I did makeup for the theater department in high school and we actually saw the original cast of Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. I hated the story, but pms and some good ass songs had me crying. The movie takes all the bad parts of the musical, amplifies them, and then makes the songs feel out of place.
Can we all just agree that not everything needs to be a goddamn movie? Some stories are best suited for limited series, some for the stage, some for serialized shows, some for books etc. Like why they couldn’t just do what Hamilton did and record it? Hamilton is an excellent musical but it would suck as a movie
@@kaelynevans1874 idk when hollywood gone learn they lesson 🥴 I don’t even like musicals all that much but I looooooved hamilton because 1. The music was what moved the story along so it didn’t feel pointless and 2. I knew it was a musical so I was prepared for little to no dialogue. When you go see a movie, you need something other than music to make it interesting 🙄
@@ayannabranchcomb7535 exactly. i love musicals and the ideas of them, (ironic cause i hate most of the disney princess movies). just leave the musicals alone.
@@ayannabranchcomb7535 you’re spot on. And Hamilton is a case that should be left to the stage too, since it was truly written for the stage (so, we can only hope it’s left alone). I think that’s why certain musical films (like West Side Story, Moulin Rouge!, Chicago, and others) made for good adaptations since there was more than just music, and they knew when to cut. Unfortunately in some cases today, it seems like a cut and paste (and shave off the necessary stuff) to make some quick cash.
@@benjirivoh lmaoo I love the disney princess movies 😂 I think I like media where its 50/50 music and dialogue. If its mostly music, like Hamilton, it has to be bangin ass music. And I think the fact that Hamilton was very hip hop in style made it very enjoyable. I’d say the only other musical/movie adaptation I liked was Rent and that’s because they made it a movie with dialogue and other shit happening.
Question: why didn’t they just cast OTHER 30 year olds to make the social interactions less creepy??? You can’t tell me there aren’t plenty in Hollywood that would be willing. How did they not understand having one 30 year old looking man crushing on a girl who could pass as a high schooler would be SUPER CREEPY??? It feels like such an easy fix!
Cause his daddy was in charge of the movie so they casted him claiming it was cause he was the first Evan or whatever bs excuse people were using. There was an actual teenager who played Evan on Broadway but maybe it’s a good thing he wasn’t in this shitty movie
@@piersnivans5983 you're right. They're all in their twenties (I think it was like early to mid-twenties??), but most of the main cast could pass for teens. he can't though. :\ The makeup made him look older than he is, and even without it, he probably just has a face that shows he's in his twenties.
What I truly don't understand is how they managed to make Ben Platt look older in this movie than he does in real life. As it is he already looks far too old to play a high schooler but they made him look like the crypt keeper with that wig and makeup job.
My theory is that they were trying to make him look depressed, not only younger. Of course, there is not real a "depressed look" because everyone is different. But if you take the cliché route (and they did), you try to imply depression by making someone looks tired, sad, sick, and crying. And that's how Ben Platt looks like in the movie. Unfortunately, these things also make people look older than they are.
@@s_agebloom he's lying to her a what he's singing to her, she thinks that is what her brother said but in reality it's just Evan crushing on her. At the end, he literally reaches for a kiss after "talking to her about her brother."
Evan gives off Sierra Burgess vibes. also! why can't Hollywood write main characters with anxiety/depression without making them a horrible person and going "whelp, they have anxiety so 🤷" like ????
I mean, you know why. The Abled Brains think mental illness makes you a terrible person by design, which in turn circles back around to absolve all responsibility for your actions because your suckiness is out of your control. They think we're robots with a bug in the program.
True. I like some of them bc people with anxiety and depression (and others) can be horrible people, but not all of them are. It would be good to acknowledge both.
Wait, so the other girl wanted to save the world from depression, and the best way to do that was to post someone's presumed suicidal note on the internet?????
I wished it was covered better, but I wish the faux social activism was called out. As much as Evan's actions were horrible, I didn't like the idea that if they didn't get the money, then Alanna couldn't save people from depression. She gets the money for the orchard at the end, so all of Alanna's dubious actions are vindicated, when I don't think she deserved it.
@@reikun86 As Jenny Nicholson stated in her incineration (wildly paraphrashed): "If Alana had worked out a flexible funding campaign to mitigate the failure of the stupid Kickstarter, then only a proportional number of kids would've killed themselves."
@@reikun86 It was touched upon when the Murphys just got harassed because people thought they should blame the family for Connor's death for no reason. "You will be found" as a lyric is also meant to be quite creepy even in the song (so during Act 1) because... It's the Internet, it was bound to go wrong. The background lyrics/singers/lines were also a call out to how people were using Connor for their own gains. Alana never got the spotlight but at least the musical showed that she did it not for Connor but for herself. Not sure if she stated so herself but it's sort of implied she did it partly for her resume and also got wrapped up in being "seen". They have always had a problem with what to do with Alana. They needed someone to initiate the Project and add pressure onto Evan but had no idea what to do with another character. They straight-up gave up on her because she's obviously incomplete. Jared had a song "Going Viral" that was basically him predicting the plot and warning Evan in his own way. You could easily replace the out-dated meme references with him calling out people being fake or the fake concern and "activism" (like reposting ~positivity~/~you can talk to me even if we don't know each other~ posts on your story. They're hard to describe but I'm sure you get which ones I'm talking about. It's all about looking like a good person and trying to get a bit of attention). Hell even add some lines when he was selling pins/buttons with Connor's face on it to make sure people get that it's shitty and useless! Jared didn't hide this was a terrible thing to do and I think he even stated that they sold well: make the scene a bit longer or make some directing choices to get it across. It's an adaptation. You can do a lot more in a movie than in a musical in terms of details. Get some background characters doing fake shit a few times. Maybe have a main character react for a few seconds to it. It was SO easy to push that theme more. The musical couldn't because it was "full". I don't remember if the book did address it more but I think (?) there was a moment when Ghost Connor called it out. Ghost Connor was a great addition as he let us learn more about Connor and offered a new perspective. They also needed someone to call Evan out as it's a first person narration/POV and that using Evan's Conscience Taking The Shape Of Connor wouldn't work as well as on stage. The movie just gave up on that because it could work against Evan. I guess the fake activism/care theme was too much to ask for because it took attention away from Evan and we can't have a scene without Ben Platt after all!
@@ondiiina Good point. Alana and the social activism part is what interests me the most about this story. But since it not directly about Evan, the story just dips a toe into a part of how our society makes change and bring awareness via social media. It’s hard to really Who is honestly making effort, and who is doing it for personal gain.
Alana's false activism was called out. The movie has a lot of faults but it doesn't pretend that she's a sympathetic character. She has issues, sure. But she does shitty things to make herself feel better & to hurt Evan, not because she cares at all about Connor, Zoe, or Connor's family. After the fallout from the note, for all Alana knew, Zoe could've taken her life as well... Everyone except Evan's Mom (and maybe Zoe) deserved to be slapped.
I find it sad because the mental health rep did mean a lot to people, especially when your first interaction with the show was the soundtrack. But the actual plot was ass and possibly insulting
I’ve been suicidal and an anxious social outcast- it’s like, _incredibly_ insulting smh. It’s like a 13 reasons why if it were even MORE about the one dude and the inspirational story of how he used the death of a classmate to make up a best friend with rich parents who love him too. Actual lunatic shit It would’ve been amazing as horror or black comedy. But no. We’re supposed to feel anything for Evan other than him needing a real good punch in the pants
My thoughts exactly! I really love the soundtrack but I hate the show. It do be that way for Pasek and Paul musicals tbh - I like The Greatest Showman but the story sucks.
@@Lucifersfursona here’s the thing. He’s never painted in the light of being a good guy. Most fans of the show know that he was the villain, and that mental health doesn’t excuse what he did. I personally love the story, but then again I am not a person with mental health issues, so I have no right to speak on it. Idk I can see why you wouldn’t like it but I love it for some reason.
@@thetrashinyourbasement7898 I agree. As someone who has grown up with anxiety and depression, I always appreciated that things were never black and white. You had room to relate to Evan, and see that he made a lot of poor decisions (selfishly hurting a lot of ppl in the process). He convinced himself he wanted to make everyone happy, but he rlly was just using them to fill the void in his own life. I like that Evan isn't just the poor victim that needs to be saved like he would be in any other story. He's a real character with agency in the musical and that's rlly nice. I'm glad the show doesn't end in some stand off in the roof where someone has to stop him from ending it like in every other story. That's what makes it special. ++ I think the actual themes of the original musical were more about recognizing what you have instead of fixating on what you lack. Like my depressed brain is always trying to convince me that I'm a burden and everyone only sticks around bc they feel bad. It can be hard to recognize that there are ppl that love you, but everyone does have at least one person who loves you. Letting ppl in and accepting that they won't always say/do the right things was part of finding some sense of peace. I think the movie cut a lot of the songs that showed this which was a travesty. That's why 'does anybody have a map', 'good for you', and 'so big, so small' are my fav songs in the musical.
@@thetrashinyourbasement7898 I totally get that but I feel like it's never written and advertised as Evan being a villain that we learn from. It lacks the purposefulness of showing the fall out of Evan's actions. There are other movies like World's Greatest Dad that write the nuance better
That’s not *always* true though. Everyone would act differently. As someone with social anxiety, I think I would have lied to them. I know it’s not okay to do that, I know it would be a horrible thing to do, but I tend to be very impulsive when I’m nervous and make really REALLY bad choices that can end up hurting people, in order to make people not to hate me in that moment. I would have wanted to deny everything, but I’d be too scared in order to say the truth. I would obviously say no in the beginning, but if the family kept insisting (like the Murphys did) I don’t know if I would be able to let them down. I would just freeze, probably and out of panic I would say yes then. And yes, I know it’s WRONG and if I was calm I would never do that. Other people with anxiety would just refuse everything, but I think it depends on the person. Either way, having anxiety wouldn’t mean automatically denying what Connor’s parents said.
@@Fatima-cg4ns true, but I do think a person with anxiety would have much difficulty than Evan to deal with the lie. That's a stressful situation, but I think that if a person with anxiety goes with the lie, it would be despite the situation being stressfull, they find it less stressful than telling the truth. However, it would still be a terrifying situation that would weight on the mental health. At least, that how it works for me when I lie (not to this extent, if that reassures you). I don't think I have anxiety disorder though.
as a young black girl who had a prominent Broadway phase in high school, i REALLY loved DEH, because i felt that i could relate to the anxieties he felt.. but the plot? GOOD LORD. it took me a while to see what was wrong with the protagonist we’re given. Evan Hansen is literally one of the worst people in the story, which makes me sad, because the mental health issue and relatability he had made me sympathize with him by the end of the soundtrack.
I think it's common as a high schooler to relate to really problematic main characters in musicals. I was a Phantom of the Opera fan. Still love the music but can't understand for the life of me why I related so much to the phantom ^_^;;
I had a very very heavy broadway phase elementary through middle school ,so when I found DEH I thought I was be into in like I was for Hamilton, Heathers,Chicago, Beetlejuice,Wicked,Etc but I just couldn't. Evan is such an unlikable character, he's so selfish and manipulative, not to mention ungrateful. While I could sympathize with him due to also having anxiety (Ironically I'm extroverted but have anxiety) his actions were so repulsive that I never fully got invested. Plus the actor looking so old made it feel worse,he didn't look like a teenager making really bad choices but a grown man making really bad choices
I remember hearing in the BookTube sphere of people raving about DEH and never knew what it was about but recently I did and holy shit how could people not see it?!?
A phrase that resonated with me was in Jenny Nicholson's review she said it gained acclaim because it was "about mental illness " but yet had little to nothing to really say about it.
If they were gonna get a 30 year old man to Play a 17 year old, then they should've had the other teenagers be played by 30 year olds, so it's less distracting, like what they did in Grease or Carrie. But instead, you have this guy who's obviously a grown man towering over people in their late teens-early 20s who can ACTUALLY pass for High School students.
It’s literally so weird, I’m 17 and I cannot imagine someone my age looking like the 30y old actor does. Like, it’s clear he’s not a teenager. And I found the “movie” so weird because I seriously cannot see him as a student and I forgot he was supposed to be a student at one point which made the following things he did so much creepier.
Heck yes!! And Schaffrillas 😂 I haven’t even seen the movie or play but I love the videos I had to edit this so many times cause I kept spelling his name wrong 😂
Even most 17 year olds know that lying about knowing a dead person after their suicide and manipulating their grieving parents, getting with their sibling under false pretenses, and lying to thousands of people about someones suicide is a frankly terrible thing to do. Alana sharing the suicide note (or what she believed to be one) is also awful. I'm 28 now, but I was a pretty toxic person as a teen (undiagnosed BPD, unmedicated mood and delusional disorders and anxiety, autism and ADHD) but hell, even I wouldn't have done something like that.
