Judy

Sometimes an entire movie boils down to a lead performance, and JUDY is one of those examples. Fortunately, Renee Zellweger is more than up to to the challenge. Zellweger does more than just an imitation here - sure, the ticks and mannerisms that have been copied and parodied for decades are all on display, but, the actress goes for, and largely, attains several more layers. The script follows the "Last Days" scenario seen in so many bio-pics. The doomed character. The flashbacks. The final triumph. The various side characters who represent assorted people throughout that person's life etc. etc.. Still Zellweger is strong enough to overcome most of the cliches. The rest of the cast does well, but outside of Jessie Buckley as her London assistant, they don't get much to do (Michael Gambon in particular has, almost literally, nothing to do). The Production, music (nice to hear a new Gabriel Yared score), and, most critically, the makeup and hair all work to give us a fairly convincing glimpse of Garland's final months in 1969. Theater Director Rupert Goold keeps the viewer focused on his main character despite some melodramatic passages in Tom Edge's screenplay (based on Peter Quilter's play). The nicest touch is a scene with a male couple (Andy Nyman and Daniel Cerqueira) get to spend a night hosting Judy in London. It's a warm human moment that also pays homage to Garland's relationship with the gay community (a status that she bequeathed to her daughter Liza). Zellweger delivers a strong performance that keeps JUDY moving along, if not always smoothly.

I have never before been so baffled by a movie, I found this one very difficult to review, and I will explain why, the movie itself did nothing for me, but the performance of Renee Zellweger, was nothing short of brilliant.

I was aware that Judy had a hard life, I wasn't aware just how hard her life was. It doesn't put Hollywood, and those that pulled the strings in a particularly good light, she was a tool to make money from.

It was nicely made, the story flows well, if I were more of a Judy Garland lover I may have scored it a bit higher, Zellweger is outstanding as I say, bits of it just left me a little flat. 6/10

1968. Legendary entertainer Judy Garland is suffering financial troubles, causing her ex-husband Sid Luft to take custody of their children. With possibilities for work in the US limited she signs up to do a series of shows in London. Could this turn her fortunes around?

A film that starts as an interesting biopic and ends as an engaging and emotional journey. I was expecting a dry telling of a stage of Judy Garland's life but this film is so much more than that. We see and feel the ups and downs of her life, realise what it took for her to become a star, the habits it formed and how these took a toll on her health, see the depths to which one of the greatest performers of the mid-1900s had sunk and experience all the self-doubt and anxiety she felt.

It's quite a roller-coaster ride: just when you think she's on a winning streak, something sets her back. Quite sad, and frustrating, especially as many of her problems were self-inflicted.

However, it is not the plot nor direction that make the film. What tips the film into the 'great' side of the dial is the performance of Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland. She is mind-bogglingly brilliant in the role, showing wonderful range and capturing the vagaries of Garland's persona at that point in her life: funny one moment, anxious the next, energetic and vivacious then depressed and alcoholic.

Just when you think her performance can't get better, she sings, and does so superbly! I was convinced that the director got a professional singer to do the songs and then overdubbed their voice track. To my surprise I found that Zellweger did all the singing items herself, after receiving several months of singing training.

Truly an acting tour de force. She well deserved the 2020 Best Actress Oscar she received.

Great film and a wonderful, warts-and-all tribute to Judy Garland.

With Renee Zellweger as Judy Garland, you can not only feel her and see her, but you forget Zellweger is even there at all. Like many great performances, you see the character and forget that there is even an actor. Watching her performance is like watching a cosmic display. Some things are just meant to happen.

There have been many so-so bio-pics as of late, most comparably Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, in which another great actress, Benning, portrays the troubled last days of another great actress, Graham. Comparably, Zellweger's performance outshines the more renowned Benning. By contrast, Liverpool is also jaggedly uneven. That's not to say that Judy is perfect. Music bios are tough. Rami supposedly was great in Bohemian Rhapsody, but the film encompassed a superficial sentiment and lacked intellectual curiosity. Control, the Joy Division piece, is maybe the best in recent years... But Judy is right up there.

The story covers her last gig in London. The film uses flashbacks in order for the audience to understand her character. While most of those around her only see a washed up star, who was just forty seven.

What the story lacks in structure, it makes up with warmth. While this is a softer portrait, it still feels authentic. It finds no purpose in portraying her issues with callousness. Instead the narrative depends on Garland trying to understand herself, while making poor choice after poor choice. If you know anything about Garland, you know where she is going... But what you may not know, is she how she arrived there. It is a deeply sentimental portrait of a brilliant mind and troubled heart.

There have been some cynics saying that "Only a fool would try to play Garland." Dare, I say, Zellweger just made a fool out of you.

See this movie, it will remind you of yourself.

I caught this film at this year's TIFF, and can confirm the raves for Renee Zellweger's performance as Judy Garland -- it definitely is one of the year's best. But I had problems with the film overall. There's just too much left out to make for a legitimate biopic.

The biggest omission: daughter Liza Minelli. At the time depicted in this movie, she was 23, already making movies, and on a career trajectory that would result in an Oscar three years later (before her career admittedly went off a cliff). But here she pretty much doesn't exist - only Garland's two later children do.

And when you reflect upon it, there's a lot more missing in this film. It also treats the period between Garland's Wizard of Oz/Andy Hardy MGM days and her final gig doing a London stage show in 1969 as a big blank, even though there were successes along the way well into the 60's, including two Oscar nominations and a Grammy award for Album of the Year. (Also a short-lived television show where she did a memorable duet with a 21-year-old Barbara Streisand.) Considering the range of celebrities she worked with, the opportunities for quality namedropping are limitless - but aside from Mickey Rooney, there's a pronounced lack of it

There are problems with inclusion as well. In real life, Garland had so many gay admirers that she gave rise to the "FOD" (Friends of Dorothy) acronym as slang for gays. In the movie, this angle is treated in very shorthand fashion by two completely fictional gay admirers of her London shows.

The film reminded me a lot of JACKIE from 2016, where Natalie Portman played Jackie Kennedy. Her performance was certainly Oscar-worthy -- and she did get nominated - but I had problems with the presentation, particularly how Kennedy's funeral was depicted as a national day of mourning. Zellweger is similarly a nomination lock riding in a flawed vehicle.