A few weeks ago,  a little before I visited the metropolitan opera for the second time in my life, I watched the movie “Rent”. I have heard good reviews about this movie from people who have watched it so o was rather excited that I had the opportunity to watch it in class. Overall, I think the movie was pretty good, although I had mixed feelings about some aspects of it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack, which was probably the defining feature of the movie as most of the plot is communicated the lyrics of the songs. All of the actors were really good and played their roles exceptionally well. In fact, I had something of a “feel good” moment when I recognized some of the actors from other movies and television shows that i watch like the actor- Jesse L. Martin- who played one of the main characters, Tom Collins, also played in one of my favorite tv shows, “The Flash”. As I was watching “The Flash” I did not know that Martin was such a great singer, a feature that I learned while watching “Rent”.

Another aspect of the movie that I respected and appreciated was the fact that a lot of its focus was to draw attention to the fact that are a lot of people who are impoverished and suffering from drug issues or diseases like HIV/AIDS which was the cause of the death of one of the main characters, Angel, by focusing on an group of close friends who despite their socioeconomic barrier, pursue their dreams, whether it be career dreams, as seen in the example of Mark Cohen who became successful after he made a film depicting the circumstances surrounding his neighborhood, or romantic dreams, that were ultimately achieved by the pair of Roger and Mimi for example.

On the other hand, one of the aspects of the movie that I was not particularly fond of was that some of the scenes were incredibly difficult to understand simply because of how ridiculous and random they were. To be more specific, one particular scene that I had trouble understanding was the one that depicted Maureen’s show. Although it was somewhat funny (up until the fighting broke out obviously), I could not understand what it added to movie other than introducing Maureen’s eccentric nature. All in all though, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie’s soundtrack and overall story because not only did it provide with an interesting plot to follow but also drew the viewer’s attention to the very serious problems that people experience everyday.