Yeah but if he looked like a teen we might have been a bit more sympathetic that he was a kid who got in over his head or understood that he liked Connors family. We would have understood him doing a bad thing
His acting is more suited for a Broadway stage, where mannerisms and expressions have to be bigger since the audience is further away. This on top of him being a 30 year old man playing a high school student makes for quite the disturbing performance.
Ben Platt playing Evan in the movie honestly just drowns in pathetic. It sends a message to audiences that Ben sees DEH as his only worthy achievement despite how much he’s done since then and it’s sad to see him cling so hard to that character that he ultimately hinders what he loved so much. Between that, the nepotism, and cutting songs that lended perspectives to other characters just made this movie feel so centered around Ben.
@Lalogue I believe him when he said that the movie would not have been made if Ben wasn't Evan. Which is a shame. This role should've gone to someone else.
Mental health issues is no excuse to be a trash person. I don’t understand how him looking up at the trees helped ANYTHING. No new meds, no new coping skills, no changes in behavior. He just realized he needed to be more positive and not a lying trashy person? I guess that cures depression? Look people with depression know they need to look at the bright side of things and put things into Preceptive and be happy. But we can’t. It’s a hard process to get out of the sinking hole that is depression. A couple conversations with your mom and a few friends isn’t going to help your depression or anxiety.
In the musical he mentions he stops taking his anxiety medication once he’s fully focused on the Conner Project, and yells at his mom when she encourages him not to do that. This never comes up again, so one can assume he just stopped taking his medication with no consequences. The musical was already giving pretty awful mental health messages.
It sounds to me like DEH was written by people who did a five-minute Google search about social anxiety disorders once before they started writing and just went with what they read on Wikipedia.
Mental illness can make you a worse person because when you're so exhausted and in such distress you lash out at people. It's not okay, ofc, but we can't expect people struggling with mental illness to be super nice to everyone all the time. Not talking about Evan though, that mf definetly went too far.
It's definetly better on stage - especially as they cut out some songs that were key to the plot. Look up "Good for You" where Evan's mom, Alana and his family friend (I can't remember his name lol) call him out for how he acts. The musical actually opens with a song sung by Evan's mom and Connor's mom where they ask if "anyone has a map" because they're struggling being mother's to their sons who are struggling and they don't know what to do. There is even a song where Evan laments his dad not being around and he gets a really sweet moment with Connor's dad. The film is awful and I feel the direction takes away so much of the emotion of the songs by putting so much action in them rather than just showing us these characters sing and belt their hearts out. They also said they changed it so Evan had more repurcusions but I don't feel that way. iirc in the stage show he doesn't get to rekindle things with Zoe again she bacially tells him that it can't happen because of what he did. It would have been so much better if they just did a proshot of the actual stage show but nooooooo Ben Platt's rich dad wanted a movie.
Thank you!! The fact that they cut this and/or didn't even try to include Bedroom Down The hall to ground and develop the parents and by proxy, the main guys show how little they cared
@@pumpkinpatch2203 Sadly yes. The other songs I can kind of understand (still don't like it) but Good For You?!!? It's so good and powerful and really integral to the plot.
The musical isn't necessarily better but as you mentioned, it handles Evan and his misdeeds better. For me, the musical makes more of a point that he's doing the creepy things he's doing because he CAN, not because he HAD to. Him making more emails, going out with Zoey, playing house with the Murphys, being apart of the Conner Project is called out more which highlights the part of his agency that the movie erases. The musical makes him more of a questionable narrator and a "protagonist?" and doesnt necessarily push you to see him as a straight up helpless protagonist or even a morally grey one. Is the musical less of an unbelievable, creepy shit show? No but its framing and medium invites you to suspend disbelief in a way that movies just cant
@@DavidMiller-cu2xq totally agree! They cut her character down to almost nothing and removed a necessary chunk of the visual repercussions for Evan's actions by removing Anybody Have a Map and Good For You. A complete travesty had that me on the fence for this movie since the beginning!
WHY IS THIS SO ACCURATE 💀 it’s like the makeup artists’ idea of a young teen face is just a smooth, one color complexion. his face looks like it’s sculpted out of a one color clay and not in a good way
I went into this movie already knowing that the 30yr old dude playing a teenage- who also, at times, feels like he's mocking kids with autism with his portrayal of anxiety and depression- is the main character from the musical production, and that he threw a massive fit to play this role in the movie version, saying things like "I AM Evan Hansen, you can't just give my role to somebody else" and repeatedly referencing the awards that the musical won due to his portrayal of the titular character. Because of that knowledge, along with the high standards that I have for musicals-turned-movies, I couldn't find any sympathy for his character. All I could see was a pouty, moody adult feeling sorry for himself, playing victim, and throwing pity parties every 2 minutes. This is a TERRIBLE movie.
When did he say that? All I’ve heard him say is that the truth of the matter was the movie wouldn’t get made unless him, the dude who workshopped the character for months and won a bunch of Tony’s, was attached to it. I feel like people are being shitty to Ben Platt because he made a bad movie. Why? Also, I don’t think 27 is thirty, YES he looked like shit in the movie but he was 27 at the time, not thirty. Just feels like people being mean and making things up and I’m kind of confused why. I don’t think there’s a record of him “throwing massive fits,” but correct me if I’m wrong.
@@thelseaharmon9571 not sure about the massive fits part but the problem about how he looked isn’t that he’s 27, it’s that somehow the lighting, haircut, and acting made him appear wayyy older than he actually is. (Especially in comparison to the other younger looking actors) And that can’t really be excused even if you know his actual age, because my brain was still telling me “hey this guys just looks too old for this” even though I know Ben Platt is a normal adult age. I think most people just default to 30, especially if they don’t know Ben Platt, because it’s an even number and movie Evan definitely doesn’t look like he’s fresh into being 20 yrs old. Of course that’s not a reason to insult his physical features or call him old bc he isn’t, but there are legit reasons why him as Evan just…didn’t work this time around. From an acting standpoint it was just kinda bad, which is so weird to me bc he looked perfectly fine and like a “teen” in the Politician, like he looked like he was going to college like his character. I’m really not sure how they got this movie wrong.
@@kaykeunil Yeah, you’re not wrong, like I said, he DID look like shit and it WAS a lot in part of the lighting and makeup, and for the love of his that terrible hair, but that’s not my point. My point is why are people being AWFUL to the actor and making up things like he threw a bunch of “fits” to be in the movie and cried to his daddy and was like some huge asshole when there’s not proof of that? My issue isn’t that the movie didn’t work, it didn’t, for MANY reasons, my issue is people bullying this poor fucking old looking 27 year old and making things up about his personality to fit their narrative. He seems like a pleasant and talented man, people can criticize the movie but they don’t have to tear the man to shreds, he’s a human being whose only crime is looking old and making a bad movie.
@@thelseaharmon9571 They didn't hire him because he was with the show at its beginnings. It was because his daddy had money and paid for the movie. We've since long moved on from Ben's portrayal. Other actors (including his own boyfriend) have played the role and been praised for it. We have had young Evans, teenagers have played him so they could have easily found someone. His rant was incredibly disrespectful towards them. He even doubled down on it a few times. It's easy to google it. He acted like an absolute prick before the movie was released. That's why people hate him. He acted like a spoiled brat instead of the adult with an established (&liked) career he is. It's not just that the movie is bad or that his performance sucked. It was his attitude prior to the release. Had he shut it, people would have laughed at the movie, not him. It would be forgotten and just be "that one time Platt did a sucky movie" at most and overshadowed by what he accomplished. Now that he has showed he was a prick, people aren't so kind as to overlook that the movie was made for his career, and his career alone, and paid for by Daddy Platt and it sucked bad. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes and all that jazz
@@ondiiina Okay, if he did that’s what I’m asking, can you send me the name of any video showing him going on some asshole rant or throwing fits? All I see is people calling his dad “daddy” in a derogatory way and saying he threw fits. I have seen him defend the movie and explain why he was cast; again, the guy who helped create the character and won a thousand Tony’s, but I haven’t seen him show himself to be some irredeemable asshole to deserve the literal bullying you and so many others are participating in. It seems like he did a great job in a well-acclaimed musical, his dad is in the movie industry and wanted to turn it into a film, and cast the guy who played the original part and won all the awards, his son. Nepotism? Maybe, but you can’t say Ben didn’t deserve the role with his massive amount of talent and love for it. Glee had 34 year olds playing 17 year olds, Grease had 35 year olds playing 16 year olds. I don’t think they thought his age was going to be the huge deal it turned into. Anyway, please send me the video or like you said multiple videos of him freaking out and acting like an asshole, telling me to google it doesn’t help. What did you see specifically that made it okay to be so MEAN to some random actor? I truly need to know what he did so wrong.
In the book evans slowly starts to lose his mind because of the lie. I don’t think the musical was ever supposed to be a commentary on mental health if not more so about an unreliable narrator who’s kinda the antagonist of the story. I hate that the movie made Evan this passive character who’s a symbol for mental health. Boy goes crazy in the book.
This! It isn't about mental health. They went that angle because that's what people took away from the story. Evan happens to have bad anxiety. It's important to understand how the lie www formed, yes, but it isn't what the sorry is about. If it were then Connor would get more focus along with Zoe's issues. The story is more about grief and how it all became a whole mess and an impossible situation. It's at most a commentary about people being fake after a suicide and how the family handles what happened. I don't think there's a big message in the show. We're being shown a shitty situation and how everyone is reacting. It's easy to see as we mostly see Evan's interactions with the Murphys in the soundtrack. When every big moment is about something else, how can you say that the musical is about mental health? The only times mental health is addressed it's because Evan has anxiety and that affects every aspect of his life or because he's having a full breakdown because of the lie (which the book rightly adds on to show explicitly that Evan would have ended it right after. Screw the movie for making it the moment when he takes responsability. It's BS. He was in no place to do so and it makes him look a lot worse. Not going to develop more on it as it's already long but ffs it makes him seen like he doesn't feel that guilty, that the situation hasn't affected him that much and that his anxiety isn't that crippling especially after everything). I can't for the life of me remember who made those posts, but I remember a great Tumblr account that explicated it so much more eloquently and with deeper knowledge and examples. Also, in the musical Evan also sort of become reckless because of the lie. He starts genuily buying into the lie and becomes dependent on it (not taking his meds and using it to cope, his conscience actively looking like Connor and him seemingly believe that's how the guy was, the beginning of "Disappear" being already concerning with a fake Connor convincing him to go along with the lie and the project). It isn't as explored as his descent in the book because of the difference of medium (and the book is first-person so we get his immediate thoughts) but the fact that the lie is getting to him and hurting him is there. Ffs his conscience yelling at him to say how he broke his arm shows and stop the lie shows how bad he gets!
I also don't like musicals for the most part and probably will never watch this. I do find this new wave of using anxiety as the only sympathic trait of an otherwise unlikeable character concerning. Building a character who has anxiety is important, but excusing really bad behaviour and manipulation because someone is anxious and otherwise has no other redeemable qualities.. hmmm i think we need to revisit that plot line before it turns into the new "every murderer has DID" problem.
Agreed! I have an anxiety disorder and I absolutely hate the fact that people are using anxiety or any other mental health disorder as an excuse for why a character is horrible.
Exactly this. I'm noticing a new trend of redeeming characters through their mental illness or making them "relatable" and it just doesn't work. Beyond concerning.
@@dreamyanon5151 yeah, there’s a super fine line between understanding why mental illness can cause people to do horrible things and also understanding that they are still responsible for those things and cannot be excused, which most stories seem to absolutely get wrong in both ends.
Aside from the horrible execution, I feel that there’s a whole lot of nepotism going on. It’s like Marc Platt really wanted the Oscar. I’m pretty sure the producers wanted his dream girl moment for his son Ben Platt….. the actor that played Evan Hansen! 😂😂😂😂
don't get me wrong, Ben was great on stage but his presence in the movie was DEFINETELY a result of nepotism. Hell, this whole unnecessary adaptation was a result of nepotism
@@iciajay6891 Cool but the problem here is that the casting choices wouldn't have been made if the lead actor weren't the producer's son and the movie wouldn't have been made if the producer wasn't related to the lead actor. The problem here is the nepotism circle-jerk creating something that would never have existed without the nepotism. Do you understand the difference
I couldn’t quite place what bothered me about “you will be found” but when you said that- you put words to these feelings. You cant tell me I will simply be not depressed. I have friends, a partner I adore, and I have crying jacks, and suicidal thoughts almost every day. People describe Major Depressive Disorder as feeling like the first stage of grief and they aren’t fucking joking. Some days are better than others but it is never cured.
Yeah I agree, had a whole confrontation about with a distant family member that “you can’t just stop being depressed”. It’s a serious thing and coming from a person who does have general anxiety/stress problems (it sadly runs in my family). It really sucks that we rarely get any good representation for people with different mental illnesses. There’s like 2 in a 10th chance that it would be a good movie about that sort of topic
if you want a good show about how difficult grief and clinical depression is but how it's still worth moving forward, try Next To Normal The finale had the line - by the woman suffering the most explicit depression - that keeps me from overdosing as much as I could: "And you find some way to survive. And you find out you don't have to be happy at all, to be happy you're alive." and this is a show that has an act 1 song about all the fear and pain that suicidal thought can include. it's so potent and has kept me moving so long
This is why I like the songs so much better without the context- because I, listening to that song with zero context, thought it was about LGBT kids who were kicked out of their families creating their own found families.
