Remember Jesse L Martin's "I'll Cover You"
Monday, November 23, 2015 at 8:54PM 
Ten years ago today the quickly forgotten film version of Rent (2005) premiered in movie theaters. At the time Rent had been a visceral sensation on stage for nearly a decade and was just a few years short of closing its nearly $300 million grossing Broadway run. Let's just say the movie didn't have a prayer of measuring up, even financially, grossing only $31 million worldwide in theaters. Rent (the movie!) was a dubiously near-perfect example of all the things that can go wrong with movie musicals and despite many other films teaching Hollywood the same exact not-all-that-complicated lessons, Hollywood is still having trouble learning.
You nearly always need these three things: visually stylish directors who also understand storytelling within the musical idiom (it's not an easy thing to move from the abstract friendly medium of the stage to the usually literal medium of the cinema); sly confident casting and gifted performers (transferring entire Broadway casts absolutely won't do. And neither will its opposite, replacing them all with "names" whether or not they can sing and dance. Why? Both strategies just reek of insecurity); and, finally, the right blend of zealous passion and merciless intelligence from the filmmaker since musicals are complicated and needy and fragile and they tend to come with a tricky but essential mix of artifice and sincerity.
Of course Rent had it's own problems apart from failing to meet those three essentials. It is also a story wherein New York City is as much a leading character as Roger, Mark or Mimi. In the abstract friendly environments of the theater, a simple flourish like a fire escape can represent and entire teeming city with millions of stories in it with ease. If you try to fake New York City in the movies without a stylized visual approach, it just going to look cheap and weak.
But for all of its problems Rent (2005) did give us Jesse L Martin singing onscreen and for that we'll always be grateful. I mean, just listen to his superbly emotive instrument.
A couple of years ago Martin was supposed to headline a biopic about Marvin Gaye and though his casting was inspired financing fell through somewhere along the production phase so the movie seems like one of those phantom features now, caught somewhere between development hell and actual existence. Other roles for Martin just haven't satisfied his musical fans. The much missed Smash (RIP) did a lot of things wrong in its two seasons as a network musical but one of its true unforgiveable sins was actually giving Jesse L Martin a job IN A MUSICAL and then denying the audience that voice. (We keep waiting for The Flash to have a meta-human musical episode since a hefty percentage of its principle cast comes with gorgeous pipes and real musical theater cred.)
Did you ever see Rent on stage? If not do you have any strong memories of the movie?
Reader Comments (28)
I saw an ill-advised college production where there were actors of color available (and included in the ensemble!) but the eight leads were all white anyway.
Didn't sit well.
I come from a family of RENT obsessives, so this was a big midnight family gathering. I don't remember us having much to say afterwards, just silence...
*gets sad for a moment thinking about Smash*
I never got to see it on stage so the movie was my introduction to the show (just like Phantom) and I actually liked the movie. *shrug*
But this song where Jesse BRINGS IT. It's so hard to sing on point and also evoke the particular emotion needed for a song (at least it is for me when I belt out songs in the privacy of my apartment or car) so it's a point in the movie's favor in bringing back the original cast who are more than familiar with the material.
I've seen both the film and the stage musical. While I know the movie has flaws I personally love it. The film was my introduction to the musical and it really struck a chord with the in closet teen that I used to be. It is the reason I love musical theatre so much.
Not a fan of the play or the movie. I guess it's generational (give me La bohème, Hair or Hamilton) and geographical (I grew up on the streets where it is set).
Not that this has anything to do with the movie, but Rent was one of the first movies I saw 1. with gay content and 2. with a friend. I would have been 13 at the time. The fact that she enjoyed it right along with me - and didn't run screaming from the blatant lesbianism - was a sign of okay things to come that you didn't get very much in suburban Ohio. For that it will always have a fond place in my heart.
I actually really enjoyed the movie, although I'm sure it doesn't compare to the play. I LOVE the opening Seasons of Love with the cast just singing on stage. I also think Rosario Dawson is best in show. I remember giving her a nomination, or at least a runner up nod, for my own awards in 2005. Sarah Silverman's cameo is also really enjoyable.
Jesse L. Martin really grounds Flash. He provides the warm heart of the show, and a foundation for a story of family love.
The first time I saw him was singing in the movie Rent, and I've been a fan ever since.
I'm just glad I got to see Wilson Jermaine Heredia reprise his Tony-winning performance as the beloved and tragic Angel. But that film, yikes. The less said about it, the better.
I saw a regional production in a tiny theater (50-75 people) a few years ago, it wasn't the most professional production but it was intimate.
As a musical I like the first act but then it takes a nose dive in the second act. It's very unbalanced with all the good songs coming up in the first 1-1 1/2 hours of the show.
Rent has a very specific cultural impact in America that seems to be almost impossible to replicate outside it. It seems to me (I'm Irish and live in London) to be so very NEW YORK that it ends up being alienating in a way that truly great shows aren't.
I've seen it attempted in the West End twice in the last 10 years and neither production has been successful in translating the eletric connection that many people have to the material. Maybe the British productions fail to give the show its full blooded emotionalism (I remember them being slightly stylised and arch in their approach)
As for the cast of the Flash in a musical episode, yes please! There's a great youtube of Martin, and a few other actors singing the Firefly theme as a thank you to Joss Whedon for contributing funding for their side project. Its well worth viewing.
Ian O -- that's where the Flash link in the article goes at the end :) can't wait to see that short film whenever they finish it
My brother was into musical theater when he was In high school so I got into the habit of listening to the Broadway album non-stop when I was 9 or 10. The movie came out when I was a freshman in college and sadly failed to live up to my childhood nostalgia. It felt so forced/fake.
I HATED that movie!
The movie came out when I was in college, and a bunch of theater friends went to see it together opening weekend. Afterwards, I very vocally expressed my... displeasure with the film. Some of my friends tried (half-heartedly) to defend it, but their argument really just boiled down to "But it's RENT!" which was far from enough to save the film.
But the REALLY memorable thing about it was that outside the theater in the multiplex where it was showing, there was this giant display for the movie, and we were so in awe of it that we asked the management if we could have it. They said we could if we could dismantle it and get it out, so friends with tools and trucks were called and two hours later the display was ours. We set it up in my friend's (TINY) on-campus apartment and two weeks later held a party in its honor, where we all dressed up as characters from the show, and Rent-themed food and party favors, and sang the songs. So even though I despise the movie, it still holds a special place in my heart.
I've seen the show once on Broadway and once recently on tour, and it holds up well on stage. Although seeing it with my family was HILARIOUS: my Dad mentioned at intermission how great the "girl playing Angel" was, and both my sister and I had to tell him it was actually a man. I will never forget the look on his face. PRICELESS.
Denny: That's awesome! I worked in a movie theatre when I was in university, and one of my roommates/co-workers was obsessed with those things, and with the movie posters, so we had an apartment that basically looked like a theatre lobby.
Well my favorite thing about Rent is David Rakoff's story in which he rips it to shreds, so clearly I wasn't the audience for it. But I still saw the movie. And sure, I thought it was bad, as a film. But I really appreciate this post, because while it had many flaws, you are quite right about what it gave us re: Martin.
Though now that I'm thinking about the film, I'm wishing there was a movie that gave Tracie Thoms a chance to shine.
I actually saw it with the original cast when i was only 6 or 7 years old. I loved it. I saw it again a few years later but I had a hard time with new cast actually. I quite liked the film, but it certainly wasn't perfect. I really do wish Spike Lee got to direct the film version. He was attached for a while and I heard his spin on it was quite different.
Though I know Rent was such a phenomenon when it was released. Come on even as a 6/7 year old i could see that it was huge and unlike anything before it. But it doesn't seem to have aged very well, what was gritty back then feels cheesier now. I still love, but not sure it holds up as well.
In a great side note Jesse L Martin was my freshman commencement speaker at NYU. He was really funny.
I've never seen the show, but I actually really like the movie. It's not perfect, or anywhere near a favorite movie musical, but I definitely enjoy it. I also think Rosario Dawson is pretty great in it, easily best in show for me.
I'm wishing there was a movie that gave Tracie Thoms a chance to shine.
Someone here hasn't seen Tarantino's Death Proof. She was Oscar worthy.
I actually think the stage show doesn't hold up particularly well now- time has made its flaws and contrivances more apparent, which particularly includes an amplificaiton of its cornier elements. It's not even so much a fact of passage of time and march of progress since the mid-90s in regards to AIDS or LGBT people (The Normal Heart is still lacerating in its indictments of systemic failure; Falsettoland is a far more complex look at AIDS and relationships, to name a couple of shows that predate Rent). But the musical just ultimately ends up devolving into a melange of platitudes to me, and the ending never seems anything more than a hokey copout.
There are some nice tunes and opportunities for people to sing their faces off, at least. In the end, though, it just seems like dealing with AIDS and other social issues in the way most palatable to nice white suburbanites, while purporting to be showing things the way they are.
I wish someone could explain to me the economics of releasing a CD or digital music tracks. Why doesn't Jesse Martin have 30 or 40 tracks of himself singing any old song he desires that people can download? Why are we being denied his voice? Is is that expensive to hire a pianist and sing in a recording studio?
I would think in the world of self-publishing that there would the equivalent for music.
I actually love this movie, despite its flaws. Superb source material paired with a lot of musical talent. I'm going to listen to the soundtrack right now.
OH MY GOD GET OUT OF MY HEAD, NATHANIEL! I was JUST singing this song to myself the other day walking home. "Santa Fe" is one of my most-played songs (even though it's probably the most useless song in the show) and Martin's voice is a big reason for that. And then I remembered how amazing he delivers this song and now this post.
I saw both the stage version and the movie. The stage version was obviously better. Among many other issues the movie had, by the time they filmed the actors were blatantly too old in a way that severely detracted from the "we're young, poor, starving artists and we're going to stay that way!" values. Like, dudes, you're in your thirties. Just get a job. It's OK, really. That attitude is charmingly naive for a 23-year-old. For a 30-something-year-old? Not so much.
And by the time the movie came out, the idea of "selling out" was already becoming such an irrelevant cliche, anyway. They really needed to get over themselves, which is NOT how it played on the stage at all.
Dave in Hollywood -- that's a great question. It is becoming more common. RuPaul's Drag Race is a great example. it seems like every month there's a new self published record from one of the many past queens of the show that they're trying to hawk on iTunes. so it must be working for some people. More musical theater stars should try this.
The movie does not work because the entire cast was too old
I'm actually not a fan of Rent, but holy shit, I never knew Jesse Martin was supposed to be playing Marvin Gaye in a biopic that fell apart. The fact that this didn't happen actually makes me really really fucking mad, he would have been brilliant in the role. That makes me madder than Sacha Baron Cohen not playing Freddie Mercury.
The movie gets by because of the greatness of the songs, but it's not a well-made movie. I've seen it on stage, but not a Broadway one, sadly.