John Malkovich plays an evil music critic who insults the works of great composers. Musicians fight back.
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Aleksey Igudesman has created a sardonic mix of the most evil music critiques of the last centuries written about some of the greatest works of music. Equipped with a frivolous potpourri of musical insults, John Malkovich slips into the role of the evil critic who believes the music of Beethoven, Chopin, Prokofiev and the likes to be weary and dreary. Aleksey Igudesman, Hyung-ki Joo and other great musicians beg to differ and fight back. “Schumann fancies himself a ‘composer’, while Brahms is a ‘giftless bastard’ and Claude Debussy is simply ugly.” The grand finale is ‘The Malkovich Torment’ which a horrific review about Malkovich himself. Music by Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Schumann, Debussy, Prokofiev, Ysaÿe, Kancheli, Piazzolla and Igudesman.
"Re-imagined for the big screen from Aleksey Igudesman's play, 'The Music Critic' shows that actor John Malkovich of 'In the Line of Fire' and 'RED: Retired and Extremely Dangerous' will take on anything in the cinema. Here, from compositions by musicians such as Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms, Chopin and Debussy, we follow the star reading, performing and showing some of the greatest absurdities reproduced by music critics of all time--from texts that Debussy was "ugly" and others that reduced Brahms' talent. It's fun to see how opinions change over time as we dive into the best of each of these composers' works, with a sharp Malkovich on the "stage"."