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The First ‘Les Misérables’ Teaser Washes All My Fears Away

I cannot being to tell you how much I love Les Misérables. As far as I’m concerned it’s the best novel ever written, and it also inspired the greatest musical I’ve ever seen and listened to. When I heard Tom Hooper, the director of The King’s Speech, was going to be adapting the musical to the screen I had some serious concerns. The casting only furthered my concerns. Was Hooper going to go for celebrity and prestige over actual quality?

Since then I’ve come around a bit. The casting of Samantha Barks as Eponine went a long way, as did learning that Hooper was planning on recording as much of the singing as possible live on set. That’s a tricky thing to do, but if done right it can bring so much more depth and emotion to the performances even when the singing isn’t 100% note perfect.

Judging from this first trailer, that is exactly what Hooper has been able to accomplish. Anne Hathaway is a pretty great singer, but she’s no Lea Salonga or anything. But Hooper, by recording live and valuing the acting over the actual voice has coaxed true beauty out of his Fantine. Between the crushingly emotional rendition of ‘I Dreamed a Dream’, and the stunning, bleak visuals, I no longer have any serious reservations. Of course, it could end up not working, but in terms of my anticipation, all my worries are gone. Move over, Dark Knight Rises, I’ve got a new most anticipated movie of 2012: Les Misérables.

What are your thoughts on the trailer? Are you turned off by the more “actor-ly” singing style? Are you as excited as I am? Let me know in the comments.

The MPAA’s Stupidity vs. Weinsteins’ ‘Bully’ Tactics

Yes. Yes they are. The MPAA is wrong to give the documentary Bully an R rating. Of course they’re wrong. It’s absolutely stupid to think that this apparently unflinching look at school bullying is being given that rating for no other reason than language. Quite frankly, even if it was for thematic content that would be stupid. Why keep kids sheltered from what actually happens to real kids. And sure, I can see how the MPAA might simply be reflecting the reserved nature of parents across America, but then I’d have to say that the MPAA and parents both need to stop being so ignorantly uptight.

However, I think in this case we need to cut the MPAA some slack. Or, at the very least, we should acknowledge the realities of this case specifically. This isn’t just a case of the MPAA being stupidly dogmatic about swearing in film. This is a case of the Weinsteins drumming up controversy where they didn’t need to to get people talking about a documentary that was barely getting any buzz until now. Not only that, but the way a lot of writers have approached the rating of this film as some sort of censorship is off base.