Ben Platt is a great actor and singer, but he shouldn't have played the role in this movie. It felt like he was acting on the stage instead of in a movie. And he was the only one like that. It was weird, lol
The first problem was who they casted for the main role. “Yes, production team. Let’s cast the 28 year old for a 17 year old. He won’t look creepy at all.” It’s like they saw a Lele Pons sketch and thought to themselves “these 25-30 year olds look exactly like middle schoolers. Great idea!”
@@shantaybearcakes7069 There are some things 17 year olds can't do. There are scenes where Jared says he broke his arm jerking off to Zoey's pictures and I don't know how well that would work with teenagers as actors.
imagine the disappointment I had when I realised that the same director (stephen chbosky) was the one who directed Perks of Being a Wallflower (and wrote the book too)
Same! Stephen Chbosky is one of my favorite writers of all time and I have no idea why he keeps attaching himself to musicals!!!! It never goes well!!!
This is actually super sad to hear. Both the film and the book helped me out in high school and this is just...awful. Hopefully he gets some silver lining out of people absolutely dragging Ben Plat for demanding to be Evan when he's clearly a grown ass man
I read somewhere that the only inherent softening point for Evan Hansen's character was the fact that he was still so young. The production team might have actually succeded in transitioning the play into a movie had they leaned more on the inherent innocence and naivety of the character, who, yes, does A LOT of fucked up shit but you can have hope for him in knowing he's still just a teenager suffering from a lot of anxiety, but they squandered every possibility to let that part of the character connect with the audience like that by casting a 38yo and pretty much shot themselves in the foot.
Yeah. What makes it forgivable from an audience standpoint is that Evan is still a child and he doesn’t really understand why what he’s doing is selfish. So if you’re going to make a movie, you either need to hire teenagers or make your adult actors look like teenagers (like, actual teenagers, not CW teens)
@@nervousbreakdown711 I so severely disagree, the plot would've sucked either way and banking on "he's young so it's not his fault" is an inherent flaw with the stage production. Furthermore while it's obvious Platt (*age 28, not 38) was a terrible choice for the movie, hiring actual teenagers doesn't fix that problem and comes with the child labor laws that adult actors don't worry about plus the lack of experience that younger actors usually have--not that the actors here managed to carry their characters anyway. But the idea that "just cast actual kids for kids!" fixes the uncanny effect is false, not even mentioning how terrible the entertainment industry treats kids.
@@cam4636 a better solution would just be to cast younger looking adults, unless it’s like, somehow impossible to not cast a teen, and even then it’s eh. not sure if it would fix the whole problem ofc, but off the top of my head I guess I can think of Jordan Fisher, who’s surprisingly convincing as a “teen,” due to his general look, his acting, and some very good makeup effects.
I knew it was going to be bad when I saw that grown man cosplaying as a child when everyone looked like the age there supposed to be, and when I realized that he only got the role because his dad funded it.
Yeah, Ben Platt was the original(?) Evan on Broadway, and apparently he was throwing a fit about anyone else playing Evan, so I guess his dad just went ahead and got it for him.
fun fact : I saw people defending the casting before the movie was released, saying he doesn't look that old and that we should only care about how talented he is anyway. Now that the movie is released, nobody says that any more, or they are hiding very well so I can't hear them.
my first and only interaction with Dear Evan Hansen was Ben Platt doing a medley with Lin Manuel Miranda during my Hamilton phase and honestly that should’ve been warning enough.
jenny nicholson's exhaustively thorough video essay on this was so insanely funny, much more entertaining than the adaptation itself-- but nothing related to this is funnier than the conviction with which Julianne Moore's character sings the word "truck." i'm never going to get over it. *trrrrrUCK*
I really loved the musical because I could relate to the desperate loneliness he felt from his social anxiety. But now, I had this epiphany that Evan had SUCH an unrealistic response to the situation. At least, from my experience with mental health. If Connor´s parents had come to me, my anxiety and avoidance would have put a stop to it then and there. There´s no way I would force myself to live this elaborate lie IN THE SPOTLIGHT to be with MORE PEOPLE who (again) make me anxious. I think this points to the fact that Evan is actually just a crappy person, who ended up being an anxious outcast BECAUSE he was crappy, but wasn't self-aware enough to know it.
Exactly! I have an anxiety disorder and there's no way I would be able to intentionally put myself into a situation where my anxiety would be triggered even more by having to lie, be put in the spotlight (which all of us anxiety sufferers hate with the fire of a thousand burning suns), and interact with more people. No one with any kind of an anxiety disorder would do any of that in real life. People need to stop writing books/movies/tv-shows/musicals that focus on the subject of mental health unless they're willing to bring in many mental health experts to make sure they do it right. Because when they don't? They further the stigma around mental health, reinforce it being taboo and make life even more difficult for those of us who do have mental health disorders.
Thank you! For some reason I never see people bring up this issue when talking about Dear Evan Hansen. The portrayal of mental health is so incredibly unrealistic and honestly a little insulting. Very few people would ever do what Evan did, but I guess it's believable because he has social anxiety and depression??
Ok true bc while i don't have an anxiety disorder i do have anxiety tendencies and it makes me unable to lie. Like lying makes me even more anxious so i totally understand your point. Also the last part is so true, I've only seen dear evan hansen from this video alone, but sometimes when you see someone being an outcast, you can tell that there's a reason for it, and evan most likely has a reason. Anxiety and depression aside, if you're not a good person of course nobody would like you.... I really want to say that, but i worry that I'm being insensitive for people who are actually bullied/gets left out for no reason. However I've known some people who complained that they have no friends and nobody loves them, and then showed the exact behavior that got them no friends in the first place. I never had the heart to tell them, but i feel like some people should be more self aware
As someone with Bipolar Disorder-D and GAD, this film is maddening. For so many reasons. One major reason is they don’t deal with mental illness as something that is lifelong. Not something you can sing away and “looking up to the sky.”
Saying that the songs don't feel tethered to the movie is spot-on. The film as a whole was emotionally exhausting, but there was a moment probably about mid-way through where I genuinely forgot I was watching a musical. Like what the hell is that about?! xD
22:07 WOW. You touched on something I don't think anybody has mentioned in analyzing this yet, the really weird implications of Connor's violent behavior towards his sister vs his supposed private expressions of romantic love for her 😐. Yeah, that's some sickness. E: why did they give him purple lips??
Ben platt clearly not being in high school ruins this whole thing. Casting a talented 16 year old for the role instead would have been much better.....plus also acknowledging how AWFUL Evan is
"This could've been a really good slasher horror" great point there. There's at least one with a similar premise called 'The Guest'. After a young solider dies at war, his 'best friend' comes to live with his family based on a promise he claims he made to the dead son and starts getting closer to them. Not too far from DEH.
just a thought. I've never seen people talk about toxicity in k-dramas. Most k-dramas would make movies like 'after' an example of a healthy relationship. Can you discuss some k-dramas?
Kennie has done some videos about Asian dramas in the past but it would be nice of her to review more. I guess recommend some to her and hopefully she'll see it.
There was a KDrama I watched where a student and a teacher had a weird attachment to each other to the point where both of them avoided Relationships with people their own age. While nothing really happened between the two it weirded me out how the show tried to make it seem like such a cute thing that this girl was friends with a teacher who essentially had a crush on her. It’s on Viki. I believe it’s called “I am Sam” in Korean the titles more like “I am your teacher”
PVO of someone that knew nothing of the musical or film before Kennie's video. Okay but....wouldn't a good size of the students know Connor and Evan were not friends? Usually if you're best buds ppl at school notice...teachers notice...staff notice. When there is a death at schools ppl talk and come together to share their relationship with the deceased. Ppl do go so far as to lie and say "Oh so'n so and I were bestfriends in elementary yada yada" when they were not, but at the same time there are ppl that know they are lying. If something like this plot were to happen in real life, it would not fly and if it did, not for long. PPL WOULD KNOW Evan wasn't shit to Connor. This along with the email exchanges leads me to believe this was written by a 50-60 yr old in 2003. I also so agree that this would make a good horror movie. The lighting, shout singing, and the way Evan's neck veins pop out just goes with a horror musical theme. I mean a plot of killing ppl that were spreading the truth would have a good angle, predictable, but would suit the movie better. I would love for Editing is Everthing do make a horror trailer for this movie.
It probably doesn't really make it better butbif I recall correctly, Evan said they were friends "in secret" and didn't interact in school, only outside of it (which is why there's the remark about "people are gonna think you were lovers" because why else would you keep it secret...) and why he needed the fake emails as proof
I also hadn’t seen the film or the play, but I remember seeing the trailer and thinking “this looks…rough.” I had heard the play dealt with mental health issues and just from the trailer, I was uncomfortable and had zero confidence in how said issues were being portrayed. It does kinda give horror, though. A lot of the color palettes they used are pretty dark, moody, muted. I’m sure they were going for something to reflect the themes of depression/anxiety, but just change the music and it could easily get more sinister.
i stand by that this movie is best seen as Evan is an alien from outer space who was struggling to maintain his human suit and human voice while singing the whole film.
Trust me, high school theatre kids with taste hated this musical too. I had a vocational class on stage lighting and sound, and my classmates INSISTED on using the theater sound system to blast Waving Through a Window EVERY. DAY. because the class was every day. I don't know if I'll ever know hatred for a piece of media like that again
ya know... you'd think after the success of having Hamilton on Disney+, we would get a lot more filming of broadway shows instead of film adaptations......
I feel like the only thing this movie did well was 'fix' Alana as a character. I felt the stage version made her extremely unlikeable and her motives were questionable at best. The new song she's given in the movie really changed my opinion of her. However, it makes me wish they had included Good For You even more because it would have been a much more satisfying payoff.
The cut to the parents during his confession song just got me to laugh hysterically out loud, cause it’s disturbing, but it’s just such a sudden cut to their blank faces
i don't know if you've heard or seen the original musical, but there is a very important and glaring hole in the movie that ruined the entire damn thing for me. The removal of songs just kinda comes with the territory in musical films, DEH is no different, but it's WHAT they cut out. "anybody have a map" was supposed to be the opening number, told from the perspective of the moms and their shared heartbreak at not knowing how to help their troubled sons. this is the one and only time we see what connor was like with his family. but honestly i could forgive it, and i even forgave the removal of "to break in a glove" even though it's, AGAIN, the only time we really see how connor's death affected Mr. Murphy. it gives insight into their relationship and how he had done what he thought he had to for his son. but okay, again, forgivable. YA WANNA KNOW WHAT'S UNFORGIVABLE THOUGH? Removing "good for you". ooooooh man this pisses me off so hard. evan gets off a little lightly in the show, but it's clear he IS working on himself and trying to be better. but the movie can't say evan got his just desserts and then just have a few shots of him being frowned at in school. "Good for you" is the confrontation Heidi, Alana, and Jared have with evan where they just let him HAVE it for what he's done. someone FINALLY called him on his shit and didn't sugarcoat it. like, this is a direct quote: "So you say what you have to say/so that you get to walk away it would kill ya to stay trapped when you've got something new Well I'm sorry you had it rough, and i'm sorry i'm not enough thank god they rescued you" THAT'S HIS MOM. a mom who evan has CONSISTENTLY taken for granted and lied to and been ungrateful for. it's a slap in the face with reality for evan and the catalyst for him coming clean in the very next song "Words Fail". removing this one song ruins the entire movie because now, all the tension of the lie and evan's spiral into sociopathy doesn't get released. we know what he's doing is gross and terrible, HE knows it's gross and terrible, but they removed the damn payoff from one and a half hours of wonder how and when this godawful lie was gonna explode.
I really appreciate how respectful you were even when criticizing the obviously very messed up parts of this movie. Because at the end of the day, it still has to do with some serious topics that deserve to be talked about with care. ( they were still handled quite poorly in the film tbh).
Unpopular opinion: I think the plot of the stage play is just as bad as this movie. I watched the play, but not the movie and all of Kennie's critiques can apply to the play too. I love the soundtrack though lol
20 somethings (and even older) successfully play teenagers quite often. Most recently, the entire main cast of Fear Street. The girl who plays Deena is around the same age as Ben if I'm not mistaken. So, his age isn't the problem. It's the fact that he looks his age or even older. That was their first mistake. Casting a man in his late 20s who looks like he's in his early 30s to play a damn teenager. In this day and age, how they thought that would fly is beyond me. Dude legit looks scary haha. That combined with what he did in the movie, with little to no consequences, means they should have gone left and made this a thriller or something. So, basically, they shouldn't have made this movie haha.
