Two movies about forbidden romance set against the fantastical world of Hollywood — it’s Singin’ In The Rain vs. A Family Affair.
Read The Episode
Every episode of Tasteless, I take a critically acclaimed film and compare it to one that shares the same themes but didn't get the attention it deserves — and explain why that second movie is my pick. This week: two movies about forbidden romance set against the fantastical world of Hollywood. It's Singin' in the Rain versus A Family Affair. Yes, I had another episode on deck. Yes, I changed it when a new Nicole Kidman movie hit Netflix on Friday. Of course I did. I'm a journalist.
Singin’ In The Rain
A silent film star falls for a chorus girl just as he and his delusionally jealous screen partner are trying to make the difficult transition to talking pictures in 1920s Hollywood.
This movie came out in 1952. It has a perfect 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. No one has a bad thing to say about this movie. That's so perfect for this podcast — to compare anything to a movie that has 100%.
Singin' in the Rain was nominated for two Oscars. Best Music Scoring of a Musical Picture for Lennie Hayton, and then one that's a little surprising but I love: Best Supporting Actress for Jean Hagen as Lena Lamont. The film as a whole didn't receive that many nominations, and it makes sense because only a year prior another Gene Kelly movie, An American in Paris, had won Best Picture plus five other Oscars. People were like, all right, we get it. But I don't hear people now talking about An American in Paris the way they do about Singin' in the Rain. For a very unscientific comparison, An American in Paris has been watched by 77,000 people on Letterboxd, while Singin' in the Rain has been watched by 581,000.
I am a fan of cinema who has a massive blind spot for films that are pre-70s outside of horror, and to be fair, probably even pre-90s. I don't tend to go for older films, just like I don't tend to go for animated films as my first choice. That definitely causes me to miss out, but when there are so many movies on the earth, I have to focus somewhere. And yeah, that's mostly 90s psychosexual thrillers.
But there is such a different feeling when watching an older movie like Singin' in the Rain. A lightness, it's just joyful. And then you read about how much Gene Kelly made 19-year-old Debbie Reynolds cry. So things weren't all sunshine and roses. Singin' in the Rain does a good job of presenting this idyllic, funny, dance-filled world that just makes you smile. Biggest disappointment but also the best part: it opens with them singing "Singin' in the Rain" in the rain. Perfection. But then later Gene Kelly just sings it by himself. Come on.
Singin' in the Rain is the epitome of a feel-good musical. My absolute favorite movie musical of all time is Funny Girl, but I can see how Singin' in the Rain is the blueprint for bringing the magic of an art form that's perhaps best enjoyed live — bringing it really brilliantly onto the big screen.
Gene Kelly: an unforgiving taskmaster of a man. Very talented. I never really think talent is worth being a jerk. In this film as Don Lockwood, incredibly charming in a very smarmy way. He's kind of a social climber who does what he needs to look his best. He's a liar when it suits him. He embellishes. He goes big. He looks a bit like Justin Theroux. Very nice voice on this man — not just when he's singing, when he's talking.
For a guy that's this intense and this much of a perfectionist, dancing was not a great choice when you have to do it with other people, because you have to be so in sync. Imagine you're the best in the world, you're Gene Kelly, and this nice 19-year-old Debbie Reynolds misses a step. You're ready to have an aneurysm. But she had no real dance training when she took this job, and she is up there next to Gene Kelly fully holding her own.
I liked when the police made him stop having fun. He's out dancing around in puddles and the police just come. This policeman is just looking at him. He's like, I guess I have to stop dancing in the puddles. I don't think that's illegal. Was it illegal back then? You weren't allowed to play in the rain?
The best thing about Gene Kelly's character might be that he is a loyal friend to a fault. He lets his best friend Cosmo, played by Donald O'Connor, hang around all the time. Date with Debbie Reynolds? Cosmo's there. Conversation with his boss? Cosmo's there. And here is my problem with this movie. I am being so serious right now. Shenanigans. Tomfoolery. Lot of both between these two guys. Real goofy guys over here. I don't like it. I don't like yucks. I don't like shenanigans.
Donald O'Connor's "Make 'Em Laugh" song — incredible. He runs up a wall and does a flip. The talent on this guy. But here's what I know about me. Song in this movie called "Gotta Dance." I don't got a dance and I don't understand why other people do. But I do love watching it. I just wouldn't hang out with these men.
