Am I supposed to take Purple Rain (the movie) seriously?

its a bad film in every way. nothing is explained. conflicts arrive without any context for them. resolutions happen without actually being resolved. its never clear if the kid is failing or if he is packing them in at first avenue. tbh i cant remember all the problems i thought of when i saw it, but there were many. it has next to no redeeming features, except some performances. and even those, arent what he was capable of. they are reduced to having to fit the terrible narrative.

the beautiful ones is among the greatest music performances ever committed to film, worth the price of admission alone, fuiud

^^^^^

was so gratified to see that someone had written a standalone piece about that, i think it was in rolling stone. as a raw expression of sexual longing it really has few peers.

that's not quite right, it's not just raw, it's massively performative, which is maybe part of what makes it so great, that it's this almost ludicrously demonstrative and detailed set of codes/moves telling the story of the most basic pop drama - wanting, not having. and prince just melts your face with it.