Amadeus (1984)

Amadeus

• For my 800th all time movie review, I decided to pick a critically acclaimed, multiple Academy Award winner. I must say, from a critic standpoint, I was pretty impressed, and it’s one of the best musical dramas I’ve ever seen. It’s close to what I was anticipating, but also much different at the same time. The biggest curveball (in a really good way) was how Mozart’s story is told from the POV of his rival. It gives the movie an interesting perspective, rather than just a standard biopic. What’s also nice is that I wouldn’t even call this a biopic. It’s definitely a character study, but not one of an entire life. It was so brilliantly written in that sense. The use of opera, stage performances, and obviously classical music is what really lifts this off the ground. You get the character drama and storytelling, as well fabulous musical performances. I loved the blend. The acting was pretty good all around, although there were some moments where I got a tiny bit annoyed with certain characters. Here’s where I have to complain real quick: the runtime was extremely long (a whopping three hours), and some of the operatic scenes take a while to get through, which can get stale. Even though I love the music, I’ve never been an opera fan, so sometimes it was just hard to sit through and enjoy. But that’s my only big complaint about it. Overall, this movie was fantastically written, has great performances (musically and acting-wise), stunning costumes, and great production design. I’d probably recommend it to all music/drama fans. This film is officially Berry Approved, so go check it out now!