'Hamilton' Review

 
PG-13: Language and some suggestive materialRuntime: 2 Hrs and 43 MinutesProduction Companies: Walt Disney Pictures, 5000 Broadway Productions, Nevis Productions, LLC. Old 320 Sycamore, RadicalMediaDistributor: Disney+Director: Thomas KailWriters: Lin-Manuel MirandaCast: Lin-Manuel Miranda, Phillipa Soo, Leslie Odom Jr., Renée Elise Goldsberry, Christopher Jackson, Daveed Diggs, Okieriete Onaodowan, Anthony Ramos, Jasmine Cephas Jones, Jonathan GroffRelease Date: July 3, 2020I gotta hand it to Disney — After years of massive purchases and questionable, unethical business practices (RIP 20th Century Fox), I have to give ‘em the benefit of the doubt and admit that buying the film rights to Hamilton might be their smartest move since they sent High School Musical 3: Senior Year to theaters. Disney buying Marvel, Star Wars and Fox is one thing, but buying Hamilton and sending it to Disney+ is cool as hell. Disney is the last studio I’d expect to purchase Hamilton, but since Lin-Manuel Miranda has been on their payroll since Moana, it only seems logical. They outbidded all of their competitors and purchased the film rights for 75 MILLION DOLLARS. Disney had meticulously planned for an October 2021 release date, but Miss Rona showed up and made them say, “Fine. We’ll give them Hamilton on our streaming service as a treat.” I personally didn’t know shit about Hamilton. I was aware of a few songs from the album Hamilton Mixtape, which is its own thing. However, as far as the Broadway play, the music, and the cast went, I didn’t know much aside from it being one of the biggest phenomena in Broadway history. It was the Adele of musicals (remember how she swept every music award ceremony whenever she’d drop an album?). I have now popped my Hamilton cherry with this movie… play… play/movie and, uhhhh, yeah.
It took me 15 minutes to adapt to the play’s nature because my “movie critic brain” kept questioning where the story was. Then, I realized, “OHHHHH! THE MUSIC IS TELLING THE STORY!” I had to ditch that preconceived mindset and tell myself, “Bitch, you thought this was a normal movie?” This is like those Fathom Events where they bring beloved plays to theaters, but it’s literally the biggest Broadway musical adaptation of all time. The only difference is that you now have the best seat in the house. So, to anyone that had a terrible seat when they attended the live musical: I HATE YOU BECAUSE YOU GOT TO SEE THIS LI––I mean, don’t fret. The film goes out of its way to give you a cinematic experience so you can witness this masterpiece of a musical come to life from the passenger seat. Kudos to director Thomas Kail and the film crew who put in the effort to simultaneously film Hamilton as a movie and a live show. The shot composition alone tells you that the entire crew went to work in pre-planning the film to give you another layer of the play from a cinematic scope. The details throughout range from sweet camera pans across the stage to display the conflict between the characters especially Hamilton and Burr, closeups on all the performers to witness their charismatic performances with sweat dripping from their faces, and, most of all, the innovative production itself. There’s an extreme closeup where you can see Jonathan Groff’s spit during his King George III song “You’ll Be Back”, which adds another layer to the humor of the song itself. They make sure that viewers feel like they’re on the stage next to the original 2016 Broadway cast. Hamil-stans are gonna have the time of their lives dancing and singing in front of the screen as if they’re a child singing the theme song to their favorite show. Hamilton is so infectious that I understand why it was a phenomenon. Everyone was spitting bars and I had to pause ever so often because the music slapped so hard.
This movie is two hours and forty minutes long, but it took me nearly four hours to complete because I kept replaying some numbers and learning the lyrics while being completely mesmerized by each performer. Now I know why people stan Lin-Manuel Miranda, Daveed Diggs, Phillipa Soo, Leslie Odom Jr., Jasmine Cephas Jones, Renée Elise Goldsberry, Anthony Ramos and the rest of the cast. They’re so goddamn talented and now I realize how this was a major stepping stone that put them all on a fast track to becoming instant icons. I UNDERSTAND NOW! Hamilton fans, I’m right there with you. This play is incredible and I’ll tell you firsthand, this movie takes the friggin’ cake. You ain’t seen anything yet.Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to wear out the soundtrack and the mixtape for the next three years straight or until the inevitable film adaptation gets made. Also —I’m just throwing this out there because I couldn’t stop thinking about it — if the Hamilton movie ever gets greenlit, might I propose it’s done completely 2D-animated? Perhaps incorporate the tonal style of Dreamworks’ Prince of Egypt and give the numbers a bombastic Disney animated flair. I don’t think live action nor CGI would give this film justice. This play is a work of art, so why not make actual art from the art? Plus, this would be a great way to bring back 2D feature western animation to the film industry. And yes, I know this would take years to make, especially for a nearly three-hour musical… but it’s Hamilton. It took Lin nearly a decade to create this project. I hope one of the powers that be reads this because this is a friggin’ gold mine of a concept that needs to be put into the ether. HAMILTON 2D ANIMATED MOVIE! LET’S DO IT!Rating: 4/5 | 88%