This is what I've been saying, Hollywood casts adult actors for their teenage characters, but the women do look and act like teenagers *while* the male actors straight up like mid 30s and their characters don't act like teens, so the disparity becomes even more obvious.
I went to the movie theaters not knowing that this movie was a musical......I sat there with my two friends we were the only people in the room and I was completely blown tf out😭
I used to be a huge fan of the musical when it first came out until I started to try to get my friends into it and realized how bad (generally/morally/ethically) the idea of the plot was when I would explain it to them. It also pisses me off that the narrative of the person who actually committed suicide is completely erased and used as a plot device to further the main characters. It’s extremely disrespectful and doesn’t properly help to better mental health issues.
the strangest thing to me is how ben platt insisted that he had every right to play Evan because “he’s the reason the film is happening” that’s just some weird type of entitlement and ego but the film is trash anyway so I guess they spared the damaged to a young actors career 🤷♀️
In general, I feel this story is HEAVILY dependent on how much the viewer relates to Evan and his internal conflicts. If you don’t deeply relate to and see yourself in Evan, you’re not going to forgive his actions But if we’re to relate the premise back to real world situations, it bears a surprising similarity to the movie The Woman Who Wasn’t There. A documentary about a woman who lied about being a 9/11 survivor and became the president of the survivors’ support group.
If you check out Sideways' videos on Musicals, he says musicals only work if the songs are used to convey deep emotion by the character that spoken word cannot express, however this doesn't work if songs simply replicate what the character has already said which as you point out is what DEH ends up doing.
@Alex W. This man is younger than me, and he looks much older than me. Outside of the movie, he doesn't look that old. But whatever they did to make him look "younger" backfired tremendously.
I can’t help but to compare this movie to In The Heights. Personally it seems that In The Height did the things that Dear Evans Hansen was supposed to do. For example, the AGES. Theres a reason why Lin Manuel didnt play Usnavi in the movie, cause he was too damn old for the part.
I’m actually happy this movie came out. As a band kid who hung out with lot of theater kids, I liked the few songs I heard but then actually learned the plot and absolutely hated it. This movie just puts a magnifying glass on all the flaws that were already there.
I couldn’t finish the audiobook, it was so painful to read. I got excited about the movie before remembering that. 😂 Thanks for taking one for the team.
@@taeri093 I get itttttt!!! They are sweethearts, I heard it’s ending soon and I can’t wait to see how it goessss! Gosh I’m so excited, I haven’t read it in a few months so that I can binge read it all at once! 😆😆😆
I’ve only listened to the soundtrack never seen the musical, but I can’t bring myself to finish listening because of the thought of Evan confessing his lies makes my body physically cringe.
I remember listening to the soundtrack and liking it enough that I still listen to some of the songs, but when I knew I wouldn't want to actually watch it after reading a plot summary. There is something in the earlier songs that touch on what social anxiety is like (I say as someone with social anxiety) but I was put off by the "white boy lies to girl he likes and they date" part. The song "Good for You" was probably my favorite, and I don't think it's even in the movie? Still not planning to watch movie or musical, but I liked Jenny's video and I liked yours too.
27:04 This scene is absolutely perfect. Imagine: “Evan Hansen, Dear” the twist thriller Lifetime movie musical It’s essentially the same throughout, but in this scene, the 30 year old “high-schooler” is caught in his lies and has to face the family. Backed into a corner Evan whips out a gun, ready to shoot. The 42 year old (high school) senior belts out his confession in this aggressive, moving? final reprise, Evan’s mother bursts through the window with Jared and Alana. They reveal that Evan framed Conner’s death. As the group tries to diffuse the situation, Alana rushes him, making him shoot Jared in the process, killing him instantly. Alan wrestles the gun away, but for Lifetime movie reasons, she drops it and Evan gets it back. “You will NOT be found!” he screams out. As he readies to pull the trigger, Evan’s mom cracks a golf club over his head, knocking him unconscious. The police arrive as the credits begin rolling
I generally love musicals and had this one recommended to me and just...yeah, no. Whether on film or stage, I have 0 interest in watching a story that goes like this and people are telling me how relatable or cathartic it should be to me because I, too, have mental illnesses. -_- I agree that much of the plot is more akin to a psychological drama, maybe even thriller. Trying to spin this unsettling and reprehensible behavior as sympathetic and sentimental just feels gross to me. I'm sure the stage musical does handle it better than the movie,but I can't imagine I would feel anything different than intense discomfort and disgust, if not perhaps being triggered. To each their own, ofc,but I have always felt Dear Evan Hansen wouldn't be for me. :/ Sorry you had to sit through this one. >>
I remember thinking why the f*ck was this movie even made when I saw the commercials for it. it could've been actually good but the casting alone...Yikes! As an actual theatre grad, I refuse and will never. Thank you for losing the brain cells for us tho😬👌🏿😬💜
totally agree! i love the musical and how powerfully it made me feel during the songs and the complications within the plot (even though the whole plot is morally complicated i still appreciate it because it gives us a broad range of moralities within the characters), but the movie seems like ass and i've only seen reviews :/
That's one genre that I never was a fan of and that was the musical. Mostly because my mom used to watch those extremely long musicals like South Pacific, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music etc. Back in the day of VHS those musicals were so long they had two tapes. And they had 5-minute intermissions.
For me the only musical that I ever really cared for and actually know a lot of stuff about was Hamilton. Me and my friend love that play so much, but I can’t stand watching any other one. The constant singing really irks my nerves, but somehow the Hamilton play is always soft spot for me
It doesn't help that the actor who plays Evan actually had to have his face worked on through CGI to look younger cause they KNEW he looked too old and when people saw the trailer, they complained. It literally had a CATS situation lmfao
I’ve avoided this movie since I saw the original production on Broadway (of course, looking back on it, it’s not that great of a musical because of the storyline and its really problematic elements- there are just better musicals like Great Comet and Come From Away which got *snubbed*, even though the songs are good), so thank you. From what I’ve heard and from what it seems like, it seems like they pulled a reverse Amadeus (a true film adaptation of a stage work that was executed really well). Amadeus, as it was a stage play originally, only had one focus point as it focused through the lens of Salieri and his pov in the original play. For the film, they pulled out multiple lenses- not just Salieri, but also of Mozart and his wife, which made it work so well as a film adaptation (it’s incredibly different from the stage version, but that’s what made it awesome). Unfortunately with DEH, one- like Cats, I think it’s just meant for the stage (including Ben Platt- he killed it onstage; they should have just used an equally talented actor/singer who looks 17, or maybe have had Ben Platt dub the singing voice or something) and two- it takes away the other viewpoints/lens of Evan’s mom, Connor’s mom, Alana, Connor (thank goodness Mike Faist just did the new West Side Story film and not this), and others, which sucks (and why to me, it’s basically a reverse Amadeus). I feel there are so many other musicals that could work/be adapted to film really well (A Man of No Importance is a fantastic example. It’s based off a 1994 film, and adapted into a musical, and the musical could potentially be worked into a film adaptation. It could probably get some good treatment and alterations, but granted I also just love that musical lol). And yeah- it could have been been good as a regular film or just given the Hamilton/Come From Away treatment. There’s my thoughts. Sorry, it’s long, I’m a theatre kid/adult. Also- justice for Come From Away (I saw it four years later in London, and I absolutely love it and recommend it. The music, the story- based on a true story… ah, I love it. I’m a bit baffled that I preferred DEH at the time over it, but hey- I was a teen then).
"Dear Evan Hansen" is "Sierra Burgess Is a Loser" for theater kids.
Omg yesss
Oh my god, you’re so right
ALLLLLIIIEER
It truly TRULY is
I did makeup for the theater department in high school and we actually saw the original cast of Dear Evan Hansen on Broadway. I hated the story, but pms and some good ass songs had me crying. The movie takes all the bad parts of the musical, amplifies them, and then makes the songs feel out of place.
Can we all just agree that not everything needs to be a goddamn movie? Some stories are best suited for limited series, some for the stage, some for serialized shows, some for books etc. Like why they couldn’t just do what Hamilton did and record it? Hamilton is an excellent musical but it would suck as a movie
Thank you! That’s why Cats should have been left alone too, since it is strictly for the stage. I couldn’t have said it better myself.
@@kaelynevans1874 idk when hollywood gone learn they lesson 🥴 I don’t even like musicals all that much but I looooooved hamilton because 1. The music was what moved the story along so it didn’t feel pointless and 2. I knew it was a musical so I was prepared for little to no dialogue. When you go see a movie, you need something other than music to make it interesting 🙄
@@ayannabranchcomb7535 exactly. i love musicals and the ideas of them, (ironic cause i hate most of the disney princess movies). just leave the musicals alone.
@@ayannabranchcomb7535 you’re spot on. And Hamilton is a case that should be left to the stage too, since it was truly written for the stage (so, we can only hope it’s left alone). I think that’s why certain musical films (like West Side Story, Moulin Rouge!, Chicago, and others) made for good adaptations since there was more than just music, and they knew when to cut. Unfortunately in some cases today, it seems like a cut and paste (and shave off the necessary stuff) to make some quick cash.
@@benjirivoh lmaoo I love the disney princess movies 😂 I think I like media where its 50/50 music and dialogue. If its mostly music, like Hamilton, it has to be bangin ass music. And I think the fact that Hamilton was very hip hop in style made it very enjoyable. I’d say the only other musical/movie adaptation I liked was Rent and that’s because they made it a movie with dialogue and other shit happening.
Question: why didn’t they just cast OTHER 30 year olds to make the social interactions less creepy??? You can’t tell me there aren’t plenty in Hollywood that would be willing. How did they not understand having one 30 year old looking man crushing on a girl who could pass as a high schooler would be SUPER CREEPY??? It feels like such an easy fix!
its cuz of nepotism. ben platt's relative or smthn made this FOR him so
Cause his daddy was in charge of the movie so they casted him claiming it was cause he was the first Evan or whatever bs excuse people were using. There was an actual teenager who played Evan on Broadway but maybe it’s a good thing he wasn’t in this shitty movie
Oh wow...that...makes it even more gross!
i thought most of the cast was of similar ages
@@piersnivans5983 you're right. They're all in their twenties (I think it was like early to mid-twenties??), but most of the main cast could pass for teens. he can't though. :\ The makeup made him look older than he is, and even without it, he probably just has a face that shows he's in his twenties.
What I truly don't understand is how they managed to make Ben Platt look older in this movie than he does in real life. As it is he already looks far too old to play a high schooler but they made him look like the crypt keeper with that wig and makeup job.
My theory is that the director was somehow forced into making the movie and wanted revenge.
@@wtfaiwpodcast given that Ben Platt’s dad was one of the main producers of the film I would Not be surprised if the director hated working on this
I think I saw a post that says that's his actual hair and not a wig...
@@kassakakasan8969 Oh, that's even sadder
My theory is that they were trying to make him look depressed, not only younger. Of course, there is not real a "depressed look" because everyone is different. But if you take the cliché route (and they did), you try to imply depression by making someone looks tired, sad, sick, and crying. And that's how Ben Platt looks like in the movie. Unfortunately, these things also make people look older than they are.
Kennie: “the worst song”
Me, who loved the musical: “oh?”
Kennie: “he sings to her like he’s her brother”
Me: OH NO
‘If I could tell her’ is my fav song though
@@peytongomer2305 its a good song without the context not gonna lie
Good song. Context is EXTREMELY CREEPY
good song, context?? what the fuck??
@@s_agebloom he's lying to her a what he's singing to her, she thinks that is what her brother said but in reality it's just Evan crushing on her. At the end, he literally reaches for a kiss after "talking to her about her brother."
Evan gives off Sierra Burgess vibes.
also! why can't Hollywood write main characters with anxiety/depression without making them a horrible person and going "whelp, they have anxiety so 🤷" like ????
I mean, you know why. The Abled Brains think mental illness makes you a terrible person by design, which in turn circles back around to absolve all responsibility for your actions because your suckiness is out of your control. They think we're robots with a bug in the program.
@@cam4636 😔 exactly
Lol I would love a character who has depression or mental illness without having to mention it every 5 minutes or act awkward and pitiful
Or make it obvious we’re supposed to realize they’re truly the “villain” like in 500 days of summer or Scott pilgrim
True. I like some of them bc people with anxiety and depression (and others) can be horrible people, but not all of them are. It would be good to acknowledge both.
the plot of dear evan hansen is literally 'im neurodivergent and a minor'
WAIT YOURE RIGHTTTGJSGSHSGS 😭😭
THE ACCURACY OMG 😭
HELP HAHAHAHAHAHJASNSJN
or the tiktok with the ghost sounds saying "ooouhoohoho im mentally ill"
BYE
Wait, so the other girl wanted to save the world from depression, and the best way to do that was to post someone's presumed suicidal note on the internet?????
