Rent

I went to see the movie Rent last night. I found it very well done, but to be honest, it didn’t quite completely translate from the off Broadway production which I had seen several years before.

Somehow the simplicity of the theater sets and the intimacy of the theater made you feel like you were having a life experience. The movie, which appears to have been filmed on location in the East Village, made you feel like, well, like you were watching a movie. Of cause being in a suburban New Jersey movie theater, complete with spoiled suburban adolescents, rather than in an off Broadway theater complete with peeling wallpaper might have had some effect as well.

A number of the reviews I had read panned some of the staging. I remember in particular one review which found the choreographed sequence in a subway train unrealistic. I’ve seen a lot weirder stuff than that in the NYC subway.

My last trip up from downtown during the summer found me a) sharing an aluminum pole with three gay journalists discussing the status of the next edition of their magazine and b) donating my loose change to a trio of acrobats that had just performed a tumbling routine INSIDE the moving subway train. In the past I’ve been treated to guitar, sax, trumpet and sitar concerts, plus poetry and impromptu Shakespeare readings on the subway. So don’t tell me a bunch of folks singing and spinning around the poles is unrealistic. It wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see that going on in the NYC subway.

On the way out I noticed something strange. Rent, a movie which contained references to Aids, drugs and homosexuality, was rated PG-13. The latest Harry Potter movie was also rated PG-13. I had to think about the implications of that for a while.

I finally concluded that it was a good sign. The drugs and sexuality which got Rent its PG-13, while critical to the plot, were incidental to the theme. Similarly, the scary images and fantasy violence which got HP its PG-13, were also incidental to the theme. I don’t think it would have been all that long ago that Rent would have earned an R rather than a PG-13 for its incidentals. I look upon that as progress and a sign that maybe, just maybe, some portions of American society are maturing.