Review of Judy, directed by Rupert Goold

For those of you who stumbled upon this website through the mysterious magical powers of the Internet, welcome! My name is Ashley, and I started this website to keep track of and archive all of the kinds of movies, books, and television shows I’ve come across in the years.

I used to work as a professional film and television critic at an online outlet, but because I wasn’t focusing on the kinds of films I wanted to, I eventually left that job behind and went to work on my own thing That’s how I ended up focusing on this blog a bit more, then I temporarily entered an unemployed blip that was unexpected, so I had even more time to write about the movies I’ve seen while I was job hunting.

Because I had all of this time, I spent a good chunk of my days catching up on all of the movies and shows I wanted to watch so many years prior, but never had the opportunity to get to. When I say my Goodreads literally has 2,000 books on it, I’m not kidding. I just keep finding new content I want to get my hans on throughout the years.

I remember Judy from when it came out years ago, but never had the chance to actually watch the movie because I was so busy and had five million other movies to watch. But one lonely Tuesday morning I saw that it was available on Netflix and might even be leaving soon, so I decided to shoot my shot.

This review is going to come out much later than when I’m writing it due to the sheer amount of backlog I have to get through when it comes to posts, but I hope whoever is reading this in the future enjoys or gets some use out of it!

Enough rambling. Let’s get into the review.

The tragic story of Judy Garland and how Hollywood completely changed her life—for the worse.

The vast majority of the movie takes place in Judy Garland’s adult life, but there are several scenes that set the context for this film. They take place in the 1930s, when she is a teenager, and is actively being exploited by the studio system. She’s a massive star after being scouted for The Wizard of Oz, but the managers are controlling aspects of her life and force her to even take amphetamines and not sleep.

Now in her forties at the beginning of the movie, Judy is off traveling the world performing with her two kids. It seems she doesn’t have a lot of money, either, as she is turned away from her hotel with her kids due to a lack of payments on her end. They go to her third former husband, the father of the kids, for the night, but this isn’t the end of her troubles.

More time passes, and Judy has the chance to perform in England. Turns out the US doesn’t really want her performing in spaces anymore, as she’s not known for a good performance nor does she always do it when needed. She decides to go to England and sing for audiences there, which works well in the beginning, but then it all starts to crumble.

Mickey Deans, who she befriended in a club earlier in the movie, comes to visit her. She also goes home with two of her fans, and she has a great time. But turns out her joy is fleeting, as her old issues are appearing again and again. She’s going back to drugs and she’s struggling with her mental health.

Her agent takes her to the doctor, who says her voice is weakened due to a tracheotomy, and she’s exhausted. She needs to recover, and Judy goes and gets married with Mickey in the meantime. She also thinks about her children back home, who are thriving and happy, but Mickey also had bad news: he needs to stay in England because of some bad business decisions.

This in itself won’t end well, especially considering Judy has been struggling on stage and isn’t getting as good press anymore. She goes to her next performance and passes out on stage, after being harassed by audience members, and this turns out to be one of her last performances. Her contract is ended.

She goes on stage one last time to sing “Over the Rainbow,” but then stops, unable to continue. The audience members support her and get her to continue, and she does so. She asks them not to forget about her, then the film reveals that she died not too long after the performance at 47.

Overall Thoughts

I went into this movie already knowing Judy Garland’s story all too well, and Zellweger does a good job as Garland. She’s a tragic heroine who, if you know the history, isn’t going to live too long, and this is watching a great woman fall into decline. At the same time, none of this was really her fault.

The studio system and the people in charge did this to her, and she suffered for the rest of her life. I think the film does a decent job in conveying that, and how Hollywood back then managed to ruin people’s lives despite all the glitter and glamor.

I don’t personally find this to be a great biopic, but it is an important one. It lacks an oomph factor of being a good movie for me, although taste is subjective and someone else might think it has it. I kept watching because I liked the subjective, not because I was very invested in it as a movie.

If you haven’t seen it already and want to, if it interests you, definitely go and watch it! I thought it was worth watching at least once.

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