Top 5 – Modern Musicals

I’m a sucker for a good musical.  I don’t think I can say there is one that I truly dislike.  There are a couple I wasn’t a huge fan of, but I love most musicals.  I don’t know why, I just do.  This weekend, Hollywood’s latest musical, La La Land, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, gets a nation-wide release.  So in honor of that, here are my picks for the best modern musicals. 

By modern musical, I am talking about musicals that came out this millennium, excluding anything in the 1900’s, because the extensive research would be ridiculous.  

I also did not include La La Land on this list, but it easily would have been in the top three if I did.

5 – DREAMGIRLS (Billy Condon, 2006)

From the moment the opening credits for Dreamgirls started rolling, I was smitten.  This is a bold, bright, exciting film that still holds up on multiple viewings.  Following a trio of female soul singers and their rise to fame in the 1960’s, the film looks at their rise and fall not only as artists, but as a family.  Aside from the great songs, we get spectacular performances from the entire cast, particularly a career-best Eddie Murphy and a show-stopping Jennifer Hudson, who crushes the whole movie with her rendition of “And I’m Telling You”.  This is a classic story that will get your heart pumping and your toes tapping.

4 – SWEENEY TODD: THE DEMON BARBER OF FLEET STREET (Tim Burton, 2007)

Before the Tim Burton/Johnny Depp duo became a Hollywood mockery, they were putting in great work and pushing each other’s artistic boundaries every time.  Sweeney Todd is Tim Burton’s most impressive work as a director and one of Depp’s finest performances.  In usual Burton style, this is a dark, gothic, stylish film that looks beautiful and will creep up your skin.  But Burton also does a great job of giving the movie a ton of emotion, something most of his movies genuinely lack.  The songs are spectacular, the violence is bloody, and the performances are top notch.  This is one of Burton’s finest works ever.

3 – CHICAGO (Rob Marshall, 2002)

2002 was a year that changed the way I viewed movies.  Gangs of New York came out that year, and that changed how I watched any movie.  Chicago was also released and that set a standard for musicals I had never had before.  I had been used to watching Grease (1978) and the Disney classics.  But I had never seen anything quite like Chicago.  The colors, the story, the power, the passion.  This movie electrified me when I first saw it and still does to this day.  “He Had It Coming”, led by the strong, devious Catherine Zeta-Jones, gives me goosebumps every time I hear it.  This is a relentless, powerful, lively musical, and a worthy Best Picture winner.

2 – MOULIN ROUGE! (Baz Luhrmann, 2001)

The first time I saw Moulin Rouge! I didn’t like it.  I think I was too young to understand it as a movie and as a piece of art.  I gave it a re-watch a few years later and boy, were my initial reactions wrong.  Moulin Rouge! is one of the most magical, inventive movies I have ever seen.  The dream-like aura and kinetic energy of Baz Luhrmann’s direction and vision make for one of the most rewarding and wild movie-going experiences you will ever have.  Nicole Kidman gives the best performance of her career, and I dare you to tell me you didn’t fall in love with Ewan McGregor.  This is a beautiful love story, dazzling musical, and masterful film.

1 – 8 MILE (Curtis Hansen, 2002)

What?  8 Mile?  Best musical?  You’re damn right.  Doesn’t qualify?  You’re wrong.  8 Mile is as much a musical as any other movie on this list, it’s just that director Curtis Hansen disguised it brilliantly as an Italian Neo-Realism film set on the streets of Detroit.  Rapper Eminem, in his first and only starring performance, brings an intensity and gravitas to a performance only seen by seasoned veterans.  This is a tough, gritty, motivational movie about the daily grind and fighting for what you want.  The freestyles are expertly done and the final battles at The Shelter play out like a classic boxing fight.  8 Mile is one of the very best movies of the 2000’s and the best modern musical.

What are you favorite modern musicals?  Comment below or hit me up on Twitter and Instagram, @kevflix, or on Facebook and YouTube by searching Kevflix.