Colma – The Musical (Lionsgate/DVD)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C+     Extras: C     Feature: C+

 

 

For every good Musical made lately on film (Chicago, Dreamgirls, Hairspray) there are many that do not work.  In all cases, the genre is considered a big budget affair and has been so since Classical Hollywood filled out the basic versions after their early sound cycle.  Rent was a horrible film of a stage musical that did work and one reason the original worked is because it was a bit deconstructionist.  Director Chris Columbus forgot that, but director Richard Wong dies not and the result is the mixed-but-interesting Colma – The Musical.

 

Taking place in the Southern California neighborhood of the title, it is a bit more raw than gussied-up Musicals are, yet it never seems like a bad Music Video as three friends (Billy, Rodel & Maribel) have to deal with growing up under mixed circumstances.  Sometimes scratching the surface of greatness, the 100 minutes manages to be consistently engaging enough to justify its length and by focusing on three minority characters that reject past stereotyping, it may turn out to be a transitional; work for the genre, no matter how rough or low budget it is.  Creator H.P. Mendoza is one of the leads and there is no doubt this will be discusses down the line.

 

You might want to see this one in advance so you’re ahead of the game.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image is composed of various pieces of digital video, sometimes split screen, often one wide image, but not of the HD kind.  Still, it matches the deconstructive nature of the work.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo mix fares better, yet is lower in volume that it should be for this transfer.  Extras include deleted scenes and an audio commentary by Wong and Mendoza.  Overall, this is interesting, especially if you like musicals.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo