Another movie I’d recommend that all of you watch:

Yes, that’s “Rent,” the movie, an honest, gritty broadway musical turned movie last year.

I missed it in the big screen and merely watched it via DVD last Sunday. Boy, was I totally blown away!

From the first few tunes of the entire cast singing Seasons of Love to the end credits, “Rent” touched on the most controversial social themes such as the bohemian lifestyle, cross-dressing, homosexuality, lesbianism, AIDS, poverty, drug abuse, and death — without totally going overboard, even though there were numerous opportunities to do so.

Frankly, I haven’t enjoyed watching a musical this much since Nicole Kidman’s, “Moulin Rouge.” What’s more, as the director Chris Columbus (yes, the same producer of the Harry Potter series films) wisely decides to hire all of the original broadway musical cast except for two, all the cast members cannot only act, but can dance and sing at the same time. 🙂

To give you how unjudgemental this movie was, the beginning scene includes the homosexual cross-dresser Angel, helping Tom Collins up after being mugged. As Angel does so, he/she quietly confessed, “I have AIDS” as if warning the man of his/her lethal medical condition.

Whereas other people would recoil or give a sermon on the dangers of being homosexual and HIV positive, Collins however replied, “So do I” — a reply to a controversial issue said so matter-of-factly that it rubs off any negative connotation to the disease.

Despite touching on the most controversial topics in society today, Rent doesn’t dwell on these issues. Despite being poor, homosexual, lesbian, or HIV positive, the characters are not judged for them. They are not looked down on, or stereotyped into these characteristics.

Instead, as the tagline shouts, “No day but today!” the movie emphasizes the beauty of living, being human, of friendship… and of living in the present.

The theme song, Seasons of Love, further pushes this point across by asking us: