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I hate it. ******** hate it. Normally I don't approve of hating things before I check them out myself (i.e. Inuyasha I even watched six episodes of before deciding it sucked a**), but I ******** hate RENT and I don't care how many people s**t their pants about it.
I know the story. I've listened to the soundtrack. I've heard the "blahblahblah RENT IS AMAZING ORGASMIC CONTROVERSIAL EDGY AWESOMENESS blah blah blah" reviews from my friends, my mom, my friends' friends, and the critics.
Ever seen "Team America", and their parody of Rent? It was incredibly accurate. You know why? Because it was a guy running around singing about how everyone has AIDS.
"But Anna," some of you might be saying, "Rent is a beautiful story about trial and tribulation in a modern, AIDS-ravaged society! And besides, you haven't seen it! So how can you say you hate it?"
The same way I can say I love Reefer Madness without having seen that, either: I've heard the soundtrack. IT'S A MUSICAL, PEOPLE. MUSICALS DON'T HAVE TONS AND TONS OF DIALOGUE. THEY HAVE... MUSIC. And if you've heard the music, you've pretty much know what's going on. I've heard Rent's music, and I have these things to say about it:
1. The music sucks.
My definition of 'sucks' varies from your definition of 'sucks', so don't even try to contradict this one. It won't work. I think Rent's music sucks. Some of the lyrics are clever, but for the most part I found it to be sappy, overrated and completely unengaging or even interesting. The end.
2. Rent seems too trite to be genuine in its use of the "everyone is DYING from AIDS!" thing.
When I listened to the soundtrack - twice, for the record - I kept getting the feeling that the producers of Rent were just trying to capitalize on the fact that AIDS and HIV are shocking, immensely crippling diseases, and that it's becoming a problem in the U.S. today. While there's nothing wrong with trying to raise awareness about it, I felt like most of the musical was revolving around "OMG people have AIDS. AIDS. AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS AIDS. AIDS. A to the I to the D to the S. AIDS. Feel sorry for them and give us all your money", with some super-edgy taboo sexual references thrown in to make sure no one leaves the theater without feeling supremely elitist for having watched such a scandelous musical. "Oh, you saw Phantom of the Opera over the weekend? Well, I saw RENT! Which mentions AIDS and masturbation! I WIN b***h!"
3. Everyone shits their pants about it around me.
I'm kind of a theater dork. I'm currently working on a production of Grease, have a number of plays and musicals I want to get tickets to for Christmas, and ever since I was a little kid, I've always been enamored with the theater world. In fact, I first learned of some of my all-time favorite theater productions through the ranting and raving of critics, close friends, and the general media. So it doesn't bother me that Rent is popular.
It does bother me that everyone who talks about it needs to emphasize the fact that there's AIDS in it, like that somehow automatically makes it a work of edgy brilliance. No one I've talked to says anything about the atmosphere created by the music or the performance. No one I've talked to says anything about cleverness in the lyrics or irony usage or metaphors or anything remotely justifying. The only thing I've heard from people is that, oh my god, AIDS is in it! People with AIDS! AAAAAAAH HOLY s**t AIDS!
I've already gotten into why this pisses me off, so I'm just gonna leave that alone for now. Also, I'm tired of typing the word "AIDS".
In conclusion, I hate Rent, and you literally couldn't pay my a** to see the movie. I'm planning on going into hibernation when it comes out, actually, because that's when all of my friends will start evangelizing a second time about how amazing it is. I hate Rent. I'm hungry and I need a nap. Goodnight.
 Zwei Dunkel Jungen · Thu Oct 13, 2005 @ 12:14am · 4 Comments |
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