The Prom (2020)

 Score: 5 / 5

The most rousing musical comedy in at least five years has arrived to save us from 2020!

When four washed-up actors on Broadway decide to become relevant again, they naturally take to Twitter to determine a cause worthy of their beneficence. Upon discovering that a rural PTA cancelled prom in protest of a lesbian girl named Emma requesting attendance, they gather their glamor and descend upon a small town in Indiana. Intent on starting a fight for tolerance, they are dismayed that the locals don't appreciate their "zazz" and end up making things worse for Emma. It's not exactly a new tale, and nothing about it is meant to be particularly fresh. But a timeless story is here remade in high fashion with genuine heart, making The Prom one of the best movies of this wretched year.

Ryan Murphy (God's gift to the gays, or perhaps vice versa) helms this prestigious film adapted from the recent Broadway musical by the same writers. It's certainly apparent he's learned a lot since his Glee days, and here the high school musical vibes are less frenetic and more fantastic; that's to say nothing negative about his earlier groundbreaking series, just that he's not recycling old tricks. Murphy's work here reminds me of some other movies that have magnified or even changed the scope and aesthetic of their corresponding stage shows (specifically thinking of Chicago) in that he's not really changing much -- and actually keeping a surprising amount of source material intact -- just adding flair and fantasy elements to heighten the experience. He seems to take his aesthetic inspiration here from recent movie musicals Burlesque and The Greatest Showman in terms of pace, glitter, lights, and emotional beats.

And the show itself is damn good, for having appeared quite suddenly in 2018 on the Great White Way and not doing all that great in only ten months. It's a classic, and not in the oxymoronic "instant classic" sense; it follows the lead of feel-good musical comedies of Charles Strouse or Menken and Ashman, repurposing standard songs (jazz, tango, chorus, anthem) and mashing them into a vaudevillian pastiche. Yes, I'm thinking of Hairspray. Music aside, the story sounds horribly kitsch if you simply describe it, and we (I mean I) tend to feel jaded when confronted with something so beautifully and effectively simple.

Its beguiling good humor and incredibly fast sensibility, though, almost immediately allayed my initial skepticism. The movie is in the best possible hands, and its cast fully commits as much as its production team. Meryl Streep is her usual, impossibly brilliant self, and manages somehow to be even more interesting in the still, quiet moments than in her fiery songs and dance breaks. Nicole Kidman reminds us all that she hasn't aged in decades and deserves so much more spotlight than she ever gets due to her immense talents of voice and body. Andrew Rannells and Keegan-Michael Key (how ridiculously handsome are they?) each deliver slightly understated supporting performances that still steal their respective scenes, and even Kerry Washington has fun and sounds great in her brief moments. James Corden, whatever the gays might say, nails this performance and proves for the first time in many years that he is actually a very talented actor as well as singer.

And then there's the two young women at the emotional heart of this movie and each delivers above and beyond, remarkable in a film with so many huge names. And while I might wish the story were more nuanced and complicated, and that some of the songs hadn't been shortened for time, The Prom is everything we could have wanted and more. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if future (read: post-pandemic) productions of The Prom take primary inspiration from Murphy's movie. This is the candy-colored, flame and flair, razzle-dazzled, glorious kind of movie musical we all want, and it's the kind we all need right now.