Dreamgirls (2006)
The two biggest contributing factors in the retrogression of popular music over the past 40 years were Andrew Lloyd Weber's stridulous talk-singing and the tonsil-stretching caterwauls emanating from <em>American Idol</em>. Dreamgirls is an impious merger of the two. What should have been an eternity only took 25 years to make it to the screen. At one point, Nell Carter, Whitney Houston, Lauryn Hill, and Broadway originator Jennifer Holiday were all under consideration to play the part of the Diana Ross-ish lead singer in a girl group. Jennifer Hudson is magnificent and even though I cannot recall one fetid lyric, her force and screen presence were such that she took home a well-deserved best supporting actress Oscar. She's not enough. Preening somnambulant Jamie Foxx plays the trio’s manager, Eddie Murphy reheats his James Brown shtick from SNL. and as an actress, Beyonce did a convincing job of losing weight for the role. In Gods and Monsters, writer/director Condon told us nothing more than the man behind Universal's first two Frankenstein pictures was gay. In Dreamgirls, Condon tells us nothing. — Scott Marks