Phantom of the Paradise

De Palma has mixed too many of his styles in Phantom of the Paradise, but this is still a movie to be seen and heard.

A crazy, savage film -- iconoclastic and truly liberating.

De Palma, who can't tell a plain story, does something that a couple of generations of student and underground filmmakers have been trying to do and nobody else has ever brought off. He creates a new Guignol, in a modern idiom.

For the most part this one is a delight, from Williams' sophisticated musical parodies to the shadowy, hazy cinematography to the culmination of horror-rock's false violence.

Phantom of the Paradise is worth your attention as a possible milestone in the evolution of contemporary movie musicals. I say "possible" because it might also be another dead end.

At movie's end it has become obvious that today's phantom and cohorts had a heck of lot more fun than those who joined to do the Lon Chaney bit at the opera. No offense, opera lovers.

...filters highbrow influences through colored 1970s strobe lights.

Brian De Palma’s 1974 pastiche is a near-psychedelic experience built not on freaky visual effects but on pure passion and unadulterated artistry.

The film is admittedly ragged, but it works as a satire of the rock operas so popular during the period.

A stylized and silly rock opera anchored by a number of delightful performances and catchy music.