Well, I finally saw Across the Universe last nite. 12 people in the theater; it'll be on DVD before Xmas, no doubt. And, sad to say, it really is horrendously bad IMHO. A few bright spots: "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" as a ballad of lesbian longing was inspired; "Guitar Gently Weeps" as a cry of pain after MLK's assassination was affecting. (Conversely, "Let it Be" as a gospel number just reminded me that Aretha did it better 35 years ago.) And an actress named Dana Fuchs (new to me; I thought she was Portia DeRossi at first) is quite good as the Joplin-esque Sadie -- she made me wonder why the real Janis never covered "Why Don't We Do It In the Road".
But the rest of it is laughably ham-handed, particularly in any scene involving Vietnam. Every overripe '60s cliche you can think of thrown into a blender. When Bono showed up as Dr Robert to sing "I Am the Walrus", I looked at my watch and realized there was more than an hour still to go, and my eyes rolled back in my head. And then Eddie Izzard did "Mr Kite" (because, apparently, Tim Curry was busy that day) and I just wanted to scream. As Lily Tomlin once said: "Is this really happening, or is it the hash?"
