The one movie Glen Powell would watch forever: “When I rewatch it, I’m never bored”
In many ways, Glen Powell is a throwback to a different age.
His chiselled good looks and buckets of charisma have more in common with stars of Hollywood’s golden age than they do his modern contemporaries. His most famous roles are uncomplicated, but he carries them off with such panache that you can’t be upset at how basic they are. He fills a very specific niche in the current landscape and has made a lot of money as a result.
Don’t just take our word for it. Powell himself has expressed a fondness for the old days, singling out the likes of Paul Newman and Robert Redford as some of his acting idols, particularly in their seminal and heartening buddy western romp Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. However, when it comes to the classics, one legendary film pokes above the populist canopy in the actor’s diary.
In an interview with The Academy, Powell was asked to name his five favourite films of all time. Along with Jurassic Park, Casablanca, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, and the aforementioned George Roy Hill joint, he also focused his praise on a much-loved movie musical.
“Singin’ in the Rain is a near-perfect movie, for me,” he said, “It captures such an interesting era of movies, and I’m obsessed with Hollywood. I love Hollywood. So, that transition from silent pictures to talkies, it’s this really interesting era where people are claiming the end of something – that movies are dying – and I think about Singin’ in the Rain all the time, because I feel like there’s always this chatter about the death of movies.”
He took the opportunity to highlight the constant debates around streaming platforms versus movie screenings, and movies in general, noting, “We love great stories, and the way in which people consume stories will change, but I really believe the medium of film… That movie just represents the fun of movies, and when I rewatch it, I’m never bored. Not by one frame in that whole movie. It’s the best.”
There really isn’t much left to say about this iconic picture. It regularly comes up in lists of the greatest films ever made, a favourite of everyone from Greta Gerwig to Martin Scorsese, who described it as “a miracle”. When the National Film Library in America selected their first 25 movies for preservation, this was one of them. You might be sick to death of people banging on about how great Singin’ in the Rain is, but it’s just that important.
It’s not just the songs and the beautiful dance routines that make this film so special and often pulled from for other subsequent features as tribute. Hollywood is far too obsessed with making movies about itself, but Singin’ in the Rain might be the best example of the genre. It captures a pivotal, fascinating time in the history of the film industry, as synchronised sound became standard in moving pictures. As Powell said, for anyone interested in the history of Western film, it offers a near-eye witness account of this fascinating period, but through a light-hearted lens. It’s the perfect counterpoint to the darkness of something like Sunset Boulevard, which explores this era with a marked darker tone.
It might not be particularly groundbreaking or original, but Powell’s love of Singin’ in the Rain simply proves that he is a student of the game with an eye for the touchstones. He’s proven himself willing to remake classic films with The Running Man, so maybe, for his next project, he could be Gene Kelly reborn.
