Rent

[Raf]

Not a bad flick. Not a great one, but not a bad one.

You've got to be willing to put the Bible thumping aside, though. In fact, a lot of reasonable things need to be put aside, as well: the only character who has anything approaching a firm grip on reality is the villain. Four of the eight main characters have AIDS. The ending is dumb, to put it mildly. But the music pops, and the manipulative SOBs will force some tears out of you.

Everything I need to know I learned from Rent.

1. I can not have a job and not pay my rent for a year before the landlord starts demaning things from me.

2. You can be a 19-year-old junky on your last legs and still look as hot as Rosario Dawson.

3. Whenever I start singing something in someone else's presence, that other person WILL know the words and be able to accompany me in perfect harmony.

4. Everyone has AIDS.

5. You can live right upstairs from Rosario Dawson and not notice.

6. And have a male roommate who doesn't notice.

7. And both of you are straight.

8. You can sell your guitar and buy a car with the money.

9. Killing a yappy dog will make you a hero in some people's eyes.

10. I miss the World Trade Center. (Thank you for that one, Chris Columbus!)

[laleo]

I haven't seen the movie, but I saw the musical about a year ago. My daughter wanted to go, so at the last minute I went to the theater for tickets, and all the good seats were sold-out. So I figured that as long as I was going to have bad seats, I might as well buy the cheapest. Big mistake. We ended up mid-balcony, on the far right of the theater, against a wall. That wouldn't have been so bad, but there were six seats between me and the aisle, which meant six people to climb over if, for any reason, I wanted to leave. For the first half of the show, I was so distracted by claustrophobia, I didn't even get the plot line.

At the break, I scouted around for a couple of empty seats that weren't so closed in, and managed to follow the second half of the show, but without the first half, I was never really sure what was going on. What I remember of the play is the song, Seasons of Love, which still goes through my mind on occasion. My daughter loved the play. Said it was the best she's ever seen.