I wished it was covered better, but I wish the faux social activism was called out. As much as Evan's actions were horrible, I didn't like the idea that if they didn't get the money, then Alanna couldn't save people from depression. She gets the money for the orchard at the end, so all of Alanna's dubious actions are vindicated, when I don't think she deserved it.
@@reikun86 As Jenny Nicholson stated in her incineration (wildly paraphrashed): "If Alana had worked out a flexible funding campaign to mitigate the failure of the stupid Kickstarter, then only a proportional number of kids would've killed themselves."
@@reikun86 It was touched upon when the Murphys just got harassed because people thought they should blame the family for Connor's death for no reason. "You will be found" as a lyric is also meant to be quite creepy even in the song (so during Act 1) because... It's the Internet, it was bound to go wrong. The background lyrics/singers/lines were also a call out to how people were using Connor for their own gains.
Alana never got the spotlight but at least the musical showed that she did it not for Connor but for herself. Not sure if she stated so herself but it's sort of implied she did it partly for her resume and also got wrapped up in being "seen". They have always had a problem with what to do with Alana. They needed someone to initiate the Project and add pressure onto Evan but had no idea what to do with another character. They straight-up gave up on her because she's obviously incomplete.
Jared had a song "Going Viral" that was basically him predicting the plot and warning Evan in his own way. You could easily replace the out-dated meme references with him calling out people being fake or the fake concern and "activism" (like reposting ~positivity~/~you can talk to me even if we don't know each other~ posts on your story. They're hard to describe but I'm sure you get which ones I'm talking about. It's all about looking like a good person and trying to get a bit of attention).
Hell even add some lines when he was selling pins/buttons with Connor's face on it to make sure people get that it's shitty and useless! Jared didn't hide this was a terrible thing to do and I think he even stated that they sold well: make the scene a bit longer or make some directing choices to get it across. It's an adaptation. You can do a lot more in a movie than in a musical in terms of details. Get some background characters doing fake shit a few times. Maybe have a main character react for a few seconds to it.
It was SO easy to push that theme more. The musical couldn't because it was "full". I don't remember if the book did address it more but I think (?) there was a moment when Ghost Connor called it out. Ghost Connor was a great addition as he let us learn more about Connor and offered a new perspective. They also needed someone to call Evan out as it's a first person narration/POV and that using Evan's Conscience Taking The Shape Of Connor wouldn't work as well as on stage.
The movie just gave up on that because it could work against Evan. I guess the fake activism/care theme was too much to ask for because it took attention away from Evan and we can't have a scene without Ben Platt after all!
@@ondiiina Good point. Alana and the social activism part is what interests me the most about this story. But since it not directly about Evan, the story just dips a toe into a part of how our society makes change and bring awareness via social media. It’s hard to really Who is honestly making effort, and who is doing it for personal gain.
Alana's false activism was called out. The movie has a lot of faults but it doesn't pretend that she's a sympathetic character. She has issues, sure. But she does shitty things to make herself feel better & to hurt Evan, not because she cares at all about Connor, Zoe, or Connor's family.
After the fallout from the note, for all Alana knew, Zoe could've taken her life as well... Everyone except Evan's Mom (and maybe Zoe) deserved to be slapped.
I find it sad because the mental health rep did mean a lot to people, especially when your first interaction with the show was the soundtrack. But the actual plot was ass and possibly insulting
I’ve been suicidal and an anxious social outcast- it’s like, _incredibly_ insulting smh. It’s like a 13 reasons why if it were even MORE about the one dude and the inspirational story of how he used the death of a classmate to make up a best friend with rich parents who love him too. Actual lunatic shit
It would’ve been amazing as horror or black comedy. But no. We’re supposed to feel anything for Evan other than him needing a real good punch in the pants
My thoughts exactly! I really love the soundtrack but I hate the show. It do be that way for Pasek and Paul musicals tbh - I like The Greatest Showman but the story sucks.
@@Lucifersfursona here’s the thing. He’s never painted in the light of being a good guy. Most fans of the show know that he was the villain, and that mental health doesn’t excuse what he did. I personally love the story, but then again I am not a person with mental health issues, so I have no right to speak on it. Idk I can see why you wouldn’t like it but I love it for some reason.
@@thetrashinyourbasement7898 I agree. As someone who has grown up with anxiety and depression, I always appreciated that things were never black and white. You had room to relate to Evan, and see that he made a lot of poor decisions (selfishly hurting a lot of ppl in the process). He convinced himself he wanted to make everyone happy, but he rlly was just using them to fill the void in his own life. I like that Evan isn't just the poor victim that needs to be saved like he would be in any other story. He's a real character with agency in the musical and that's rlly nice. I'm glad the show doesn't end in some stand off in the roof where someone has to stop him from ending it like in every other story. That's what makes it special. ++ I think the actual themes of the original musical were more about recognizing what you have instead of fixating on what you lack. Like my depressed brain is always trying to convince me that I'm a burden and everyone only sticks around bc they feel bad. It can be hard to recognize that there are ppl that love you, but everyone does have at least one person who loves you. Letting ppl in and accepting that they won't always say/do the right things was part of finding some sense of peace. I think the movie cut a lot of the songs that showed this which was a travesty. That's why 'does anybody have a map', 'good for you', and 'so big, so small' are my fav songs in the musical.
@@thetrashinyourbasement7898 I totally get that but I feel like it's never written and advertised as Evan being a villain that we learn from. It lacks the purposefulness of showing the fall out of Evan's actions. There are other movies like World's Greatest Dad that write the nuance better
Ben platt has major
"How old are you?🤔😨"
"Seventeen...😐😰"
"How long have you been seventeen...?😨😳"
"A while...😔✌🏻"
Vibes
The emojis are sending me 😂😂
😭 pls
Lol
Let’s face it, anyone with anxiety disorder would be too scared to pull this crap
Such a good point.
Bro I would absolutely deny I was close to Connor 😂 I can not deal with the stress of such a huge lie to a grieving family nonetheless
Nah, some would.
That’s not *always* true though. Everyone would act differently. As someone with social anxiety, I think I would have lied to them. I know it’s not okay to do that, I know it would be a horrible thing to do, but I tend to be very impulsive when I’m nervous and make really REALLY bad choices that can end up hurting people, in order to make people not to hate me in that moment. I would have wanted to deny everything, but I’d be too scared in order to say the truth. I would obviously say no in the beginning, but if the family kept insisting (like the Murphys did) I don’t know if I would be able to let them down. I would just freeze, probably and out of panic I would say yes then. And yes, I know it’s WRONG and if I was calm I would never do that.
Other people with anxiety would just refuse everything, but I think it depends on the person. Either way, having anxiety wouldn’t mean automatically denying what Connor’s parents said.
@@Fatima-cg4ns true, but I do think a person with anxiety would have much difficulty than Evan to deal with the lie. That's a stressful situation, but I think that if a person with anxiety goes with the lie, it would be despite the situation being stressfull, they find it less stressful than telling the truth. However, it would still be a terrifying situation that would weight on the mental health. At least, that how it works for me when I lie (not to this extent, if that reassures you). I don't think I have anxiety disorder though.
as a young black girl who had a prominent Broadway phase in high school, i REALLY loved DEH, because i felt that i could relate to the anxieties he felt.. but the plot? GOOD LORD. it took me a while to see what was wrong with the protagonist we’re given. Evan Hansen is literally one of the worst people in the story, which makes me sad, because the mental health issue and relatability he had made me sympathize with him by the end of the soundtrack.
I think it's common as a high schooler to relate to really problematic main characters in musicals. I was a Phantom of the Opera fan. Still love the music but can't understand for the life of me why I related so much to the phantom ^_^;;
I love DEH a LOT, but I've never seen Evan as the good guy in it. He was always the bad guy
I had a very very heavy broadway phase elementary through middle school ,so when I found DEH I thought I was be into in like I was for Hamilton, Heathers,Chicago, Beetlejuice,Wicked,Etc but I just couldn't. Evan is such an unlikable character, he's so selfish and manipulative, not to mention ungrateful. While I could sympathize with him due to also having anxiety (Ironically I'm extroverted but have anxiety) his actions were so repulsive that I never fully got invested. Plus the actor looking so old made it feel worse,he didn't look like a teenager making really bad choices but a grown man making really bad choices
I remember hearing in the BookTube sphere of people raving about DEH and never knew what it was about but recently I did and holy shit how could people not see it?!?
A phrase that resonated with me was in Jenny Nicholson's review she said it gained acclaim because it was "about mental illness " but yet had little to nothing to really say about it.
Lol the blank look on the family’s faces after he belts “RIGHT THEEEEEEEERE!”
I guess words really do fail
😂
😂😂😂
If they were gonna get a 30 year old man to Play a 17 year old, then they should've had the other teenagers be played by 30 year olds, so it's less distracting, like what they did in Grease or Carrie. But instead, you have this guy who's obviously a grown man towering over people in their late teens-early 20s who can ACTUALLY pass for High School students.
😭😭😭😭
The cast really are all in the same age range, they just fucked up Platt's makeup so badly he looks ridiculously older than everyone else
I think Ben Platt was only about 27 when the movie was filmed and the actress who plays his love interest is only about three years younger than him.
It’s literally so weird, I’m 17 and I cannot imagine someone my age looking like the 30y old actor does. Like, it’s clear he’s not a teenager. And I found the “movie” so weird because I seriously cannot see him as a student and I forgot he was supposed to be a student at one point which made the following things he did so much creepier.
Combining this and Jenny's video to make the ultimate Dear Evan Hansen diss track
Heck yes!! And Schaffrillas 😂 I haven’t even seen the movie or play but I love the videos
I had to edit this so many times cause I kept spelling his name wrong 😂
I’ve watched that video like 4 whole times, it’s Jenny’s funniest video to date 😭
Don't forget Sarah Z!
Yes post it my dude
@@rx500android yes!!!!
Even most 17 year olds know that lying about knowing a dead person after their suicide and manipulating their grieving parents, getting with their sibling under false pretenses, and lying to thousands of people about someones suicide is a frankly terrible thing to do. Alana sharing the suicide note (or what she believed to be one) is also awful.
I'm 28 now, but I was a pretty toxic person as a teen (undiagnosed BPD, unmedicated mood and delusional disorders and anxiety, autism and ADHD) but hell, even I wouldn't have done something like that.
Are you me in the future???
I love you are turthful about being toxic as a teenager. Well said. You have grown..
@@deadheadwannabe6874 I try! We're all works in progress, I hope to keep growing.
Yeah but if he looked like a teen we might have been a bit more sympathetic that he was a kid who got in over his head or understood that he liked Connors family. We would have understood him doing a bad thing
I think ALL 17 year olds know that’s an awful thing to do. And I think most 11 year olds know it too.
I don’t know why but the energy Ben Plat as Evan is serious uncanny valley, the close ups left me distraught 😩
His acting is more suited for a Broadway stage, where mannerisms and expressions have to be bigger since the audience is further away. This on top of him being a 30 year old man playing a high school student makes for quite the disturbing performance.
He looks...offputting.
It would’ve been better to have someone who didn’t do Broadway Evan be movie Evan
Kennie: "There's a spider in here"
Me: _Immediately looks around my room to see if it has a pen pal_
HAVSJXUSKNSNA a PEN PAL
It triggered my fight or flight response but you over here making me forget about it, a damn pen pal 🤣
A pen pal 🤣 I'm rollin
Ben Platt playing Evan in the movie honestly just drowns in pathetic. It sends a message to audiences that Ben sees DEH as his only worthy achievement despite how much he’s done since then and it’s sad to see him cling so hard to that character that he ultimately hinders what he loved so much. Between that, the nepotism, and cutting songs that lended perspectives to other characters just made this movie feel so centered around Ben.
@Lalogue I believe him when he said that the movie would not have been made if Ben wasn't Evan. Which is a shame. This role should've gone to someone else.
I dont think he clung onto the character at all tbh, especially when he had to go to therapy because of the character
Mental health issues is no excuse to be a trash person. I don’t understand how him looking up at the trees helped ANYTHING. No new meds, no new coping skills, no changes in behavior. He just realized he needed to be more positive and not a lying trashy person? I guess that cures depression? Look people with depression know they need to look at the bright side of things and put things into Preceptive and be happy. But we can’t. It’s a hard process to get out of the sinking hole that is depression. A couple conversations with your mom and a few friends isn’t going to help your depression or anxiety.
💯
In the musical he mentions he stops taking his anxiety medication once he’s fully focused on the Conner Project, and yells at his mom when she encourages him not to do that. This never comes up again, so one can assume he just stopped taking his medication with no consequences. The musical was already giving pretty awful mental health messages.
It sounds to me like DEH was written by people who did a five-minute Google search about social anxiety disorders once before they started writing and just went with what they read on Wikipedia.
@@idknamesarehard7119 I've known people who go off their meds cold turkey. It's not a pretty. There's a reason why people are gradually weaned.
Mental illness can make you a worse person because when you're so exhausted and in such distress you lash out at people. It's not okay, ofc, but we can't expect people struggling with mental illness to be super nice to everyone all the time. Not talking about Evan though, that mf definetly went too far.
