Checked out the new Judy Garland biopic Judy… a movie that really needs a Judy Garland fan to really enjoy. I am not a huge Garland fan… I have passing familiarity with her as far as it goes. A movie star as a teenager for Wizard of Oz, used and abused by the Hollywood studio system, multiple comebacks in Hollywood, and finally an early death. But that’s about it.
But this isn’t really a biopic… I was looking for a movie about how the old studio system took a teenager and warped her from The Wizard of Oz and up… but this movie only really cares about her in her final, aging, drunken years. Still capable, when sober, of putting on an amazing performance… but the alcohol, her ex-husbands, custody of her children, sad memories of her youth, and other things conspire against her.
Renee Zellweger does seem to be doing a great job as July Garland. Her performance matches my passing knowledge of her manners and persona… and generally speaking her dramatic (and drunken) acting is very good. It’s a great performance, surely.
The only problem is that the movie is only interested in this elder time and, to an extent, that’s fair. This is Zellweger’s film… but I was far more interesting in the minuscule scattering of Wizard of Oz-era scenes where we see Louis B. Mayer and Garland’s mom basically abusing her psychologically to get the performance they need. I suspect these scenes only remain in the film because they had gone ahead and cast the actors so might as well use the scenes. But it’s only background atmosphere and not really a study or examination of her past. I guess that is another movie… no doubt one that has already been filmed. But it still requires me to really be engaged and care about the sad remnants of her life just a few short months before her death (not shown on screen).
I was just simply bored by this film. And that’s on me… I’m sure a Garland fan would love this material but it did very little for me. It spent far too much time spinning its wheels over only a vaguely interesting story of decaying Hollywood star. This could have been filmed more compelling… any movie can be made interesting… but this one failed for this person with passing familiarity.
Score: 66