Chicago

Published May 8, 2023

Film info

Title Chicago
Director Rob Marshall
Year 2002
Run time 1hr 53m
Genres Drama, Crime, Comedy
Tagline If you can't be famous, be infamous

Velma Kelley burns in the spotlight as a nightclub sensation. Roxie Hart, seduced by the city's promise of style and adventure, dreams of singing and dancing her way to stardom. Chicago's slickest lawyer, Billy Flynn, recognises a made-for-tabloids story. The two women stop at nothing to outdo each other in their obsessive pursuit of fame and celebrity.

Live blog

Time	Comment
3:21	This is the only kind of jazz I can get on board with - I LOVE this song.
10:17	There’s more murder in this than I’d realised.
17:16	Why would they possibly need to know the length of a prisoner’s wingspan?
20:59	“Pepper my ragu” is the weirdest innuendo ever.
26:36	“You know, some guys just can’t hold their arsenic.”
34:28	Billy Flynn, the character all the guys want to play.
35:54	Did we know Richard Gere could sing?
48:19	This puppet number is both incredible and also terrifying.
1:02:10	Doing a whole double act by yourself is impressive.
1:11:02	I knew this song but didn’t have the context, and now I’m so sad for Amos.
1:18:58	Knitting in court is a new one on me.
1:20:15	“How can they see with sequins in their eyes?”
1:34:39	The newspapers totally foxed me, printing both!
1:45:24	“We could not have done this without you!”

Thoughts

I can’t believe I haven’t seen this before, although I know a lot of the cultural references to it, of course. And I knew all but maybe two of the songs, without actually knowing the context of them in the story. It sort of boggled my mind how watching the movie brought everything together!

But aside from that, it’s also a really good musical movie. The leads are all fantastic (Richard Gere sings and dances… who knew?) and the story is very well told, dipping in and out of the dance numbers whilst shining a light on the fickleness of the media and the gossiping public.

Really good work!

Rating: 5 / 5