It's definetly better on stage - especially as they cut out some songs that were key to the plot. Look up "Good for You" where Evan's mom, Alana and his family friend (I can't remember his name lol) call him out for how he acts. The musical actually opens with a song sung by Evan's mom and Connor's mom where they ask if "anyone has a map" because they're struggling being mother's to their sons who are struggling and they don't know what to do. There is even a song where Evan laments his dad not being around and he gets a really sweet moment with Connor's dad. The film is awful and I feel the direction takes away so much of the emotion of the songs by putting so much action in them rather than just showing us these characters sing and belt their hearts out. They also said they changed it so Evan had more repurcusions but I don't feel that way. iirc in the stage show he doesn't get to rekindle things with Zoe again she bacially tells him that it can't happen because of what he did.
It would have been so much better if they just did a proshot of the actual stage show but nooooooo Ben Platt's rich dad wanted a movie.
I was wondering why "Good for you" didn't come up. They really cut it out of the movie? It's the best song in the whole musical
Thank you!! The fact that they cut this and/or didn't even try to include Bedroom Down The hall to ground and develop the parents and by proxy, the main guys show how little they cared
Jared
@@pumpkinpatch2203 literally the only song I know from the musical. Glad I didn’t watch the movie.
@@pumpkinpatch2203 Sadly yes. The other songs I can kind of understand (still don't like it) but Good For You?!!? It's so good and powerful and really integral to the plot.
The musical isn't necessarily better but as you mentioned, it handles Evan and his misdeeds better. For me, the musical makes more of a point that he's doing the creepy things he's doing because he CAN, not because he HAD to. Him making more emails, going out with Zoey, playing house with the Murphys, being apart of the Conner Project is called out more which highlights the part of his agency that the movie erases. The musical makes him more of a questionable narrator and a "protagonist?" and doesnt necessarily push you to see him as a straight up helpless protagonist or even a morally grey one. Is the musical less of an unbelievable, creepy shit show? No but its framing and medium invites you to suspend disbelief in a way that movies just cant
Huge mood
It also highlights his mom more (WHO ALSO WON A TONY FOR THIS MUSICAL) and paints a better reason as to why he would want to keep the lie up
Thank you that was a really well worded synapsis of the musical and I'm very appreciative for u giving us some context to compare the movie too
@@DavidMiller-cu2xq totally agree! They cut her character down to almost nothing and removed a necessary chunk of the visual repercussions for Evan's actions by removing Anybody Have a Map and Good For You. A complete travesty had that me on the fence for this movie since the beginning!
No he’s definitely a protagonist just a messed up one
I like when Kennie sings. Funny how she dislikes musicals but her videos are basically musicals 😂
Evan looks like a slightly melted wax figure
Lmao he did look greasy af . I second your opinion 😂
💀💀💀👌
Lmao
WHY IS THIS SO ACCURATE 💀 it’s like the makeup artists’ idea of a young teen face is just a smooth, one color complexion. his face looks like it’s sculpted out of a one color clay and not in a good way
I went into this movie already knowing that the 30yr old dude playing a teenage- who also, at times, feels like he's mocking kids with autism with his portrayal of anxiety and depression- is the main character from the musical production, and that he threw a massive fit to play this role in the movie version, saying things like "I AM Evan Hansen, you can't just give my role to somebody else" and repeatedly referencing the awards that the musical won due to his portrayal of the titular character. Because of that knowledge, along with the high standards that I have for musicals-turned-movies, I couldn't find any sympathy for his character. All I could see was a pouty, moody adult feeling sorry for himself, playing victim, and throwing pity parties every 2 minutes. This is a TERRIBLE movie.
When did he say that? All I’ve heard him say is that the truth of the matter was the movie wouldn’t get made unless him, the dude who workshopped the character for months and won a bunch of Tony’s, was attached to it. I feel like people are being shitty to Ben Platt because he made a bad movie. Why? Also, I don’t think 27 is thirty, YES he looked like shit in the movie but he was 27 at the time, not thirty. Just feels like people being mean and making things up and I’m kind of confused why. I don’t think there’s a record of him “throwing massive fits,” but correct me if I’m wrong.
@@thelseaharmon9571 not sure about the massive fits part but the problem about how he looked isn’t that he’s 27, it’s that somehow the lighting, haircut, and acting made him appear wayyy older than he actually is. (Especially in comparison to the other younger looking actors) And that can’t really be excused even if you know his actual age, because my brain was still telling me “hey this guys just looks too old for this” even though I know Ben Platt is a normal adult age.
I think most people just default to 30, especially if they don’t know Ben Platt, because it’s an even number and movie Evan definitely doesn’t look like he’s fresh into being 20 yrs old. Of course that’s not a reason to insult his physical features or call him old bc he isn’t, but there are legit reasons why him as Evan just…didn’t work this time around. From an acting standpoint it was just kinda bad, which is so weird to me bc he looked perfectly fine and like a “teen” in the Politician, like he looked like he was going to college like his character. I’m really not sure how they got this movie wrong.
@@kaykeunil Yeah, you’re not wrong, like I said, he DID look like shit and it WAS a lot in part of the lighting and makeup, and for the love of his that terrible hair, but that’s not my point. My point is why are people being AWFUL to the actor and making up things like he threw a bunch of “fits” to be in the movie and cried to his daddy and was like some huge asshole when there’s not proof of that? My issue isn’t that the movie didn’t work, it didn’t, for MANY reasons, my issue is people bullying this poor fucking old looking 27 year old and making things up about his personality to fit their narrative. He seems like a pleasant and talented man, people can criticize the movie but they don’t have to tear the man to shreds, he’s a human being whose only crime is looking old and making a bad movie.
@@thelseaharmon9571 They didn't hire him because he was with the show at its beginnings. It was because his daddy had money and paid for the movie. We've since long moved on from Ben's portrayal. Other actors (including his own boyfriend) have played the role and been praised for it. We have had young Evans, teenagers have played him so they could have easily found someone. His rant was incredibly disrespectful towards them. He even doubled down on it a few times. It's easy to google it. He acted like an absolute prick before the movie was released. That's why people hate him. He acted like a spoiled brat instead of the adult with an established (&liked) career he is.
It's not just that the movie is bad or that his performance sucked. It was his attitude prior to the release. Had he shut it, people would have laughed at the movie, not him. It would be forgotten and just be "that one time Platt did a sucky movie" at most and overshadowed by what he accomplished. Now that he has showed he was a prick, people aren't so kind as to overlook that the movie was made for his career, and his career alone, and paid for by Daddy Platt and it sucked bad. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes and all that jazz
@@ondiiina Okay, if he did that’s what I’m asking, can you send me the name of any video showing him going on some asshole rant or throwing fits? All I see is people calling his dad “daddy” in a derogatory way and saying he threw fits. I have seen him defend the movie and explain why he was cast; again, the guy who helped create the character and won a thousand Tony’s, but I haven’t seen him show himself to be some irredeemable asshole to deserve the literal bullying you and so many others are participating in. It seems like he did a great job in a well-acclaimed musical, his dad is in the movie industry and wanted to turn it into a film, and cast the guy who played the original part and won all the awards, his son. Nepotism? Maybe, but you can’t say Ben didn’t deserve the role with his massive amount of talent and love for it. Glee had 34 year olds playing 17 year olds, Grease had 35 year olds playing 16 year olds. I don’t think they thought his age was going to be the huge deal it turned into. Anyway, please send me the video or like you said multiple videos of him freaking out and acting like an asshole, telling me to google it doesn’t help. What did you see specifically that made it okay to be so MEAN to some random actor? I truly need to know what he did so wrong.
In the book evans slowly starts to lose his mind because of the lie. I don’t think the musical was ever supposed to be a commentary on mental health if not more so about an unreliable narrator who’s kinda the antagonist of the story. I hate that the movie made Evan this passive character who’s a symbol for mental health. Boy goes crazy in the book.
This! It isn't about mental health. They went that angle because that's what people took away from the story. Evan happens to have bad anxiety. It's important to understand how the lie www formed, yes, but it isn't what the sorry is about. If it were then Connor would get more focus along with Zoe's issues. The story is more about grief and how it all became a whole mess and an impossible situation. It's at most a commentary about people being fake after a suicide and how the family handles what happened. I don't think there's a big message in the show. We're being shown a shitty situation and how everyone is reacting. It's easy to see as we mostly see Evan's interactions with the Murphys in the soundtrack. When every big moment is about something else, how can you say that the musical is about mental health? The only times mental health is addressed it's because Evan has anxiety and that affects every aspect of his life or because he's having a full breakdown because of the lie (which the book rightly adds on to show explicitly that Evan would have ended it right after. Screw the movie for making it the moment when he takes responsability. It's BS. He was in no place to do so and it makes him look a lot worse. Not going to develop more on it as it's already long but ffs it makes him seen like he doesn't feel that guilty, that the situation hasn't affected him that much and that his anxiety isn't that crippling especially after everything). I can't for the life of me remember who made those posts, but I remember a great Tumblr account that explicated it so much more eloquently and with deeper knowledge and examples.
Also, in the musical Evan also sort of become reckless because of the lie. He starts genuily buying into the lie and becomes dependent on it (not taking his meds and using it to cope, his conscience actively looking like Connor and him seemingly believe that's how the guy was, the beginning of "Disappear" being already concerning with a fake Connor convincing him to go along with the lie and the project). It isn't as explored as his descent in the book because of the difference of medium (and the book is first-person so we get his immediate thoughts) but the fact that the lie is getting to him and hurting him is there. Ffs his conscience yelling at him to say how he broke his arm shows and stop the lie shows how bad he gets!
I also don't like musicals for the most part and probably will never watch this. I do find this new wave of using anxiety as the only sympathic trait of an otherwise unlikeable character concerning. Building a character who has anxiety is important, but excusing really bad behaviour and manipulation because someone is anxious and otherwise has no other redeemable qualities.. hmmm i think we need to revisit that plot line before it turns into the new "every murderer has DID" problem.
I could not agree more
Agreed! I have an anxiety disorder and I absolutely hate the fact that people are using anxiety or any other mental health disorder as an excuse for why a character is horrible.
Exactly this. I'm noticing a new trend of redeeming characters through their mental illness or making them "relatable" and it just doesn't work. Beyond concerning.
@@dreamyanon5151 yeah, there’s a super fine line between understanding why mental illness can cause people to do horrible things and also understanding that they are still responsible for those things and cannot be excused, which most stories seem to absolutely get wrong in both ends.
Agreed
Aside from the horrible execution, I feel that there’s a whole lot of nepotism going on. It’s like Marc Platt really wanted the Oscar. I’m pretty sure the producers wanted his dream girl moment for his son Ben Platt….. the actor that played Evan Hansen! 😂😂😂😂
oh... that actually explains a lot
don't get me wrong, Ben was great on stage but his presence in the movie was DEFINETELY a result of nepotism. Hell, this whole unnecessary adaptation was a result of nepotism
Hollywood is built on nepotism. Look into the Coppola family tree. A lot of famous ppl shake out. Nick Cage and Jonah Hill, be just a few.
@@iciajay6891 Cool but the problem here is that the casting choices wouldn't have been made if the lead actor weren't the producer's son and the movie wouldn't have been made if the producer wasn't related to the lead actor. The problem here is the nepotism circle-jerk creating something that would never have existed without the nepotism. Do you understand the difference
Wait…..😟
I couldn’t quite place what bothered me about “you will be found” but when you said that- you put words to these feelings. You cant tell me I will simply be not depressed. I have friends, a partner I adore, and I have crying jacks, and suicidal thoughts almost every day. People describe Major Depressive Disorder as feeling like the first stage of grief and they aren’t fucking joking. Some days are better than others but it is never cured.
Yeah I agree, had a whole confrontation about with a distant family member that “you can’t just stop being depressed”. It’s a serious thing and coming from a person who does have general anxiety/stress problems (it sadly runs in my family). It really sucks that we rarely get any good representation for people with different mental illnesses. There’s like 2 in a 10th chance that it would be a good movie about that sort of topic
if you want a good show about how difficult grief and clinical depression is but how it's still worth moving forward, try Next To Normal
The finale had the line - by the woman suffering the most explicit depression - that keeps me from overdosing as much as I could: "And you find some way to survive. And you find out you don't have to be happy at all, to be happy you're alive."
and this is a show that has an act 1 song about all the fear and pain that suicidal thought can include. it's so potent and has kept me moving so long
This was me, I had everything anyone would ever need. I was still deadly suicidal though.
Psychiatry fucking saved me. My antidepressant, my beloved
actually it is cured but it can come back
This is why I like the songs so much better without the context- because I, listening to that song with zero context, thought it was about LGBT kids who were kicked out of their families creating their own found families.
