Annie

Pretty certain I'd seen this film before, at least parts of it. Maybe I just imagined it though, the film's theme song is so ubiquitous that it's almost impossible to go in fresh. Whatever the case, I didn't recognize many of the specifics, so apart from some familiar songs and a general idea of Annie's character, it was like seeing the film for the first time.

Aileen Quinn's Annie is the star of the show, at least if you can appreciate the smug, Hollywood-cheese that drips from her performance. It's not easy feeling for a character that appears fake as a cardboard and annoys from start to finish. And it's not like her singing voice is a saving grace either.

The music and songs are pretty terrible, the cinematography is poor for a musical and with a runtime over 2 hours it's a real test of patience. Not that I'm a big fan of Huston's older work, but at least he was visibly comfortable directing darker, noirish films. Annie turned out to be a pretty dire and unattractive musical.