Hairspray

 

Hairspray 2007

• Director: Adam Shankman
• Based on the book: no
• Cast: Nikky Blonsky, John Travolta, Queen Latifah, Michelle Pfeifer, Christopher Walken, Amanda Bynes, James Marsden, Brittany Snow, Zac Efron, Elijah Kelley, Allison Janney, Tayla Parx
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• John Travolta – Be Cool, A Love Song for Bobby Long, Primary Colours, Face/Off, Get Shorty, Pulp Fiction, Urban Cowboy, Grease, Saturday Night Fever
• Queen Latifah – The Secret Life of Bees, Stranger than Fiction, Chicago, Jungle Fever
• Michelle Pfeifer – many including A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
• Christopher Walken – Jersey Boys, Seven Psychopaths, Hairspray, Romance and Cigarettes, Sarah Plain and Tall, Sleepy Hollow, Suicide Kings, The Addiction, Pulp Fiction, True Romance, The Deer Hunter
• James Marsden – T X-Men, The Butler
• Zac Efron – The Greatest Showman, Firefly
• Elijah Kelley – The Butler, 28 Days
• Allison Janney - I Tonya, Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, The Girl on the Train, The Help, Life During Wartime, Juno, Chumscrubber, The Hours, Nurse Betty, 10 Things I Hate about You, Primary Colours, The Ice Storm
• Why? Fun film
• Seen:  Once before. Now 1 December 2023          

             Exuberant fun with dance, song, colour and 60s galore, and also an optimistic message of anti-racism and anti-thin fascism with a lovely cast. Queen Latifah is at her majestic best. Christopher Walken is his usual weird self as a song and dance proprietor of a prank shop. Fat transvestite John Travolta as the mum does his best role since Saturday Night Fever and Pulp fiction. Michelle Pfeiffer is so unlike her real self as a skinny fashion-plate racist. And newcomer Blonsky is a treasure.

       Anyone who doesn’t like this naïve, good-natured film is a curmudgeon. I want to watch it again immediately.

 5* of 5