"Listen, if you're gonna dance, you have to wear something, eh..." "That looks special! You need some, eh..." "Blog!" "Blog?" "Something sharp looking." "You know, something with a 500 movies you've never seen before to it. Hot!"
Xanadu
1980
Robert Greenwald
Zoom: April 29, 2026, 9 PM to 10 PM
Participants: Bobby M., Brianna, Joe, Kait, Sam, Sean E., Stef, Sunny
In my mind, it's more interesting to try to present devil's advocate views during discussions like this. I think there are certain pieces of art that are going to elicit similar reactions from people, but if we're gonna be chatting about it for an hour, it's better to be challenged on that opinion. The funny part about that in relation to Xanadu is that I totally assumed I was going to be a devil's advocate for optimism within a conversation where people hated this thing, but it actually turned out to be the opposite. People were pretty forgiving of Xanadu!
I guess I assumed that people were going to hate it because... I kind of hated it? We're all in agreement here that a lot of it was really fun, especially the singing and dancing and goofy '80s aesthetics. But opinions on the plot itself being fucking bad varied in how that bad plot affected the overall understanding of this thing. In talking about all the various plot points that legitimately just did not make any sense at all (and most of it very funny to talk about), maybe opinion was swayed a little bit. I hope it wasn't. I'll devil's advocate for pessimism if needed, but that's not what I actually want. I want people to like a movie that they invest their time in. So I'm satisfied with Xanadu.
Here are some other points that we talked about:
- Maybe the plot didn't really matter all that much if you think about Xanadu as a series of fun vignettes rather than a full movie.
- But is that how we should watch movies? Is that responsible of us as critics?
- Comparisons to "visual albums" like Lemonade (which just celebrated its tenth anniversary)
- Did the concept of a "muse" involve all your dreams disappearing if the muse disappeared?
- Was "painting album covers but bigger" a real job?
- There was a running theme (successfully or not, probably not) of "following your dreams." Was that apparent to anyone else? Or was that more bullshit in a long line of bullshit for this movie?
- Wait.... why were they rollerskating?
- Big question: why did critics hate it then, but we are at the very least forgiving of it now?
- musicals are less common now
- it was a big swing, tried something new
- this is not irony
- expectations matter—we didn't expect it to be "good"
- as simple as the dancing saving it
- Was this a good example of "so bad it's good"? If so, how is this different than movies that are so bad that they are bad?
- Ebert said the cinematography is bad, is that true? Does it matter?
- The Razzies (actual name: Golden Raspberries) were created due in part to some dude disliking this movie a lot. What's the value in just shitting on movies? Maybe our forgiving nature of film like this is our generation's reaction to the Razzies, and a move toward less cynicism when it comes to art?
- Why did this movie fail? Were they set up for failure?
We didn't frame it as a "try to convince me otherwise" conversation, but it did seem like there was more movement than usual regarding people's opinion, in both directions. For the record, I did not "hate" this film. If it was "so bad it's good," then I think the "good" part of that equation is pretty soft, but legitimately there. Whereas there are so many movies that are apparently actually good but are really just fucking bad. That wasn't Xanadu. This was pretty good. Fun. Worth watching, at the very least. I'd give it 3 pukes out of 5. That's probably a +0.5 because of the conversation we just had. I appreciate the boost from my pals in Film Club.
What else we got? Anyone have any opinions that are more extreme? Anyone else just have a good ol' time? Let's chat in the comments about it.
(NEXT TIME: Q5 officially kicks off when half of us watch Blue Velvet.)
3 comments:
Something I forgot to include that we talked about a little bit was the music itself, like the soundtrack. One, how it was popular in a way that the movie was not (including one #1 U.S. hit song, "Magic"). Two, how it was all original songs by two different artists (ONJ and her songwriter, and ELO a.k.a. Jeff Lynne), not a compilation, and not originally intended to be a rock opera or anything. I think we can agree most of these songs are pretty fun!
It's funny, I was not, and am still not even after this, familiar with ELO all that much. I have "Mr. Blue Sky" on the kids' iPod because it's played at the end of the (inferior) Super Mario Bros. Movie, and Willow had a moment last week where she rediscovered it and kept playing it over and over. I had to tell her that I really don't know anything about this band, sorry, I'm failing you this time (too early to tell her about Traveling Wilburys). But then I sat down to watch Xanadu, and there they fucking are. Small world.
There was a question last night about what happened at the end, with meeting ONJ as a waitress. My interpretation (and there was some discussion as to whether this was actually true) was that the waitress looked exactly like the muse that he originally fell in love with, and so our main character was instantly attracted to her.
During the Zoom, I had a sudden flash of this same thing happening in another movie or TV show that I've seen before. For the life of me, I cannot remember what it was. Certainly couldn't concentrate during the Zoom, but even now, it's on the very outskirts of my brain, but I can't reach it. Anyone have any clue?
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck it was Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian. I wouldn't have gotten the answer so quickly if google didn't bring me here.
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