Aiden de Meel

This film is not very good. I could criticize the lighting, the choreography, the plot attempting to do way too much with not enough time despite the movie running for a dreadful 2 hours and 20 minutes, the characters establishing relationships out of nowhere, the movie trying to have two plots at once that do not mix at all, the movies’s inability to embrace the over-the-top style of a musical, the movie failing at creating good quality songs, the movie deciding to dedicate a significant portion of its runtime to the flirting of a 21-year age gap couple, its determination on breaking the illusion of the musical by giving context to it’s songs, or its strange choice to develop its characters at random or not at all and pretend that it did. I could criticize all these things. But I won’t. What I will criticize is its absolutely disgusting representation of the LGBTQ+ community. James Corden was a terrible cast for Barry, a gay man with nothing behind the eyes but stereotypes, and Emma’s story feels like Ryan Murphy interviewed a person who was acquaintances with someone who has struggled with their sexuality. The movie hand waves Emma’s girlfriends’ (who I just now learned was named Maya, the Prom is not very good at keeping their characters memorable) trauma, as her mother, who was an adamant homophobic, simply changes her ways when her daughter is out. Murphy had a chance to make a statement with the Prom, but created a feeble attempt at representation that plays backseat to its other plot of 4 celebrities trying to be better, a plot that is given a substantial amount of screen time to build-up but is resolved within a scene and a song. I am extremely disappointed, especially since Murphy is a member of the LGBTQ+ community himself. I see no reason why anyone should watch this movie, representation or otherwise, except as an example of how to fail every single aspect of a musical.