Ben Platt is a great actor and singer, but he shouldn't have played the role in this movie. It felt like he was acting on the stage instead of in a movie. And he was the only one like that. It was weird, lol
The first problem was who they casted for the main role. “Yes, production team. Let’s cast the 28 year old for a 17 year old. He won’t look creepy at all.”
It’s like they saw a Lele Pons sketch and thought to themselves “these 25-30 year olds look exactly like middle schoolers. Great idea!”
There's people who certainly don't look their age so they can play younger people but Ben Platt is the opposite, I thought he was in his 30's
This is what happens when your dad is the producer. And also produced the original play.
Yay nepotism.
@@blurryeyes316 i thought he was in his forties when i saw the clips 😰😰
@@toastshine same
@@wtfaiwpodcast I mean he was perfect in the stage show, but he was 22 when the show opened and didn't have a tonne of filler in his face.
The de-aging makeup they gave Ben Platt makes him look like a burn victim who got facial reconstructive surgery but it didn't heal right.
There's so many talented ACTUAL 17 year olds....why do they keep doing this?
@@shantaybearcakes7069 because 17 year olds can't work as long
he look like sims 4
@@shantaybearcakes7069 There are some things 17 year olds can't do. There are scenes where Jared says he broke his arm jerking off to Zoey's pictures and I don't know how well that would work with teenagers as actors.
Oh my god 😂😂😂
26:59 and the family’s response makes this movie look like a comedy. I was in tears. That’s all I need to see from DEH. Nothing could ever top that
imagine the disappointment I had when I realised that the same director (stephen chbosky) was the one who directed Perks of Being a Wallflower (and wrote the book too)
Same! Stephen Chbosky is one of my favorite writers of all time and I have no idea why he keeps attaching himself to musicals!!!! It never goes well!!!
NOOO!!!! 😔😓
This is actually super sad to hear. Both the film and the book helped me out in high school and this is just...awful. Hopefully he gets some silver lining out of people absolutely dragging Ben Plat for demanding to be Evan when he's clearly a grown ass man
@@caithenry8429 same here, I read the book and watched the film a lot in high school, it helped me through a lot
Well damn! That's incredibly disappointing. The Perks of Being a Wallflower was a great book and the movie was pretty good.
this is the musical for people who unironically say "i'm a mentally ill minor??" when they get confronted about doing something nasty
I read somewhere that the only inherent softening point for Evan Hansen's character was the fact that he was still so young. The production team might have actually succeded in transitioning the play into a movie had they leaned more on the inherent innocence and naivety of the character, who, yes, does A LOT of fucked up shit but you can have hope for him in knowing he's still just a teenager suffering from a lot of anxiety, but they squandered every possibility to let that part of the character connect with the audience like that by casting a 38yo and pretty much shot themselves in the foot.
Yeah. What makes it forgivable from an audience standpoint is that Evan is still a child and he doesn’t really understand why what he’s doing is selfish. So if you’re going to make a movie, you either need to hire teenagers or make your adult actors look like teenagers (like, actual teenagers, not CW teens)
@@nervousbreakdown711 This
@@nervousbreakdown711 I so severely disagree, the plot would've sucked either way and banking on "he's young so it's not his fault" is an inherent flaw with the stage production. Furthermore while it's obvious Platt (*age 28, not 38) was a terrible choice for the movie, hiring actual teenagers doesn't fix that problem and comes with the child labor laws that adult actors don't worry about plus the lack of experience that younger actors usually have--not that the actors here managed to carry their characters anyway. But the idea that "just cast actual kids for kids!" fixes the uncanny effect is false, not even mentioning how terrible the entertainment industry treats kids.
Ben (the Evan Actor) is 28, not 38. Doesn’t change the fact that he looks old
@@cam4636 a better solution would just be to cast younger looking adults, unless it’s like, somehow impossible to not cast a teen, and even then it’s eh. not sure if it would fix the whole problem ofc, but off the top of my head I guess I can think of Jordan Fisher, who’s surprisingly convincing as a “teen,” due to his general look, his acting, and some very good makeup effects.
I knew it was going to be bad when I saw that grown man cosplaying as a child when everyone looked like the age there supposed to be, and when I realized that he only got the role because his dad funded it.
Yeah, Ben Platt was the original(?) Evan on Broadway, and apparently he was throwing a fit about anyone else playing Evan, so I guess his dad just went ahead and got it for him.
@@poppycartergraphics120 yea that true but I felt like even on broadway he looked a lot older.. and his dad really had a fit oh oh wow.
@@poppycartergraphics120 Didn't his current boyfriend play Evan Hansen at one point?
fun fact : I saw people defending the casting before the movie was released, saying he doesn't look that old and that we should only care about how talented he is anyway. Now that the movie is released, nobody says that any more, or they are hiding very well so I can't hear them.
my first and only interaction with Dear Evan Hansen was Ben Platt doing a medley with Lin Manuel Miranda during my Hamilton phase and honestly that should’ve been warning enough.
The Broadway Cast Recording is truly phenomenal. You just gotta ignore the plot…
@@kenniesaurus27 Literally. I love sincerely me and requiem but can't stand the plot
@@kenniesaurus27 when you read canon-divergent or fix-it fics to cope with the plot 💀💀
jenny nicholson's exhaustively thorough video essay on this was so insanely funny, much more entertaining than the adaptation itself-- but nothing related to this is funnier than the conviction with which Julianne Moore's character sings the word "truck." i'm never going to get over it. *trrrrrUCK*
I really loved the musical because I could relate to the desperate loneliness he felt from his social anxiety. But now, I had this epiphany that Evan had SUCH an unrealistic response to the situation. At least, from my experience with mental health. If Connor´s parents had come to me, my anxiety and avoidance would have put a stop to it then and there. There´s no way I would force myself to live this elaborate lie IN THE SPOTLIGHT to be with MORE PEOPLE who (again) make me anxious. I think this points to the fact that Evan is actually just a crappy person, who ended up being an anxious outcast BECAUSE he was crappy, but wasn't self-aware enough to know it.
Exactly! I have an anxiety disorder and there's no way I would be able to intentionally put myself into a situation where my anxiety would be triggered even more by having to lie, be put in the spotlight (which all of us anxiety sufferers hate with the fire of a thousand burning suns), and interact with more people. No one with any kind of an anxiety disorder would do any of that in real life. People need to stop writing books/movies/tv-shows/musicals that focus on the subject of mental health unless they're willing to bring in many mental health experts to make sure they do it right. Because when they don't? They further the stigma around mental health, reinforce it being taboo and make life even more difficult for those of us who do have mental health disorders.
Thank you! For some reason I never see people bring up this issue when talking about Dear Evan Hansen. The portrayal of mental health is so incredibly unrealistic and honestly a little insulting. Very few people would ever do what Evan did, but I guess it's believable because he has social anxiety and depression??
Ok true bc while i don't have an anxiety disorder i do have anxiety tendencies and it makes me unable to lie. Like lying makes me even more anxious so i totally understand your point. Also the last part is so true, I've only seen dear evan hansen from this video alone, but sometimes when you see someone being an outcast, you can tell that there's a reason for it, and evan most likely has a reason. Anxiety and depression aside, if you're not a good person of course nobody would like you....
I really want to say that, but i worry that I'm being insensitive for people who are actually bullied/gets left out for no reason. However I've known some people who complained that they have no friends and nobody loves them, and then showed the exact behavior that got them no friends in the first place. I never had the heart to tell them, but i feel like some people should be more self aware
As someone with Bipolar Disorder-D and GAD, this film is maddening. For so many reasons. One major reason is they don’t deal with mental illness as something that is lifelong. Not something you can sing away and “looking up to the sky.”
I'm sorry for your mental illness, remember that you are wonderful
Jesus loves you and so do I
I hope you are feeling good♥️
Saying that the songs don't feel tethered to the movie is spot-on. The film as a whole was emotionally exhausting, but there was a moment probably about mid-way through where I genuinely forgot I was watching a musical. Like what the hell is that about?! xD
22:07 WOW. You touched on something I don't think anybody has mentioned in analyzing this yet, the really weird implications of Connor's violent behavior towards his sister vs his supposed private expressions of romantic love for her 😐. Yeah, that's some sickness.
E: why did they give him purple lips??
Ben platt clearly not being in high school ruins this whole thing. Casting a talented 16 year old for the role instead would have been much better.....plus also acknowledging how AWFUL Evan is
"This could've been a really good slasher horror" great point there. There's at least one with a similar premise called 'The Guest'. After a young solider dies at war, his 'best friend' comes to live with his family based on a promise he claims he made to the dead son and starts getting closer to them. Not too far from DEH.
Everything I've heard about this movie is exactly that - horrifying.
just a thought. I've never seen people talk about toxicity in k-dramas. Most k-dramas would make movies like 'after' an example of a healthy relationship. Can you discuss some k-dramas?
I have recommendations
This kdrama channel talked about it, a whole video if you want
Kennie has done some videos about Asian dramas in the past but it would be nice of her to review more. I guess recommend some to her and hopefully she'll see it.
@@mutsawashemaregedze4394 which channel do you recommend?
There was a KDrama I watched where a student and a teacher had a weird attachment to each other to the point where both of them avoided Relationships with people their own age. While nothing really happened between the two it weirded me out how the show tried to make it seem like such a cute thing that this girl was friends with a teacher who essentially had a crush on her. It’s on Viki. I believe it’s called “I am Sam” in Korean the titles more like “I am your teacher”
There is a video I saw a while back about how toxic they are.
PVO of someone that knew nothing of the musical or film before Kennie's video.
Okay but....wouldn't a good size of the students know Connor and Evan were not friends? Usually if you're best buds ppl at school notice...teachers notice...staff notice. When there is a death at schools ppl talk and come together to share their relationship with the deceased. Ppl do go so far as to lie and say "Oh so'n so and I were bestfriends in elementary yada yada" when they were not, but at the same time there are ppl that know they are lying. If something like this plot were to happen in real life, it would not fly and if it did, not for long. PPL WOULD KNOW Evan wasn't shit to Connor.
This along with the email exchanges leads me to believe this was written by a 50-60 yr old in 2003.
I also so agree that this would make a good horror movie. The lighting, shout singing, and the way Evan's neck veins pop out just goes with a horror musical theme. I mean a plot of killing ppl that were spreading the truth would have a good angle, predictable, but would suit the movie better. I would love for Editing is Everthing do make a horror trailer for this movie.
It probably doesn't really make it better butbif I recall correctly, Evan said they were friends "in secret" and didn't interact in school, only outside of it (which is why there's the remark about "people are gonna think you were lovers" because why else would you keep it secret...) and why he needed the fake emails as proof
I also hadn’t seen the film or the play, but I remember seeing the trailer and thinking “this looks…rough.” I had heard the play dealt with mental health issues and just from the trailer, I was uncomfortable and had zero confidence in how said issues were being portrayed.
It does kinda give horror, though. A lot of the color palettes they used are pretty dark, moody, muted. I’m sure they were going for something to reflect the themes of depression/anxiety, but just change the music and it could easily get more sinister.
i stand by that this movie is best seen as Evan is an alien from outer space who was struggling to maintain his human suit and human voice while singing the whole film.
Trust me, high school theatre kids with taste hated this musical too. I had a vocational class on stage lighting and sound, and my classmates INSISTED on using the theater sound system to blast Waving Through a Window EVERY. DAY. because the class was every day. I don't know if I'll ever know hatred for a piece of media like that again
ya know... you'd think after the success of having Hamilton on Disney+, we would get a lot more filming of broadway shows instead of film adaptations......
I feel like the only thing this movie did well was 'fix' Alana as a character. I felt the stage version made her extremely unlikeable and her motives were questionable at best. The new song she's given in the movie really changed my opinion of her. However, it makes me wish they had included Good For You even more because it would have been a much more satisfying payoff.
I am disgusted by this movie and I personally think if it was a success, it would've done more damage to teenage mental health than 13 reasons why.
The cut to the parents during his confession song just got me to laugh hysterically out loud, cause it’s disturbing, but it’s just such a sudden cut to their blank faces
kennie saying she doesn't like musicals kinda makes me want a reaction to "the guy who didn't like musicals" by starkid...
I loved that musical! It was really fun to watch!
i don't know if you've heard or seen the original musical, but there is a very important and glaring hole in the movie that ruined the entire damn thing for me. The removal of songs just kinda comes with the territory in musical films, DEH is no different, but it's WHAT they cut out. "anybody have a map" was supposed to be the opening number, told from the perspective of the moms and their shared heartbreak at not knowing how to help their troubled sons. this is the one and only time we see what connor was like with his family. but honestly i could forgive it, and i even forgave the removal of "to break in a glove" even though it's, AGAIN, the only time we really see how connor's death affected Mr. Murphy. it gives insight into their relationship and how he had done what he thought he had to for his son. but okay, again, forgivable.
