in my life.

I can’t even listen to what would I do as background music I just start sobbing like crazy

Not the other promise during the AIDs segment

this is Bogus, the author really needs to study.

There’s maybe 3 or 4 catchy songs in falsettos the rest of the soundtrack is forgettable sorry not sorry

Fantastic video.

I love the video, there is something I would like to point out. In the 2nd song marvin says he has syphilis and hepatitis.

Not only do you get facts wrong, to simply gloss over pet sounds as a deeply depressing critical success and commercial failure is so disingenuous.

that’s not tony asher that’s bruce 2:43

It's a great movie. Stop the political rant.

I love every moment of this film. Especially... "I lost my gag reflex, you do the maths."😀 PS. would like to see your review of Breackfast on Pluto.

Rent I feels like is my childhood I disagree with your today for u I like the chaoticness of it and now I am getting into falsettos and it has a lot of my fave actors

I'm dangerously hetero and I can easily say that "Hedwig And The Angry Inch" changed my life, deeply, when I was just in my 30's. Here I am, approaching 60 and it's still got the ability to make me cry.

The biggest irony about this is that people herald it as being about a transperson when in reality its about a gay man with an identity crises because he was forced into removing his p3nis.

I love Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein. It's one of those Movies I never get tired of watching. And we got to see Bela Lugosi in the Role of Dracula one last time.

Jonathan Larsons passing was truly tragic. Not only because he really could have gone on to make even bigger and greater stuff, but because between the off Broadway and Broadway run I imagine they could have ironed out some off the rough edges. But to me it seems like after his sudden passing before the off broadway preview it became a case of not wanting to be disrespectful to his vision. When so many other flawed pieces have been worked on since their songwriters passing (just look at how many people have contributed to 'Candide' since Bernstein died, also based on other classic pieces, but each contribution still respectful to what he first set in stone).

I'm so grateful slime tutorials exist!

I basically agree with every single point you made, except for the La Vie Boheme slander. I love that song so much how dare you.

my big takeaway here is that art isn’t allowed to be happy or have a greater message

😘🎶🌈💚🏳‍🌈🦄⚧🏳‍⚧💖💙💜⚡🧠♾

As much as I love this album. I really don't think it would have been as groundbreaking and successful as many people imagined it to be. It wouldn't have been more popular than Sgt Pepper, and it wouldn't have outsold it either. A lot of this albums allure comes from the fact that it was never released. Heroes and Villians, arguably the grandest and most complex of all the SMiLE tracks, didn't even make the top 10 of the billboards' top 100 charts when it was released. The rest of the album wouldn't have performed any different in the charts in my eyes. Good vibrations was a huge number hit, but it was released as a single.

i watched falsettos like four different times because i always ended up crying/needing a break before i ever actually finished it

I agree with a lot of points that you made. I think the quality of the AIDS storyline is definitely affected by whether it was a straight person or a queer person writing it. Also, William Finn is objectively better at writing characters who feel like real people to the audience. I think RENT was very underbaked, and it didn’t help that Larson passed away before getting to make adjustments to it (*hot take: I don’t think Rent would be as iconic as it is if he hadn’t died right when it opened; I think that his death just added to the novelty of the show and kept people from examining it critically*). I also think that Falsettos benefited from being a focused narrative with, at most, 7 characters throughout the show; but I also believe that’s what kept it from winning best musical (a musical without an ensemble doesn’t tend to win mainstream awards, even if it’s better). The music in Rent isn’t super complex overall, so it was more accessible to the masses; while William Finn is out here writing some interesting, complicated music and tying up the story very clearly and effectively.

You better check your dates, pal. When SPLHCB, Smile was very close to completion. More, SPLHCB was one of many nails in the SMiLE coffin.

Great video but I am absolutely cackling at the usage of roxas’s theme during the overview of the aids crisis

i dont feel crazy for hating rent anymore thank you

falsettos has 'whizzer going down' and rent doesn't. nuff said.

With Smiley Smile having SMiLE's best tracks, and flopping on release, I don't think SMiLE would have been much of a heavy hitter compared to everything else being released at the time. I love The Beach Boys to death but I just don't think SMiLE would've caught on.

I think you missed the point of Rent lol

If anything, Hedwig's forced transition is a critique of strictly enforced gender binaries, and Hedwig's botched surgery brings her dysphoria because it put her outside of the binary. I think this film does show how enforced gender norms contribute to the cycle of trauma and abuse in queer people.

This feels so confirming. I paused this video 5 minutes in, realizing that I had somehow never watched rent despite hearing about it so much, and came away from it feeling deeply unimpressed. Some of the songs were good but most of them were a few good lines with a whole lot of fluff surrounding them. The spotlight kept shining on extras like i was supposed to know or care who they were, as if the show didn't have enough main characters already? Benny was set up as a major antagonist and just as quickly became a bestie? There were so many plot points that just weren't discussed with enough detail to know what the hell was going on? It felt great to come back to this video after watching rent for the first time and not hear its praises sung like I'd expected lol. It's not bad its just... people talk about this show like it's les mes.

The "are you sleeping?" line in Surf's Up is borrowed from the old French song Frere Jacques. If you listen to the very next line Brian sings "brother John" which is the translation of Frere Jacques. I always thought that was such a random, yet beautiful addition to the song.