Dreamgirls

One of the bigger controversies of 2006's Academy Award nominations was the snubbing of Dreamgirls for the Best Film category. Personally, I don't think it really matters either way as The Departed deserved to win that year either way. Having said that though, Dreamgirls could easily have taken the place of Babel as one of the Best Film nominations, and it accumulated a very respectable 8 nominations (no other film was more nominated that year) in other categories.

Dreamgirls is the story of the Dreams, a Supremes-styled trio of female singers who work their way to the top of the music industry - overcoming inner turmoils, label machinations, and the race barrier. Of course, it's not all up and up magic, along the way the biggest talents of all (played by Eddie Murphy and Jennifer Hudson) get left behind thanks to the moods and whims and Curtis Taylor Jr (Jaimie Foxx), one-time Cadillac dealer and the current head of a rapidly expanding ruthless music empire.

Encompassing two decades of soulful and revolutionary black music, Dreamgirls parallels the story of Motown records and the talents it used, promoted, loved and abused. It's almost fairytale-like, and works as a towering soap-opera-esque epic of talent, bertrayal and power. This film could just be the best musical I have ever seen. Seriously, I don't think I've ever enjoyed a musical more.

Just as epic as the film itself is the story of it's journey to screen from the stage, an odyssey that had it's beginnings back in the 80s. Bill Condon (writer of Chicago - the last 'big' musical film before Dreamgirls, and an Oscar-winning production hugely inferior to this breathtaking film) lends his more dramatically-attuned directorial talents (Gods and Monsters, Kinsey) to this famed and acclaimed broadway musical, bringing us a highly polished and near-perfect gem.

A film like this would be so much pointless screen candy if it wasn't for the other extensive talents involved too... the set design is impressive and the songs are fantastically memorable and almost as good as the 60s and 70s Motown R&B tunes that inspired them. The cast, too, is spot on. Jaimie Foxx is suitably scheming as cold-hearted money-man Curtis, and Beyonce Knowles is well-cast as the Diana Ross-like figure Deena Jones. But, of course - as anyone who saw the various 2006 awards ceremonies should know - the biggest performances are by those in the attention-catching 'supporting' roles... Eddie Murphy's dramatic foray as James 'Thunder' Early feels so right, and it would be nice to see him doing more acting along these lines as opposed to films like Norbert or Meet Dave. Meanwhile, American Idol runner-up Jennifer Hudson's debut turn as Effie White is nothing short of phenomenal, an astonishing combination of sincere, unsentimental pathos and raw musical talent.

Dreamgirls is a stirring, golden recreation of an era of soul music in all it's sleaze and glory, and one of the most flat-out entertaining films I've seen in a while. Great soundtrack too!