This whole movie is a jukebox musical trying to use songs that already existed, weaving them in. And "Make 'Em Laugh" — they created it to use up all of the gags Donald had from his vaudeville days. All these little things he did to make people laugh at previous gigs, combined into one song. This guy was a heavy smoker, had to flip off a wall, was keeled over, had to do it again. The problem with being so talented at something is that you can make it look easy and people don't understand just how much effort went into it.
Debbie Reynolds is a star. A star. I first loved her in Halloweentown. She was such a cool grandma. She just always struck me as very clever, very self-aware, very perceptive. She's so enjoyable to watch on screen. The fact that she didn't dance professionally before Singin' in the Rain and held her own with Gene Kelly is insane. Gene was hard on her — she's crying, Fred Astaire finds her under the stairs, checking on her. Yeah, Gene Kelly, fun guy.
She's so charismatic. She just has it. These classic movie stars — there were less stars. Somebody couldn't just have a TikTok. And I think Debbie could succeed just as easily today because of that true connection you feel through the screen. She has had a tumultuous private life but it has always been very clear she loved her family to the ends of the earth. The way her granddaughter Billie Lourd talks about her is always very touching. She's just one of those people we all felt like we knew — her and her daughter Carrie Fisher.
Jean Hagen as Lena Lamont is a really great foil. She's nasty, she's dumb, she's absurd, totally commits, not a winking role at all. Just an annoying person who is used to getting what she wants and utilizes what's available to get her way. And I can't fault her for that — for clinging onto the empire she's been building with Gene Kelly. As much as I wanted Debbie's dreams to come true, Jean is just so awesome to watch.
Also, it is very cool and funny that Debbie at one point comes in to dub Jean so it's her voice instead of Jean's grating voice. But it's actually Jean dubbing Debbie dubbing Jean. You get that? Jean is doing her real voice pretending to be Debbie pretending to replace Lena Lamont's voice, who is Jean doing a high-pitched voice. Jean dubbing Debbie dubbing Jean.
Jean Hagen, backbone of this film to me, keeps it from being too saccharine. I wanted good things for Lena Lamont the same way I want good things for the villains on Housewives or for Jennifer Lopez. I want to keep watching them be wild.
A Family Affair
A surprising romance kicks off comic consequences for a young woman, her mother, and her movie-star boss as they face the complications of love, sex, and identity.
This movie came out in 2024. It has a 42% on Rotten Tomatoes. I obviously was seated on Friday when it came out. Got off work. Put it on. The Nicole Kidman and Zac Efron reunion we've been waiting on since The Paperboy. I was ready for some cheesy fun and it fully delivered while also having really engaging performances from a fantastic cast.
I think this film will in its time be enjoyed for what it is — a light romp where everyone seems to be having a great time filming it. Much like Singin' in the Rain, which was overshadowed by An American in Paris at the time, A Family Affair is kind of overshadowed right now by The Idea of You, but has its own merits.
IndieWire shared a very funny interview where Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman said they signed on for the original title — it was called something much cruder. Nicole shared that somehow that didn't make it onto the Netflix title. They both were like, let's do it. What better way to reconnect. Let Nicole Kidman have fun. She is queen of prestige television. One of the all-time greatest actresses who can really make any role work because of what she brings to the table. But in this movie she gets to be light. Yes, her character has past trauma, but it is in no way the focus and it doesn't hold her back from going for what she wants.
I love that she kind of tells her kid to kick rocks. Like, hey kid, let me be happy. I want to make out with Zac Efron. I'm going to sleep with your boss. I would be furious if that was my mom. And while Nicole is a great mom in this, she also isn't catering unnecessarily to her adult daughter. Their relationship is realistically tense with fights that felt akin to fights I've had with my mom. It isn't loaded down with anguish. It taps into real emotions but keeps things a bit more surface level in a way I appreciated.
Nicole Kidman never really had that rom-com phase in her career, which is sort of shocking. The closest roles that come to mind are maybe Just Go With It where she's the villain but super goofy, or Bewitched where she's bubbly. But rarely does she play totally carefree. This is total cotton candy, which is what you want sometimes. Also, this movie lets her be Australian. Thank you, A Family Affair.
Joey King is perfect. Her character is frustrating, selfish in the way anyone in their early-to-mid twenties is. I see myself in elements of her in a way I wish I didn't. She has real emotions that I understand even while I can rationally understand they're not her mom's fault, not her boss's fault. They have to do with her own feelings about her worth, about what she's supposed to do with her life. I liked that Joey was selfish but still really kind. She's never nasty, just not thinking of other people the way she should be.
