.film noir.

.this weekend will be a good one for movie-goers. okay, so not exactly film noir, but one of them is un peu 'noir'.

let's see. first we have mamma mia!, to which i have a personal affinity because i saw it on broadway. which was awesome! i must admit, it was not technically the best "musical" i have seen, as for the most part, the songs often did not gel with the storyline - it was sometimes almost as though the plot was going along, and then the writers were like, oh, this is a musical, we need to throw an abba song in here. but let's be honest - they wrote the musical around the abba songs, so what can we really expect? regardless, the musical was great. it was hilarious - with very adult humor - had great costumes and sets, and the songs, though not necessarily the most well-suited, were great. c'mon, how can you beat 'dancing queen?' you can't. and i swear, the title song gets stuck in my head almost every day. except i don't know the whole thing, so basically i am like that creepy old man in the downtown crossing t stop who plays his keyboard and sings about four lines of 'i'll be missing you' over and over. creepy.

so i am very excited about that coming out! the movie looks beautifully done, and it has an absolutely stellar cast. i love meryl streep. and that the dense blonde from mean girls plays sophie. love it. but really, the music is fabulous and the film looks gorgeous.

on to darker themes and palettes, the dark knight looks, well, dark. but spectacular. i have read rave reviews about heath ledger, and if the trailers are any indication, he gives a very impressive performance. and i'm not just saying that because he recently passed (too soon?). seriously, though, i think that he was an actor very similar to leonardo dicaprio - did a few cheesy blockbusters that cast them as actors in specific bland parts. but really, they are both incredible. i still can't get over how perfect dicaprio was in what's eating gilbert grape. he just cloaks himself in his roles - and i think ledger does the same. sure, he may be overlooked because of insipid parts in the patriot etc. etc., but he is fantastic. i can't wait to see him as joker.

these movies both look very well done. the former will definitely be the more fun, light-hearted of the two, but either way, you should get a great film.

.cheers.