davidh777

Rules

Back by popular (?) demand, the Romance, Music & Musicals Challenge occupies a space sometimes held by the Academy Award Movie Challenge. This year's long runaway for that challenge just gives us more opportunities for double-counting in February!

Eligible titles include romantic movies and TV shows, filmed concerts, music-themed movies, and musicals--they don't have to fit all three categories! So this is the time to catch up on AppleTV's CODA, Casablanca, TAR, Baz Luhrmann's Elvis, leftover Hallmark Christmas movies, Summer of Soul, and whatever else strikes your fancy. Use your best judgment on qualifying titles or ask in the discussion thread, but we tend to be pretty lenient. Live events (concerts, stage musicals, etc.) can also be listed, but sorry, not your Valentine's Day date with your sweetheart or streaming an album on Spotify.

Post your list in the list thread. Be as creative or as basic with your list as you want.

You may number (or not number) the items on your list any way you like.

davidh777

• Watch a performance that was recorded/presented during COVID (virtual choir, isolated, distanced, or masked performance, etc.)
• Watch a rom-com
• Watch a concert film
• Watch an eligible title with an LGBTQ+ theme or elements
• Watch an eligible title that is a period piece or is based on a book or historical event
• Watch an eligible title that features dancing
• Watch an eligible title starring at least one POC
• Watch a melodrama
• Watch a an eligible title made for a TV channel or streaming service
• Watch an eligible title based on/recording of a Broadway show
• Watch a winner of an Oscar or the Grammy Award for Best Music Film
• Watch an eligible title set in Paris, London, or NYC
• Watch a film listed in AFI's 100 Years of Musicals
• Watch an eligible title featuring one of the following: Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Katharine Hepburn
• Watch an eligible title featuring one of the following: Sandra Bullock, Hugh Grant, Anne Hathaway, Rachel McAdams, Julia Roberts, Will Smith
• Watch an eligible title featuring one of the following: Julie Andrews, Fred Astaire, Judy Garland, Gene Kelly, Marilyn Monroe
• Watch an eligible title featuring one of the following: Anna Kendrick, Barbra Streisand, John Travolta, Renee Zellweger
• Watch an eligible title that includes music by one of the following: George Gershwin, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Rodgers and Hammerstein, Stephen Sondheim
• By decade:
• -1930s
• -1940s
• -1950s
• -1960s
• -1970s
• -1980s
• -1990s
• -2000s
• -2010s
• -2020s

davidh777

Reserved again

Travis McClain

I just saw on the @DatesInMovies Twitter feed that it's on this day in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory that Charlie Bucket gets his golden ticket, and that the tour of the Wonka factory starts at 10 AM on 1 February, in case anyone is looking for ideas of where to start their challenge.

Travis McClain

Late last night, I streamed The Awful Truth on the Criterion Channel. It's not common for me to laugh aloud at things at home by myself, even if I do think they're funny. I am not exaggerating when I saw I laughed so hard throughout that movie that I produced literal tears. It got me another check on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions list (plus 14 other iCM top lists), plus Leo McCarey won the Best Directing Oscar so it also counted for the Oscar challenge checklist. I need to see this in a theater with an audience.

davidh777

I resurrected the checklist from last year.

There are a bunch of classic Criterion-ish I've been meaning to finally watch, like The Awful Truth, My Man Godfrey (I think I did get around to Sullivan's Travels a while back) etc. I should try to fit them in sometime.

I watched RRR last night and wasn't sure whether to count it. It's definitely an action title, but it probably has enough dancing numbers to qualify.

lisadoris

I'm sure I'll watch some titles that will count for this and the Oscar Challenge.

If it means anything, I certainly think RRR would count for this Challenge.

Travis McClain

I've recently learned about Flashback Cinema. It's a nationwide "program celebrating classic movies on the big screen." They're showing Pillow Talk tomorrow. At the end of the month on Sunday the 26th, they're showing My Fair Lady. Now, the website shows the movies play on Sunday and Wednesday, but I checked the participating theater in Louisville and they seem to be showing these movies on Monday and Tuesday, too, so it's Sunday through Wednesday, not Sunday and Wednesday. But that may vary from theater to theater. Other scheduled movies that fall outside the scope of this challenge are Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban next week and the 1974 Murder on the Orient Express the following week, then the 1986 Little Shop of Horrors, which would count for this challenge except it starts playing on Sunday, 5 March.

davidh777

Last week I watched the new Dionne Warwick documentary. So many great Burt Bacharach songs, and now the news of his passing. It also covered her as a Black artist and the financial boost “That’s What Friends Are For” gave to the AIDS efforts.

shadokitty

I've found that YouTube is a virtual treasure trove of eligible content. Everything I've watched so far has been a concert of some kind on YouTube.

davidh777

I watched an oddball musical on Netflix called A Week Away, clearly inspired by High School Musical but taking place at a religious summer camp. The camp culminates in a final musical performance, but along the way there are full-on-character-randomly-breaks-into-song moments. It’s not constantly preachy (the main character is a fish out of water), but most of the songs mention faith, and some of them are classics by Amy Grant and Steven Curtis Chapman (Place in This World, Baby Baby), both of whom have cameos in the film. Kinda charming but not something I’d watch again.

Yeah, the amount of eligible content is ridiculous.

lisadoris

For reasons, imdb lists Vertigo as romance but not Rear Window. Thankfully, allmovie lists both as romance so both of todays viewings count.

davidh777

Watched a couple themed on classical music. As It Is in Heaven is a Swedish film starring Michael Nykvist as a big-time conductor who burns out and ends up directing a small-town church choir. Oscar nominated back in 2015 so double-counting!

The Song of Names is about a Polish Holocaust refugee who is also a violin prodigy but disappears just before his public debut. Tim Roth plays his years-later adoptive brother trying to track him down and get some answers. This has only a 39% RT score but I thought it was interesting, with a nice Howard Shore soundtrack.

Something from Tiffany’s is an Amazon Prime holiday romance. Basically a high-end Hallmark movie, but Zoey Deutch is very charming, and it worked for me.

davidh777

I randomly ran across on Hulu something called Step Into the Movies with Derek and Julianne Hough. It’s an ABC special in which the siblings re-create classic movie dances from Singin’ in the Rain, Moulin Rouge, Chicago, etc., with various guest dancers and singers. It aired in March 2022, and the way they often talk about coming out of the pandemic, I thought it was even earlier. Kind of odd overall, but the dancing is great and often riffs off the originals rather than just copying them.

I also watched the Matilda musical on Netflix. It’s an impressive production, but I thought the plot was too repetitive, and the songs were not that memorable.

Trevor

Fulfilling my “free on Vudu” checklist item with a documentary on Kansas. Such solid musicians, and two songs that will probably last forever; Dust in the Wind and Carry On Wayward Son.

davidh777

The action challenge has begun, this one is ending soon, and Oscars is still going. Watch RRR tonight for triple counting!