YA WANNA KNOW WHAT'S UNFORGIVABLE THOUGH? Removing "good for you". ooooooh man this pisses me off so hard. evan gets off a little lightly in the show, but it's clear he IS working on himself and trying to be better. but the movie can't say evan got his just desserts and then just have a few shots of him being frowned at in school. "Good for you" is the confrontation Heidi, Alana, and Jared have with evan where they just let him HAVE it for what he's done. someone FINALLY called him on his shit and didn't sugarcoat it. like, this is a direct quote:
"So you say what you have to say/so that you get to walk away
it would kill ya to stay trapped when you've got something new
Well I'm sorry you had it rough, and i'm sorry i'm not enough
thank god they rescued you"
THAT'S HIS MOM. a mom who evan has CONSISTENTLY taken for granted and lied to and been ungrateful for. it's a slap in the face with reality for evan and the catalyst for him coming clean in the very next song "Words Fail". removing this one song ruins the entire movie because now, all the tension of the lie and evan's spiral into sociopathy doesn't get released. we know what he's doing is gross and terrible, HE knows it's gross and terrible, but they removed the damn payoff from one and a half hours of wonder how and when this godawful lie was gonna explode.
good for you is the best song in DEH, both musically and story-wise. I still can't believe they cut that out
I really appreciate how respectful you were even when criticizing the obviously very messed up parts of this movie. Because at the end of the day, it still has to do with some serious topics that deserve to be talked about with care. ( they were still handled quite poorly in the film tbh).
+
Unpopular opinion: I think the plot of the stage play is just as bad as this movie. I watched the play, but not the movie and all of Kennie's critiques can apply to the play too. I love the soundtrack though lol
I personally love this movie because it’s pointed out all the flaws the original play has that I’ve been trying to convince people on for years.
I've seen people mention they didn't like the plot when DEH first came out, but they got MASSIVE clapback from fans of the show.
20 somethings (and even older) successfully play teenagers quite often. Most recently, the entire main cast of Fear Street. The girl who plays Deena is around the same age as Ben if I'm not mistaken. So, his age isn't the problem. It's the fact that he looks his age or even older. That was their first mistake. Casting a man in his late 20s who looks like he's in his early 30s to play a damn teenager. In this day and age, how they thought that would fly is beyond me. Dude legit looks scary haha. That combined with what he did in the movie, with little to no consequences, means they should have gone left and made this a thriller or something. So, basically, they shouldn't have made this movie haha.
Kennie should release a full version of that "he's just a dude "song😙
I second this
I third this
I want a collab with Danny Gonzalez. Then the challenge for the music video would be trying to make Danny look older than 14.
This is what I've been saying, Hollywood casts adult actors for their teenage characters, but the women do look and act like teenagers *while* the male actors straight up like mid 30s and their characters don't act like teens, so the disparity becomes even more obvious.
I went to the movie theaters not knowing that this movie was a musical......I sat there with my two friends we were the only people in the room and I was completely blown tf out😭
I used to be a huge fan of the musical when it first came out until I started to try to get my friends into it and realized how bad (generally/morally/ethically) the idea of the plot was when I would explain it to them. It also pisses me off that the narrative of the person who actually committed suicide is completely erased and used as a plot device to further the main characters. It’s extremely disrespectful and doesn’t properly help to better mental health issues.
the strangest thing to me is how ben platt insisted that he had every right to play Evan because “he’s the reason the film is happening” that’s just some weird type of entitlement and ego but the film is trash anyway so I guess they spared the damaged to a young actors career 🤷♀️
In general, I feel this story is HEAVILY dependent on how much the viewer relates to Evan and his internal conflicts. If you don’t deeply relate to and see yourself in Evan, you’re not going to forgive his actions
But if we’re to relate the premise back to real world situations, it bears a surprising similarity to the movie The Woman Who Wasn’t There. A documentary about a woman who lied about being a 9/11 survivor and became the president of the survivors’ support group.
dear evan hanson should’ve been a dark comedy and i stand by that
Kennie: I hate musicals
Also Kennie: Sweeney Todd is one of my favorite movies
That's the power of Sondheim I guess lol
If you check out Sideways' videos on Musicals, he says musicals only work if the songs are used to convey deep emotion by the character that spoken word cannot express, however this doesn't work if songs simply replicate what the character has already said which as you point out is what DEH ends up doing.
dear evan hansen: the movie that made evan hansen (ben platt’s) face explode
HE DOESNT LOOK THAF OLD BUT THE LIGHTING- AJDHSKDBDJSB (last time i saw)
@Alex W. This man is younger than me, and he looks much older than me. Outside of the movie, he doesn't look that old. But whatever they did to make him look "younger" backfired tremendously.
@@khalilgiovanni yeah i was talking outside of the movie ajshwjsj
"Roosevelt says the boys are coming home soon" IM IN TEARS
20:25 is the bit 😭
This sounds so Sierra Burgess-adjacent, how did we do this twice 😭😭
I can’t help but to compare this movie to In The Heights. Personally it seems that In The Height did the things that Dear Evans Hansen was supposed to do. For example, the AGES. Theres a reason why Lin Manuel didnt play Usnavi in the movie, cause he was too damn old for the part.
I’m actually happy this movie came out. As a band kid who hung out with lot of theater kids, I liked the few songs I heard but then actually learned the plot and absolutely hated it. This movie just puts a magnifying glass on all the flaws that were already there.
I couldn’t finish the audiobook, it was so painful to read. I got excited about the movie before remembering that. 😂 Thanks for taking one for the team.
He told the depression: "This cannot continue".
This is why musicals that were created for the stage don’t always translate well to film. Some have done it really well, but this one did not.
YES was waiting for thisss perfect way to end the day after rushing to submit work before deadline 😭😭 thank you kennie for being awesome ❤❤
A WMMAP fan? Noice profile pic sisssssss, lmao Felix is a sweetheart
@@mangoxbucky1016 omg yesss sis. felix and diana are my faves 🥺❤
@@taeri093 I get itttttt!!! They are sweethearts, I heard it’s ending soon and I can’t wait to see how it goessss! Gosh I’m so excited, I haven’t read it in a few months so that I can binge read it all at once! 😆😆😆
This “movie” could have made a really good Black Comedy…
"It isss" if you have seen the Broadway versions of DEH it is actually a dark comedy drama and they changed the theme in the movie into only a drama.
Kennie JD: breaking into songs takes me out of a movie
Kennie JD: *breaks into flawless vocals*
Looking forward to He's Just a Dude being released on Spotify. Thank you, Queen 💕😌✨
I’ve only listened to the soundtrack never seen the musical, but I can’t bring myself to finish listening because of the thought of Evan confessing his lies makes my body physically cringe.
same! I've only managed listened to the soundtrack halfway through
This might seem cruel, but thanks for putting yourself though this.
You're hilarious.
I wanted to hear more people talk about this movie so seeing you, who I'm already subbed to talk about it is sick
I remember listening to the soundtrack and liking it enough that I still listen to some of the songs, but when I knew I wouldn't want to actually watch it after reading a plot summary. There is something in the earlier songs that touch on what social anxiety is like (I say as someone with social anxiety) but I was put off by the "white boy lies to girl he likes and they date" part. The song "Good for You" was probably my favorite, and I don't think it's even in the movie? Still not planning to watch movie or musical, but I liked Jenny's video and I liked yours too.
I can appreciate that every Saturday before more lunch break auntie Kennie blesses me😭🤣 she sacrifices her sanity for us and these movies🤣
IS IT WEIRD THAT I ACTUALLY _JUST_ WONDERED IF THE WALL WAS DIFFERENT BEFORE SHE ASKED?????? 🥺
Ooohhh can't wait to watch this after my shift! Like it's gonna be horrible but at least we're all suffering together 😔✌🏿
....... Well that was worse than I thought ☹️😕. I will also try to forget this movie 🏃🏿♀️
27:04 This scene is absolutely perfect. Imagine: “Evan Hansen, Dear” the twist thriller Lifetime movie musical
It’s essentially the same throughout, but in this scene, the 30 year old “high-schooler” is caught in his lies and has to face the family. Backed into a corner Evan whips out a gun, ready to shoot. The 42 year old (high school) senior belts out his confession in this aggressive, moving? final reprise, Evan’s mother bursts through the window with Jared and Alana. They reveal that Evan framed Conner’s death. As the group tries to diffuse the situation, Alana rushes him, making him shoot Jared in the process, killing him instantly. Alan wrestles the gun away, but for Lifetime movie reasons, she drops it and Evan gets it back. “You will NOT be found!” he screams out. As he readies to pull the trigger, Evan’s mom cracks a golf club over his head, knocking him unconscious. The police arrive as the credits begin rolling
I generally love musicals and had this one recommended to me and just...yeah, no. Whether on film or stage, I have 0 interest in watching a story that goes like this and people are telling me how relatable or cathartic it should be to me because I, too, have mental illnesses. -_- I agree that much of the plot is more akin to a psychological drama, maybe even thriller. Trying to spin this unsettling and reprehensible behavior as sympathetic and sentimental just feels gross to me. I'm sure the stage musical does handle it better than the movie,but I can't imagine I would feel anything different than intense discomfort and disgust, if not perhaps being triggered. To each their own, ofc,but I have always felt Dear Evan Hansen wouldn't be for me. :/ Sorry you had to sit through this one. >>
Every time I see Ben Platt as Evan, I can only think of that meme of the kid straining so hard there are blood vessels popping up on his forehead.
I remember thinking why the f*ck was this movie even made when I saw the commercials for it. it could've been actually good but the casting alone...Yikes! As an actual theatre grad, I refuse and will never. Thank you for losing the brain cells for us tho😬👌🏿😬💜
Kennie: I do not like musicals, generally speaking
Me, a home skillet biscuit: THE EXCEPTION IS SWEENEY TODD
The only real thought I had after this movie was “Ah yes, nepotism”
As a fan of the musical, i was so disappointed in thr horrifying amalgamation thst id this film
totally agree! i love the musical and how powerfully it made me feel during the songs and the complications within the plot (even though the whole plot is morally complicated i still appreciate it because it gives us a broad range of moralities within the characters), but the movie seems like ass and i've only seen reviews :/
@@accioenchiladas yeah I watched it, it seems to purely be for Ben platt and his own career.
That's one genre that I never was a fan of and that was the musical. Mostly because my mom used to watch those extremely long musicals like South Pacific, Oklahoma, The Sound of Music etc. Back in the day of VHS those musicals were so long they had two tapes. And they had 5-minute intermissions.
For me the only musical that I ever really cared for and actually know a lot of stuff about was Hamilton. Me and my friend love that play so much, but I can’t stand watching any other one. The constant singing really irks my nerves, but somehow the Hamilton play is always soft spot for me
Some of the more recent musicals, as well as a few of the classics, are decently good, but I would not exactly say Dear Evan Hansen is one of them
I literally watched Jenny Nicholson’s video like two days ago. Once again, Kennie’s videos are eerily well timed.
It doesn't help that the actor who plays Evan actually had to have his face worked on through CGI to look younger cause they KNEW he looked too old and when people saw the trailer, they complained. It literally had a CATS situation lmfao
I’ve avoided this movie since I saw the original production on Broadway (of course, looking back on it, it’s not that great of a musical because of the storyline and its really problematic elements- there are just better musicals like Great Comet and Come From Away which got *snubbed*, even though the songs are good), so thank you. From what I’ve heard and from what it seems like, it seems like they pulled a reverse Amadeus (a true film adaptation of a stage work that was executed really well). Amadeus, as it was a stage play originally, only had one focus point as it focused through the lens of Salieri and his pov in the original play. For the film, they pulled out multiple lenses- not just Salieri, but also of Mozart and his wife, which made it work so well as a film adaptation (it’s incredibly different from the stage version, but that’s what made it awesome). Unfortunately with DEH, one- like Cats, I think it’s just meant for the stage (including Ben Platt- he killed it onstage; they should have just used an equally talented actor/singer who looks 17, or maybe have had Ben Platt dub the singing voice or something) and two- it takes away the other viewpoints/lens of Evan’s mom, Connor’s mom, Alana, Connor (thank goodness Mike Faist just did the new West Side Story film and not this), and others, which sucks (and why to me, it’s basically a reverse Amadeus). I feel there are so many other musicals that could work/be adapted to film really well (A Man of No Importance is a fantastic example. It’s based off a 1994 film, and adapted into a musical, and the musical could potentially be worked into a film adaptation. It could probably get some good treatment and alterations, but granted I also just love that musical lol).
And yeah- it could have been been good as a regular film or just given the Hamilton/Come From Away treatment.
There’s my thoughts. Sorry, it’s long, I’m a theatre kid/adult.
Also- justice for Come From Away (I saw it four years later in London, and I absolutely love it and recommend it. The music, the story- based on a true story… ah, I love it. I’m a bit baffled that I preferred DEH at the time over it, but hey- I was a teen then).
Lmaooo I’m so glad you talked about how the main actor is playing a teen because when I saw the trailer I was like, “that is a grown man”🥴
Your rendition of "I'm a Survivor" was amazing! You could star in... a musical.