Nominated for Best Costumes.Within minutes of the start of this film, I was prepared to hate it. There was some cheesy images of a Joplin sounding chick superimposed over the surf breaking on the beach, singing "Helter Skelter." It just screamed amateur. But eventually something happened. Despite poor acting, bad lip syncing, and embarrassing choreography, I started to enjoy this film. The reason is the songs are all Beatles songs. That is the gimmick of the film but what makes it good is the SONGS ARE ALL BEATLES SONGS. And I'm a big fan. The songs are arranged differently to fit the cast, and I assume the cast did their own singing (rather well I might add), but the basic fact that these are some of the greatest songs ever written shines through, especially if you already know all the words. Kudos to the writers who conceived of this project, and arranged the songs to lyrically tell the story of a group of friends surviving the sixties. There choices are inspired. Standouts are Jim Sturgess as Jude (he sings in a Liverpoolian accent!), Dana Fuchs as Sadie (the Joplin chick pictured here) and Martin Luther as JoJo (the Hendrix guy above), and if you haven't noticed, the characters are all named after names dropped in Beatles songs, including Lucy and Prudence. There's also cool surprise cameos in the middle of the film (Bono sings I Am the Walrus, Eddie Izzard is Mr. Kite, and Salma Hayek pops up as a sexy singing nurse!). This makes up for the aforementioned shortcomings of this film, especially the parts that bring me back to watching The Wall as a freshman in college in a dark, smoke-filled dorm room. Across the Universe is not a great musical, but great music nonetheless.
The Sneaky Cheetah's Grade: B
Albert Wolsky gets the Costume Design nomination. He's got two already for All That Jazz (1979) and Bugsy (1991) and was nominated for Sophie's Choice (1982), The Journey of Natty Gann (1985), and Toys (1992).
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