Zac Efron, always delightful. He is a song and dance man who could have been in Singin' in the Rain. He actually shared with the Letterboxd journalist at the premiere that Singin' in the Rain is one of his favorite movies. He has such charm. The fact that he improvised the "Bet On It" golf course dance in High School Musical 2 is incredible. He has allowed his career to mature with him in a way that's really hard to do.
I like that we dealt with the internal elements of his character's fame. The lengths he goes to not be stopped by fans — he has secret spots where no one can see him. He's wistful over getting to go to the grocery store when he was younger. We don't get that cliché paparazzi moment. We see him when he's most comfortable, away from all of that.
Their courtship is fast — they're all over each other drinking tequila within an afternoon. But is that so crazy when you're two hotties? When he's trying to come up with something to talk to this hot Australian woman about, he goes, do you know Margot Robbie? She's like, no. And he goes, I do. He's silly in a way I enjoy — not a shenanigans way, like Cosmo in Singin' in the Rain.
Kathy Bates as Nicole's mother-in-law — perfect. She mourns the loss of her son but is in no way controlling of Nicole's life. She's excited that Nicole sees something in Zac that creates a spark. There's this wonderful non-judgmental maternal energy.
Sherry Cola is a revelation. Liza Koshy at one point makes up a fake name and calls herself Mia Thermopoulos. I love that. And her Letterboxd top four — The Room, Cats, Madame Web, and Triangle of Sadness — I'm officially a fan.
Shared Themes
Singin' in the Rain and A Family Affair have couples that like each other, have chemistry, have so much fun together — but who have to keep their romance secret to stay out of sight of the haters. Lena Lamont and Joey King: the ultimate haters in film.
In Singin' in the Rain, what Gene Kelly builds with Debbie Reynolds is this textbook love-hate, fun, classic-for-a-reason dynamic. They're in such a high-stakes world, but once they're together, none of that matters. They meet when Gene catapults himself into Debbie's car. They argue. They meet again when Debbie jumps out of a cake. Crazy sequence of events. Plus the blonde hottie who thinks Gene is her boyfriend is ready to upend their lives. Gives them an us-against-the-world feeling. Well, us and Cosmo against the world.
That bond that they are creating art together, trying to build something better — it's so strong. Rita Moreno as Zelda, small role, nice to see her, rats them out to Lena Lamont. What I love is that instead of Gene going, no, you misunderstood, he's like, yeah, I adore Debbie Reynolds. Look at her. Look at the tiny hats she wears. No one is ashamed. The fun is the sneaking around, but the romance is in declaring for the world to hear that they love each other.
A Family Affair has the often-discussed age-gap romance, but with the woman as the older party — always a nice twist. I think the power imbalance is played well because of Zac being famous. Even though he's younger, he's had certain things available to him and grown up faster in some ways, although he's really stunted in others. He's also a full adult man. He's 36.
They set up that Nicole is well-read and he has a lot to learn, but he's curious. That goes really far. He doesn't need to know everything, but he wants to learn. I love that he reads the mythology books she gives him. They make each other laugh. They're not intellectual equals, but they're good for each other. Zac has some growing up to do — he needs to take other people seriously, think outside himself. Being with Nicole forces him to see Joey as a human, not just his assistant. Shouldn't he need to have sex with Nicole Kidman to treat his employee as a human? Probably not. But you see what they get from each other.
What's so fun about these films is their use of the fantastic, their use of Hollywood and its trappings to tell stories in a larger-than-life way. Both Gene Kelly and Zac Efron take the woman they like to a fake set and show them the magic of what film creates — imagination, possibilities. Gene telling Debbie she looks lovely in the moonlight, perhaps more suave than anything Zac says on a fake New York set. But this moment of the fake, the movie set, being the only place these people can share their true emotions — it's perfect storytelling.
Singin' in the Rain leans into the Technicolor, the fun. Gene Kelly dancing in the rain is fantastic. These sets are built to create imagery that sticks with you. Debbie has been struggling as a background cake dancer, meets the hot actor she likes, and now is his girlfriend and is going to get a movie role. What a dream. This fantasy only works when everyone feels like they belong in it — that Debbie meets Gene on his level and impresses him. It's such wish fulfillment in the best way.
A Family Affair is certainly not a big production — there's no smoke and mirrors — but there is this Hollywood dream on offer. A life that Zac doesn't appreciate, that Joey longs for. There's a modern version of Hollywood that's equally entrancing. We think of celebrities as having it all. Zac has a beautiful house, someone catering to his every whim, but it doesn't make him happy. His fantasy is normalcy — and to an extent, solitude. Choosing things for himself. We see it when he takes Nicole to the empty New York set. Joey calls him out for doing what he does with all women, and it makes sense when he shares he doesn't know where else to go for privacy.
