Judy: Muvesz Theatre Budapest
Jan 1st 2020
This film has been a long time coming to Budapest but it was more than worth the wait. It was a stunningly powerful and emotional depiction of a terribly flawed and miraculously talented person who, somehow, in her own way and not perhaps in a conventionally accepted way, triumphed over a vast raft of personal and family issues and experiences.
It focuses on her final public engagements at The Talk of the Town shortly before the died and when she was, as the points out, unemployable and uninsurable. The focus was on how she was desperately trying to get herself into a situation where she could provide a fixed and steady home for her children with Sid Luft – Lorna and Joey. Virtually without exception any men in her life are shown as being pretty vile and often abusive from her time in the toxic Hollywood studio system where the degree of abusive control of her (assuming all we saw was accurate which I have no reason to believe it is not) was breathtaking in its scope, and mental cruelty.
Zellwegger gave a stunning and remarkable performance. In one sense she does not really look like Judy G but somehow in the performance she became her - and her singing voice was remarkable; not imitating Garland (wisely – and impossible) but somehow she managed to both be herself AND channel Judy G in how she sang. To take on the iconic songs she did was remarkably brave (and the prospect must have been terrifying) but she triumphed – again in being unique as Renee Z and at the same time being Judy.