“I’m guessing I don’t need to explain the current events that inspired watching this movie. I’ve never really been a Prince fan. I only just downloaded When Doves Cry like two days ago, and passed on Purple Rain because it was 8 minutes long. Doves is now the only song from The Artist on my iPod. Don’t get me wrong, nothing but mad mad respect for him as a musician, just not so much my thing.
With his passing, some theaters had a re-release of the film in the theaters. I didn’t actually make it to those. The first week happened too quick for me to work it into the schedule. The second week, I struggled with making work. I tried, but I didn’t wanna push Keanu to the second week, which would have been the only way the schedule Tetris worked. But then I checked Best Buy, and turns out not only was the DVD cheaper than movie admission, there was a 2-pack with Fame (which I also hadn’t seen) that was somehow a buck cheaper than that. Score!
So, I get that for people who are fans, if you don’t really separate Prince from the Kid (his character here), I get why this film is something special. The story is partly autobiographical, and there’s a lot of great concert footage. For someone like me who doesn’t exactly idolize the man (yet I stress, still much respect!), it isn’t anything too special. In fact, there were aspects of it that I downright didn’t like. Specifically what I didn’t like was some of the abusive nature of the romantic relationships, The Kid with Apollonia and between The Kid’s parents. The latter is meant to be antagonistic, so it’s fine, the former is the highly romanticized center of the film. And it’s perfectly okay for her not to challenge him when he slaps her for suggesting she may exert her independence? Uh uh, no. Dawn does not approve.
I think I did ultimately make the right call in watching at home instead of at the theater (especially with the bonus movie). For me, it wouldn’t have warranted the full theatrical experience, and I was very much okay with my smaller screen and apartment of distractions. For those that are bigger fans of the man, I can see how special it would have been to see him on the big screen one last time.”