Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

The minute Funny Girl went into the black a sequel was on the cards and like most sequels it had a mountain to climb and barely made it to base camp. It's difficult to blame producer Ray Stark for wanting to squeeze extra mileage out of his mother-in-law Fanny Brice and although Brice was either unknown or had been forgotten when Funny Girl opened on Broadway both the show and the subsequent film brought her to the attention of a new audience so on paper why not a sequel. Thanks to the dubious association of the words Billy Rose and lyricist - the smart money says he 'bought' the lyrics with which he is credited from more talented writers - the film is laced with quality numbers on the order of More Than You Know, It's Only A Paper Moon, Me And My Shadow, etc and Streisand can certainly put a song across but somehow this fails to jell and weighs in at a good twenty minutes too long. Worth seeing .... once.

I just tried to watch this on TCM. I first have to say that, adhering to stereotypes, as a gay man, I worship Barbra (and will continue to do so until Conservatives legislate that right away from!). I remember loving this movie; I found it mostly unwatchable now. First of all, there is more orange in this movie than in Florida. There is more fuchsia than there needs to be anywhere. And most of the production numbers are horribly staged and arranged. "Clap Hands" is garish and racist. Am I the only person who noticed that Ben Vereen is wearing a costume based on watermelon? It's watermelon pink and green, and his shirt has what looks suspiciously like watermelon seeds on the front. "Great Fay" may be a great song, but you'd never know it from here. What this movie has going for it are, of course, Barbra Streisand, James Caan (why was anyone surprised how well he could sing when he made "For The Boys"? He sings quite well and would be great in "Chicago" on Broadway), and Kander and Ebb. Barbra has a long history with them; they wrote some of the songs on her first albums, and they wrote great songs for her here. "How Lucky Can You Get" is not only a great character song, but a great song, period. On a more humorous, historical note, I have to say that back in the day when I did drag, I copied 2 of the costumes from this movie. The dress she wears with the huge feather collar? I wore a boa like that several times (boy, do feathers itch). I made a nearly identical version of the black satin number she wears for "How Lucky". I always identified with her. I've always had a self-deprecating sense of humor (as many Jewish performers do). I was never what you'd call a conventional beauty. When I did drag, I was gorgeous from the neck down; from the neck up, not so much. :-)

Barbra Streisand reprised her Oscar-winning role of Fanny Brice in 1975's FUNNY LADY, a big splashy musical that centers around Fanny at the height of her stardom and her stormy relationship with second husband, Billy Rose (James Caan). Much has been written about how unnecessary this sequel was and how it wasn't very factual regarding Fanny and Billy's marriage. First of all, Hollywood has always had sequel-itis. Any movie that makes a decent profit at the box office is going to have a sequel sooner or later. Second, as far as accuracy is concerned, does anyone really think FUNNY GIRL stuck to the facts? FUNNY GIRL was about as close to a factual biography of Fanny Brice as a Harlequin romance novel, but people loved it and Barbra won an Oscar. For what it is, FUNNY LADY is a very entertaining movie with a charismatic starring performance by Streisand as an older, wiser, and more savvy Fanny who is definitely in charge of her own life now...that is, until Nick Arnstein (Omar Sharif, in a gratuitous cameo)briefly re-enters her life. The film really focuses on Fanny's relationship with Rose, antagonistic at first but it does grow into a relationship based on mutual respect and affection, but not love or passion, which Fanny had with Nick. I love the scene where Billy proposes to Fanny because it's more like a business merger than a marriage proposal. These people are clearly not in love with each other but they are both lonely and need each other so they agree to a marriage they don't really want. The musical numbers, for the most part, are well-staged if not terribly original. There's a definite "been there done that" feel to some of the numbers. Fanny on stage in an empty theater belting out "How Lucky Can You Get?" reminded me of Fanny on stage in an empty theater belting out "I'm the Greatest Star." And many comparisons have been made to "Let's Hear it from Me" to "Don't Rain on my Parade", except that Fanny takes off in a plane instead of chasing a tugboat. Barbara shines in the "Big Day" production number and her take on two lovely ballads "Isn't this Better?" and "If I Love Again" is memorable. The score effectively combines songs from Fanny's era as well as new songs by John Kander and Fred Ebb (CABARET). Cann is charming as Billy Rose and Sharif has aged surprisingly well. Kudos also to Ben Vereen for his one-show-stopping number, "Clap Hands, Here Comes Charlie". Not historically accurate or terribly original, but FUNNY LADY is an entertaining musical with Barbra in top form and her fans will not be disappointed.

Yikes ! What a ridiculous collection of crud. Billy Rose (William Rosenberg) was just as Jewish as Fanny Brice, but this movie tried to make him into Mr.White America. Besides that (and much more important) the music is all wrong - absolutely everything is just WRONG : the arrangements, the studio recording scenes, the attitude. They have him rehearsing "It's Only A Paper Moon" in 1927, when it wasn't even WRITTEN until 1933. the whole movie is the worst example of mid-70s schlock. Haircuts are wrong, fashions are wrong, the music is wretched. It's easy enough to make a movie using real history - let's face it , most of the script was written long ago. Screwing it up without bothering to provide an interesting story is inexcusable.