As a teenager, I hated prom with a passion. To me, it was nothing more than a nightmare wrapped in garish lights and waaaay to much glitter.
As an adult, I didn’t know how much I needed, and loved, this Broadway musical-turned-movie ‘The PROM’!!
If you have a Netflix account, I cannot even express how much you need to watch it!
Okay, here’s the summary:
Four comically self-centered (and yet so endearing in each of their own creative way) Broadway stars in a rough patch (Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, and Andrew Rannells) travel to a small town in Indiana to support a kind and innocent teenage girl (Jo Ellen Pellman) in her fight against the school PTA to bring her girlfriend to prom.
While at first, the Broadway stars’ main goal is to stir up enough publicity to send themselves to the top, they see the real-time hurt and dilemma that Emma (Pellman) goes through just to survive day-to-day life. With the help of the (in my own personal opinion) totally awesome principal (Keegan Michael Key) and reflecting on their own hurtles and hoops they had to dive through, each star steps up to the plate and proves to the town, and to the rest of the world, that not only is it okay to break free from the traditional cookie-cutter personality in this life, it’s the new “in”.
Here’s what I took from the film:
While this movie is every bit of the Musical-comedy it proclaims itself to be in the trailers, Writers Bob Martin, Chad Beguelin, Matthew Sklar, and Jack Viertel were by no means afraid to tackle very real opposition and unbridled hatred toward those who prefer to love regardless of gender, race, and everything in between.
My heart broke for Emma, seeing her try to stay positive even though so many – both in and out of the high school – wanted to see her crumpled up on the floor and crying a river down the hall. It wanted to sing with her as she let each note try to lift her spirits, and hold her tongue until she was old enough to leave behind that small-town life and frame of mind. I wanted to roar and snarl at anyone who dared throw a jeer toward her. And it swelled and flowed buckets upon buckets of love for her when she finally got to take her girlfriend to the prom they always wanted.
If you have a Netflix account, or bumming off one of your fabulous and generous family members/friends and haven’t seen this movie yet, stop watching whatever you’re currently bingeing and switch over immediately! If you don’t have an account, see if one of your friends are willing to let you jump on theirs!
Even if you don’t end up liking it (musicals just aren’t some people’s cup of tea *cough* my father *chough*), I still encourage you and your family to watch this movie!
L.J. LaBree 