One of the most common complaints people always have when criticizing musicals is “they just start singing and dancing, it makes no sense! Where is the music coming from?” Which is, in my opinion, a really dumb argument and makes me assume you just hate fun. Regardless, Cabaret (1972) invalidates these criticisms with one simple trick. Cabaret explains pretty simply where the music comes from.
In the film, all the musical numbers (with one exception) happens in the context of a cabaret show. So, it makes sense that these characters are singing.
Personally, I don’t think musicals ever need to justify why a character is singing. For the same reason that I don’t need sci-fi movies to explain why all these aliens speak the same langue, or why I don’t need a comedy movie to explain how a character survives the slap-stick violence.
It’s a movie, depending on the genre, you got to just leave real world logic and rules behind and live in the world of the movie.
Musicals are fun movies that exist in a world where the story and plot is progressed through song. That’s how the genre works. Complaining about that is like complaining that a cowboy western has too many scenes of people having gun fights. It’s the genre. What did you expect?
If the universe of the movie is one where everyone will breakout into an ABBA song at the slightest hint of character development, why complain? That’s just how the universe of the movie functions, it has no obligation to justify why to you.
Anyway, that’s just my two cents. What was I talking about again? Oh, yeah, Cabaret. It’s fine. I liked it enough. I get why it was popular, it’s just not my preferred type of musical.
