Suburban teenage frustration: Didn’t it always go down best with a salty side of Journey? Or the Smiths?
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07/12/07
Colma: The Musical (2007)
90 %
Reviews Counted: 30 Fresh: 27 Rotten:3 Average Rating: 7.3/10
Consensus:
Three teens contemplate life after high school while singing their hearts out in this fresh musical.
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Synopsis: Taking place in the suburban town of Colma, where the dead outnumber the living 1500 to 1, Colma: The Musical takes the music of H.P. Mendoza and weaves it into a fresh personal look into the ups and downs of early adulthood. Best pals Rodel, Billy, and Maribel find themselves in a state of... [More]
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Starring: H.P. Mendoza, Jake Moreno, L.A. Renigen, Sigrid Sutter
Director: Richard Wong
Screenwriter: H.P. Mendoza
Producer: Paul Kolsanoff, Richard Wong
Composer: H.P. Mendoza
Screenwriter: H.P. Mendoza
Producer: Paul Kolsanoff, Richard Wong
Composer: H.P. Mendoza
Reviews
Top Critic
Colma is so blazingly original that it bursts off the screen with the sort of breathtaking energy that reminds you why you love movies in the first place.
12/12/07
It's not a great film, but we sure enjoyed it more than many bigger films that try harder to convince us they're great.
11/21/07
When it lets its characters express their universal youthful ennui through hook-laden tunes with clever lyrics, it works. The 'let's-put-on-a-show' attitude is a welcome relief from the navel gazing typical of coming-of-age.
10/26/07
A winning amalgam of MySpace-ish self-involvement, digital video immediacy and 'Hey kids, let's put on a show' gumption.
10/12/07
Top Critic
Colma: the Musical makes up in heart what it lacks in glitz and real, singable songs.
08/25/07
Colma works because the filmmakers believe it can and aren't listening to anyone who tells them otherwise.Take a visit to Colma, you won't regret it.
08/23/07
H.P. Mendoza’s clever melodies and pointedly constructed rhymes rescue the movie from the detriments of its tired plot and unfocused pace.
07/18/07
A little rough around the edges, this likable movie is filled with adolescent angst, youthful energy and hope.
07/10/07
Top Critic
There hasn't been a movie that lays out the confusion and heartbreak of the first tentative steps into adulthood this mercilessly since Ghost World.
07/09/07
Director Richard Wong is alert to every nuance, cleverly framing the heavily satirical situations with appropriate deadpan affection and deft use of split-screen.
07/09/07
compare this with other films about being a teen (even the good ones), and few match this level of happy, resourceful creativity and unforced diversity.
07/07/07
Mendoza's 13 original numbers...provide the slender story with structure, and overall the songs are surprisingly catchy despite the bare-bones music production and the fact that of the leads, only Renigen has a standout voice.
07/06/07
The songs sound like they were recorded on a toy synthesizer in someone's basement, and neither of the two male leads can sing.
07/06/07
An itty-bitty movie with a great big heart, Colma: The Musical is about how we learn to give voice -- joyfully, honestly, loudly -- to the truest parts of ourselves.
07/06/07
Top Critic
This is a potentially brilliant scenario, so it's unfortunate that Colma pays so little attention to Colma; it may as well be set anywhere.
07/05/07
Wonderfully staged numbers -- a raucous song in a tavern, a lovely ballad sung in a cemetery with couples dancing through the tombstones -- that give this little indie a big heart.
07/03/07
breezy and irreverent in idiom, yet it examines with sometimes wry, but always unflinching, even brutal, honesty, the impact and consequences of emotional betrayal. And it does so without missing a beat, or a combination step.
06/26/07
This is one modern movie musical that has what its slicker, star-studded, far more lavishly financed brethren, such as Chicago and Dreamgirls, lack: real joy and a giddy love for the genre that imbues every frame.
06/22/07
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