Re-watched: Across the Universe

Musical, a movie genre that has recently undergone a tremendous transformation and now offers to all song-monikers post-modern, aggressive fusion of image and sound rather than correct melodious chants, has again delivered to its loyal audience a small masterpiece of its kind. The song-packed “Across the universe” skillfully directed by the queen of quirky and juicy cinematic visions, Julie Taymour, gives an exquisite performance from Jim Sturgees as Jude, poor Englishman coming to the USA, who meets on his way clumsy, war-terrified American and his pretty sister fighting against hellish military struggle in Vietnam. Romance, clash of youth spirit and politicized war realms, genius episodes from megastars of showbiz Joe Cocker, Bono and Salma Hayek and an outstanding musical drama – all of that keeps the mouth opened and nerves strained by the sheer excitement.

Taymour turns her Hair-like movie into already legendary music encyclopedia for all the Beatles fans. After all “Across the universe” has been built upon classical compilation of smashing song hits from Liverpool boys. The unique mojo the new voices tack onto to the well-known notes and lines, morphs Taymour’s gross, breathtaking music story into fresh cinematic breeze among genre’s typical features. Fortunately, the corky visions do not burry the movie’s message underneath the music bloat.

Taymour, the celebrated director of “Frida”, exuded her style in her earlier iconoclastic, vivid and fantasy-like productions just to unleash this intensely emotional, bolting tornado of sounds touching the most delicate strings of the musical admirer’s soul. She melts images and mix them into homogenous, artistically coherent phenomenon, so it is worth seeing “Across the universe” merely for amazing, spicy clips of “Strawberry Fields” and “I want you bad”. And there is so much more!