Featured Blu-ray and DVD Review: Judy

December 23, 2019

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Judy

Judy started out well during a nationwide release and while it was never able to expand truly wide, it still finished with more than $20 million during its theatrical run. Likewise, the film hasn’t become a major player during Awards Season, but Renée Zellweger has already earned a trio of major nominations. Is the film better than its box office numbers? Or is Renée Zellweger’s performance its sole saving grace?

The Movie

The film begins with a young Judy Garland, let’s be blunt here, being emotionally abused by Louis B. Mayer, just because she wants some time off to go to the movies.

We flash forward to the 1960s when Judy Garland is in her 40s and performing with her younger son and daughter. They are getting paid $150 for the night, which isn’t much, even back in the 1960s. However, Judy is is in serious money trouble. They even get kicked out of their hotel room for missed payments. They get desperate enough to go to her ex-husband and father of the two kids, Sid Luft. The two get into a fight and Sid wants custody of the kids during the school year. He does have a point, the kids need a stable life and Judy isn’t able to provide that working odd hours like tonight or working shows late at night. And she’s unable to get a regular job, as she’s been deemed unreliable to work with due to her substance abuse problems. After leaving her kids with Sid, she heads to a party thrown by her older daughter, Liza Minnelli. While there, she meets Mickey Deans, who runs a bar in New York City.

After another flashback to even more abuse the young Judy Garland dealt with before returning to the 60s. She does get an offer to go to London to perform. She would have to leave her children in California with her ex-husband in order to earn enough money to prove she can be a responsible mother to her children, which she is not happy to do. On the other hand, she has little choice, because if she doesn’t start earning money, Sid could get custody of the kids.

With that, she leaves for London and we arrive in spoiler territory.

Judy

Judy is a fairly typical musical biopic elevated by an award-worthy central performance. This is a common issue with this genre. In fact, last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody had the exact same problem. This movie is better than Bohemian Rhapsody in practically every way, except for the music. This is mostly a matter of personal taste, but I’m not a big fan of the musical genres in this film, while Queen is possibly my favorite band of all time. Certainly in the top five.

To be fair, Judy, as a movie, isn’t bad in any sense of the word, but the central performance is so much better than the rest of the movie that it is more important to be a fan of Renée Zellweger than it is to be a fan of Judy Garland, if you want to enjoy the experience. If you are a fan of Judy Garland, you might be disappointed with how shallow and safe the film is and you won’t learn much of anything new. The film treats the years of abuse Judy Garland had to deal with and the resulting substance abuse problems in such a generic way that one could have switched out Judy Garland for any number of actresses and made a nearly identical movie.

The Extras

The only real extra is a four-minute long making of featurette. There’s also a short image gallery and trailers. That’s not enough extras, even if you think of the film as a limited release. Very disappointing.

The Verdict

Judy is a good musical biopic that doesn’t do enough with its subject matter to be truly satisfying. That said, Renée Zellweger’s performance means it is worth checking out. There are not enough extras on the DVD / Blu-ray, but fans of the actress will still want to pick it up.

Filed under: Video Review, Judy, Judy Garland, Renée Zellweger, Rufus Sewell, Richard Cordery, Finn Wittrock, Gemma-Leah Devereux, Bella Ramsey, Lewin Lloyd, Darci Shaw