mamma mia is a cinematic masterpiece

alternative title: chick flicks deserve respect

although unpopular opinions have become some sort of paradox (and i won't claim to have any, originality is only real to an extent), i can somewhat confidently say that loving mamma mia, specifically in the context of it being “real film” and not just a chick flick enjoyed by those too vapid to watch the joker, is polarizing.  

in case you haven't seen this movie, here is a brief synopsis: 

the entirety of the 108 minutes of this jukebox musical is spent on kalokairi (based on the real island of skópelos in greece) following 20-year-old sofie and her mom as they navigate an upcoming wedding. behind everyone's back, sofie invites three men she suspects of being her father, thinking she’ll know him when she sees. shockingly, this rash plan backfires, leaving sofie with 3 dads at her wedding. chaos ensues, pierce brosnan fails at singing multiple times, and in the end, they find that the real father is the friends we made along the way. (that’s not to shit on the movie in any way, it’s just true).  

the main aspect i greatly appreciate about this movie is its, almost explicit, lack of interest in the landscape of “high cinema”. especially in musicals, they almost always find a way to weave realism into the placement of songs. maybe the main character is a singer (coda, tick, tick... boom!) or maybe the songs are the story (hamilton), however mamma mia doesn’t really play into any of these templates. sure, donna was a singer, and the songs make narrative sense, but the world is seemingly identical to that of 2008, the year of release. the only exception to this apparent sameness being the semi-spontaneous musical numbers and occasional abba-inspired piano instrumental that functions as a score. mamma mia is a fantasy, on what may as well be a fictional island, pitch-corrected “a” and “b” list celebrity's voices included. i had dubbed it the mmcu before realizing that it was far too similar to the mcu; however, my brain is refusing to give me any more ideas so, the mamma mia cinematic universe is official. (after a quick google search, i am not original, this has been thought of before, but i don’t particularly care. let me enjoy my delusion). 

  additionally, i think people have a hard time differentiating camp from oblivious stupidity. i am not above this, a couple seasons into riverdale i had to realize that no, it wasn’t camp, or tongue-in-cheek, over-the-top anymore, now we were dealing with 15-year-olds committing arson and characters getting abducted by aliens, and it was just stupid. mamma mia is camp. it's cheesy and self-aware and theatrical and fun. they knew what they were doing when they cast cher in mamma mia, here we go again and had her sing fernando to a love interest literally named fernando, vocoder and all. 

of course, the songs fit well into the story, it was created around the music, not vice versa like most musicals. however, the setting of kalokairi fits suprisingly well with the upbeat disco-pop that defined abba's greatest hits of the 70’s and early 80s. and, while naming an entire character after one throw-away line in “our last summer” is a bit much, i can't be mad about it.  

the changing of context of the songs was also adapted from original song to broadway musical to movie musical. it is important to note that the male members of the abba wrote the majority of their songs, making the two lead singers mouthpieces to some extent. (film fatales video). lay all your love on me is adapted from a painfully one-sided dynamic of jealousy and selfishness into a duet of mutual, partially ironic feelings of the same nature. a similar comment can be made about sos. it goes from obsessed woman crying for help (a common theme in abba's songs) to one about mutual feelings of desperation between exes. does your mother know is now satirical flirtation instead of the much more questionable ethics of the original song. when the men of abba sing does your mother know, it’s dead serious, as if to say, “you are so cute and attractive, youthful, i'll flirt with you!” while in the same breath acknowledging her immaturity and actively ignoring it, almost romanticizing her young age. the subversion at display here is not effective because of the gender swap, but a result of a vastly changed tone.  

all this to say, mamma mia is not a perfect movie (as much i might like it to be). my main critique of it is the use of local greek civilians as props instead of people. donna and sofie were always going to be the main characters, but it might have been nice to see the island from a less sensationalized, less colonial, perspective.  

a more lighthearted aspect i somewhat despise (an understatement), is pierce brosnan (just in general) but especially his voice. according to the irish central website he “ had a [vocal] coach he shared with his co-star amanda seyfried , but that wasn't enough so extra measures have been taken this time.” which i have no choice but to find extremely funny. there is a great article in the guardian about why male actors are bad a singing that is linked here. to spite this, colin firth actually isn't a horrible singer and it is a well-known fact that how talented meryl streep is, both as an actress and as a vocal performance.  

chick flicks, specifically more campy ones such as mamma mia, are often overlooked, a silly, feel-good movie with a target audience of girls and women who either enjoy or have nostalgia for abba, are hardly the core demographic of the film industry, however that shouldn’t strip it of all value. mamma mia is not a movie that aimed to produce a “serious, edgy, staple of high cinema” and landed on “fun jukebox musical on a fictional island”. no, “meryl streep singing abba in overalls with molly weasley” was the goal, and they more than accomplished it.