The plot of this movie would never happen in real life. It just wouldn't. But isn't it fun to watch? I love this kind of fantasy, just grounded enough that it's like, hmm, a movie star could fall in love with me while I'm at home wearing my Blondie shirt and organizing my books.
What A Family Affair Does Better
A movie made in the ‘50s versus a movie made in the 2020s is of course going to be different. I am not faulting Singin' in the Rain for having ‘50s sensibilities about women at all. But I think the lighter the movie, the less seriously it tends to take identity. These are two fluffy, fun, silly movies. While Singin' in the Rain has an unsurprising thread of rudeness towards its leading ladies, I was really pleasantly surprised by the agency that A Family Affair gave to Joey and especially to Nicole.
Singin' in the Rain is Gene Kelly's story. That is fine — men can have movies. Great. But man, it's boring that Debbie is like, at first has her own stuff, and is like, okay, whatever you want, Gene, I actually secretly am president of your fan club and I'm happy to help you save your trash movie and not get credit. Come on, Debbie, get in there. Dance fight this man, Sharks versus Jets style.
Jean Hagen as Lena Lamont is by far the most fun character to watch. I don't think she was meant to be. She feels ahead of her time in this villainous, fun role where she's doing things women shouldn't — speaking up for herself, basically. When the movie starts, Gene Kelly does all the talking for her because of her awful voice. As far as she knows, she's just not allowed to talk because Gene has been nominated to speak for both of them. And that sucks.
Knowing that Gene made Debbie cry makes it less fun to watch them fall on the couch giggling together, knowing that was probably the 40th time they fell on the couch and everyone's feet are bleeding and they're sobbing when it's done. None of this takes away from this movie being a must-watch. But that's what makes A Family Affair, which you'd think would follow certain stereotypes, especially surprising and enjoyable.
A Family Affair does not fall into the traps and tropes of a typical romance. We see so many movies where people feel guilt over moving on or women beat themselves up for putting themselves first. How dare a woman do what she wants and not sacrifice. Nicole makes no apologies for her successes. She even acknowledges how her husband felt less-than because he didn't do as well, but she doesn't dim her own light. When her daughter's upset, she acknowledges that, but doesn't bend to her. When her daughter confronts her, she apologizes for hurting her but makes it clear she will not sacrifice her personhood so her daughter can feel good.
Nicole Kidman is 57. How many stories are there for 57-year-old women where they're hot and hooking up with the young hottie and it's not played for laughs? It's not played for laughs at all. Of course these two are together. This is just her life. Even saying "older women" about Nicole Kidman feels disrespectful somehow. She's not 90. But when Hollywood likes you to be 21, there aren't that many roles.
I also find it really interesting how we tend to malign things that aren't deep, and it feels like we've gotten worse about that. When Singin' in the Rain came out, people enjoyed it, it was nominated for Oscars, but it's a fluffy fun movie. A Family Affair is the same. And it's disappointing to see so many reviews saying, watch this with a glass of wine or three. Okay, great. Yeah, you've sold me. I want a movie I can watch with friends, have a drink, giggle, not argue over whatever Tenet is about.
We look back on older films as more than they maybe were at the time because anything that has survived decades, been shared by relatives, gives the film an air of importance. It's hard to make a movie now when there are so many movies. You can watch a million different things this weekend. There's this feeling now that you have to watch something important, something meaningful, something in the zeitgeist. I think the best example of this change is The Bear, which won Best Comedy — should not have been in that category.
I think A Family Affair is out at the exact perfect time for me, and I have so much respect for the people who made something that seems so rare now: just fun. Anyone But You recently was lauded for similar reasons — chemistry on film again. I want these options. I don't want it to be either superheroes or Schindler's List. A Family Affair does exactly what I wanted it to do, and it does it well. I worry we're not getting these movies anymore — 27 Dresses, Morning Glory, One for the Money. I love this genre of lighthearted fun centered on a female protagonist who's figuring her stuff out.
If you want to pour yourself a glass of wine, go nuts. Put on A Family Affair. Watch these two movies together — you will have a lovely time. It's a great double feature. A Family Affair is on Netflix. Singin' in the Rain is on Max.
Hit me up at @tastelesspod on social media. Let's talk Nicole Kidman. Let's talk Debbie Reynolds. Let's talk fun movies.
