Colma: The Musical (2006)
In the town of Colma, just south of San Francisco, the dead outnumber the living one thousand to one. Here, one wouldn't expect teenagers to burst out in song, or dance around cemeteries and streets. But, that's exactly what happens. Best pals Rodel, Billy, and Maribel find themselves in a state of limbo; fresh out of high school, they are just beginning to explore a new world of part-time mall jobs and crashing college parties. As newfound revelations and romances challenge their relationships with one another and their parents, the trio must assess what to hold onto, and how to best follow their dreams. It's a love song to the city, and to the residents who dream of a better (and more musical) life.
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Undescribable Perfection
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.
By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.
Flawed, certainly, but a bracing and energetic evocation of disaffected youth, and one of the most assured live-action musicals of the decade. This study of three young friends trying to escape dead-end futures in a dispiriting San Francisco suburb tracks along the same themes as, say, the Broadway musicals "Spring Awakening" and "American Idiot," but it's much less monotonous about conveying its theme of oh-I'm-so-young-and-sad-nobody-understands- me. And the soundtrack is varied and clever, the best musical moment being the "Cupid" number, the closest thing we'll get in 2006 to a great production number. Jake Moreno isn't the greatest actor, and the cinematography is muddy, and the idea that these three are living among the dead isn't sufficiently developed--we don't know how literally to take it. But writer-songwriter-actor H.P. Mendoza is clearly a very, very talented young man, and he catches familiar themes of youthful angst in fresh ways. And L.A. Renigen is a completely convincing wonderful-best-friend. All three kids are persuasively made up of good and bad traits, and we keep rooting for them even when they screw up. Made for nothing, it's an invigorating little movie, and at the end, when the credits thank "the town of Colma," you do get the impression that the whole town rallied behind these gifted young people to make their dreams come true. It's a nice feeling.
OK, as a Bay Area resident (albeit a transplant) and indie film maven, I couldn't stay away from seeing this film. I'm considerably older than the characters and I didn't grow up in the Bay Area so I didn't relate to the story (or maybe it was just the mediocre acting, which was overshadowed by the excellent singing). Still, I thought this movie was a guilty pleasure, kinda like your favorite Mexican restaurant or greasy spoon--you know you shouldn't, but you're glad you did.Part of what makes this film fun is its foray into camp. Some of the musical numbers were just too over the top. Billy's musical declaration of love for "Tara" would have been sweet were it not for the two guys in the background scaling the facades of the buildings and each other. The real topper is where Tara releases the band holding her hair back so the breeze'll catch it--except she's got short hair and it hardly works. It's hard to take this seriously, particularly when you realize that Billy and Tara first met at a party where Tara's operatic "Is someone in the bathroom?" is responded to by Billy's "I'm taking a sh!!!!!!!t." The camp factor is equally present in the songs we see during the performance of "Friend Joseph" (some sorta spin-off of "Pal Joey"?), a show in which Billy performs. It's just "quirky quirky quirky, so damn quirky, quirky quirky...." I guess it's a bit of a cinematic love letter to the area--there's even a shot of Maribel reading a book nearly every San Franciscan will recognize. I was at a screening that was followed by a Q&A with the director and one of the cast--there's a sequel in the offing if this is well-received. For some reason, I can't wait to see it. :-)
Colma is a suburb of San Francisco where the dead outnumber the living. That's the running joke anyway. Known for its grave sites and "Daly City fog", Colma is the foundation for director Richard Wong's feature film debut, aptly titled "Colma: The Musical." Written by the talented H.M. Mendoza (who also supplies his talents to the songs, score and lead character), "Colma: The Musical" is a refreshing, funny and poignant independent musical ("independent musical" - is this the first?). It's amazing how Colma's entertainment value equals that of classic Hollywood musicals seeing as how it's missing all the elements that made those classics great. Production design, lavish costumes, an epic story and intricate choreographed dance numbers are nowhere to be found. What it lacks from the classics, it makes up in creating a new type of musical. A musical of simplicity, where the story is relatable, the characters real, the direction artistic without being artsy and, most importantly to a musical, the songs memorable.The story of "Colma: The Musical" focuses on three friends trying to figure out life after high school. Billy, a "thezpian", is torn between two things: his new, going-nowhere job that he "really needs for something big" and his aspiring acting career; and new possibilities with "girl's name that's always on his mind" and his ex who he can't quite get over. Rodel is a poet trying to find "his happy place" after a break up with his boyfriend and a turbulent change in his already strained relationship with his father. His thoughts he writes on scraps of paper and his friends are the only things that keep him going. Maribel is the centered one of the three; the glue, really, that is holding the friendship. She's just trying to find ways to live out her youth to party, drink and get laid as herself.As in real life, reality takes its aim on these three friends and challenges the staying power of their friendship. As not in real life (and sadly why not), it all happens while they sing, sometimes in the most unlikely places and with the most unlikely of people. *SPOILER* (On top of alarming cars or in a bar with Hulk Hogan?) In essence, what Richard Wong and H.P. Mendoza has given us is a remarkable piece of film art. Film art's intention is to reflect back to us, like a mirror, things that we may not be able to see because we're to busy in our lives to see them. Colma represents "nothing and everything" in our past that is comfortable, secure and what made us happy at one point. We all have a Colma in our lives. Whether it is Somerset, NJ or Mikey, or high school memories, we've all been in a state of Colma: a state where we don't know what is anymore, yet we can't let go. And it's only us that can choose whether to stay in Colma or come out of Colma and into the unknown forward...closer towards "our happy place."
"Colma: The Musical" is now my all-time favorite film. It is about 3 friends fresh out of high school who have to figure out what to do next now that the structure of school is gone. The characters all ring true and the music is completely catchy. You will be humming along to the songs and have them stuck in your head for days after you hear them. On top of that the photography is fantastic. For a film made on a shoestring budget it is a huge achievement to have a film that looks this good and is so technically sound. I have seen plenty of low budget films over the years and you can tell that those films had to cut corners, but Colma looks and sounds like a much more expensive production. The performances of the leads are all fantastic. As the other review said the characters all have their flaws which is what makes them so three dimensional and gives the film its realism. See this film if you can, you will love it!