There are three things you can count on in this world, death, taxes, and if you were ever a huge Hollywood star, you would eventually get a biopic about you. Now, whether it will be a good biopic or not depends on many factors. Take Judy, for example. Judy Garland is one of the most influential actresses and icons to ever lived. So you would expect her biopic would honour such a legend, and it would be jam-packed full of details we might not have known about her. And that’s not the case. I remember thinking when this movie was coming out how weird the reception was – every movie critic said pretty much the same – the movie is “ok”, but Renée Zellweger is spectacular. And to prove the point, yes, everyone almost forgot about this film, even the Oscars, that only nominated Judy twice, one nomination for Makeup and Hairstyling and the other for Renée, who turned the nomination into a win. But nothing else, no director, best movie, editing… Until I watched Judy, it puzzled me because if you are familiar with Oscars and biopics, you know that’s usually their “weak spot” the Academy will nominate anything. And I completely understood it when I finally watched this film a few weeks ago.
I honestly believe if this film were about almost anyone else than Judy Garland, it would get better reception. The movie’s biggest downfall is that it’s just your stereotypical biopic where we watch the past (Judy making The Wizard of Oz (1939) and her rise to what she becomes) and the present where she is, to put it very mildly, struggling. And this film shows us how we got from point A to B. And that’s it. I am usually all about simplicity, but for such a legend, it was simply not enough. It almost felt like they did the bare minimum they had to do. I am not Judy Garland’s number one fan by any means but most of the things this film showcased I knew already. And if your biopic tells me almost nothing new, that’s an issue, and again, I am not a hardcore fan of Judy’s by any means, so now imagine how those must have felt.
I think where the discrepancy lies the most is the film does its usual biopic thing for most of its runtime, and then, the last 20 minutes come. The final, pivotal scene of the movie happens, and for those 20 minutes, I felt a bit of magic happen, where the film made me, in fact, care about what is happening. It felt like it suddenly stepped out of its comfort zone and wasn’t afraid to put us in the audience for one of Judy’s shows. Those last 20 minutes were brilliant, heartbreaking and perfect. It’s too bad the rest of the film couldn’t be half as great as them.
The more I thought about it when the film was over, the clearer it became that this should have never been a movie. Especially now, when streaming services, for better or worse, dominate everything, this should have been a limited TV show. I would have been down with four to six one-hour episodes about Judy’s life, where we could see more than what is available on her Wikipedia page. Because she is one of the first original movie stars, she, in many ways, was the pioneer for many things, from stardom to awful things like abuse from her bosses, various addictions and struggling her will to live due to that. And Judy gives you the bare minimum for you to understand it, but it does it in such an unimaginative, boring way it’s not worthy of having Judy’s name next to it. For someone who has managed to do and influence so much even after her untimely death, for a cultural icon she undoubtedly was, this biopic was just… fine. And fine is, you know, fine. There is nothing wrong with fine. But if you are talking about legends and all you get is 100 minutes of “fine” and 20 minutes of brilliance, you wish it were the other way around.
So now, yes, I completely get the reception I heard about ever since this movie came out. Because Judy isn’t a bad film by any means, it’s technically made well and mostly intriguing (the less you know about Judy, the better for you). But the only two parts that are truly worth it are the last 20 minutes and Renée’s incredible performance. She truly lives and breathes this role, she never once slips out of it, and it’s no wonder that the Academy couldn’t ignore her, even though they were more than happy to ignore the rest of this film. Renée, without a doubt, deserved that Oscar. Because of her performance alone, I have actually raised my overall rating of this film because up until the last 20 minutes; I was sure this was a slightly better-than-average biopic. But the way she delivered throughout the film and towards the end made me reconsider my rating just a tiny bit. This movie should be studied on many fronts, mainly how (not) to make a biopic and how your main star can uplift an average film to new heights.
Overall, Judy is a truly fascinating movie for the wrong reasons. It’s a case study on how to make the most paint-by-number biopic whilst almost stumbling into a brilliant 20 minutes of the film towards the end. The one and only thing the people behind this movie did correctly was casting – because Renée genuinely does everything in her power to uplift this otherwise “fine” movie. And “fine” shouldn’t be a word used to describe a biopic about one of the most legendary stars of Hollywood’s golden era, Judy Garland. She deserved better; we all did.
That’s all for this one! Did you see it? What did you think about it? Let me know!
Until next time,
Luke