by Mattie Lucas
Cinema from a Decidedly Queer Perspective
Funny Girl | 1968
It's not often that you get to watch a star being born in real-time, but that's exactly what it is like to watch William Wyler's Funny Girl. Barbra Streisand would, of course, go on to star in A Star is Born in 1976, but Funny Girl was her star-is-born moment, and what a moment it was. Streisand was already a successful singer and Broadway actress, but it was her performance in Funny Girl and her subsequent Oscar win that helped turn her into an icon.
I've seen a lot of bad movies. Call it an occupational hazard, but I couldn't even guess how much bloated, bland, pretentious, and downright incompetent slop I've seen on screen. Yet, I can't remember the last time I saw a film so soulless and dispiriting as The Electric State - the latest "this can't possibly be real" Netflix mockbuster from Joe and Anthony Russo (Avengers: Endgame).