Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) — Todd sings “I will have vengeance, I will have salvation” and I have generally found that the two are mutually exclusive. Ok, so now that I’m done being profound on to the movie. I think the star of this movie is Dante Ferretti, the production designer. His Burton-ized version of 1800s London is fucking amazing and sells the whole movie. I think Stephen Sondheim is a somewhat interesting composer and think maybe his songs might have been improved with more professional singers. Or maybe Autotune. They can do that now. Depp has more rock-ish vocals than you might expect in a musical. Anyway, dig the story and the whole “vengeance destroys the soul” message that has worked in tragedy for centuries. Acting-wise the film is cast perfectly I think (my above comments about vocal ability notwithstanding). It’s got romance, revenge, blood, and singing all with Burton-esque visuals and Sondheim’s clever lyrics and the sick sick sick sense of humour [spelled the Brit way] that results from a marriage of the two. What’s not to like?
Persistence of Vision 