Tootsie: Classic or Dud?

But at the time I still had a few intellectual bones in my body. Maybe today I'd laugh like a jackass.

haha this shouldn't be a binary

"What a good idea, a socket for a plug."

― Dale, dale, dale (Abbbottt), Sunday, May 6, 2012 11:21 PM

http://s3.amazonaws.com/criterion-production/release_boxshots/4305-a10b1e1d36f0c145bdcbc75901960037/738_BD_box_348x490_original.jpg

this movie is a difficult-to-take mix of reactionary and self-congratulatory, even though it's obvious from the clip above that hoffman's heart, at least, was in the right place. but it's hard to knock the craft with which it was made, by all concerned. for whatever that's worth (less than i'd sometimes like to admit).

The last scene with Lange was the only one that played self-congratulatory. The other moments of revelation Hoffman and Pollack (literally -- as actors) undercut.

Also: it's obvious to me that Michael Dorsey and Julie have no chemistry; the last scene played like a gay man becoming buddies with a woman, whereas Dorothy and Julie connected immediately, which Julie acknowledges ("I miss Dorothy").

Hoffman's performance when he meets up with Charles Durning in the bar near the end as Michael.. an acting masterclass right there. i think if *that* scene doesn't work then the whole thing would be wrecked but it's amazing.

BR of this should be good! I find the story of the scriptwriting meltdown behind this pretty fascinating. Also in beautiful 4k so Dustin Hoffman can mourn the true depths of Dorothy's pores.

I wish I could find the sketchbook from the time when I got really obsessed with trying to draw Dorothy.

"I wish Dorothy were prettier."

"How do you feel about Cleveland?"

"I owe myself a quarter."

I liked this movie best at a sneak screening the week before it came out

true cred right there

Criterion Blu-Ray out next week:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Tootsie-Blu-ray/44344/#Review

"*with* the necktie?"

Excellent review in the current Cineaste of this amusing, sexually reactionary, incredibly overrated film.

and My Man Godfrey solves the problem of homelessness by opening a swank nightclub on the city dump for the entertainment of the white plutocrats who put'em there – get over it.

Hollywood's innovation is to emasculate comedy's subversive power, and even then Tootsie got a convincing lesbian crush onscreen.

MMG did not posture as socially significant.

mmg was funny all the way through tootsie dies as soon as the wig goes on

referring to OP, "last great studio comedy" is a bizarre statement, given that

1) tootsie has its charms but is by no means great

2) there have been quite a few excellent studio comedies in the past 30+ years. groundhog day is an obvious one that comes to mind.

Murray the star of both

mmg was funny all the way through tootsie dies as soon as the wig goes on

― post you had fecund thoughts about (darraghmac),

crazy talk

yeah, dmac doesn't get Hoffdrag

guilty but proud

Sex changes things. I've had relationships where I know a guy, then have sex with, and then I bump into him and he acts like I loaned him money.

guessing Elaine May wrote that line

Yup. She wrote most of Teri Garr's stuff.

the stage musical is imminent! set on Broadway rather than a soap.

The NYT review is almost a rave. "Sparkles with wit"! Only the staging is flat, Jesse Green writes, and they push the feminism a little too hard (who could've predicted).

I did laugh at the summary of the show within the show, a sequel to Romeo & Juliet.