Film

The Boy Friend

Name: The Boy Friend
Genre: Music, Comedy, Romance
Released: 1971
Cast: Twiggy, Christopher Gable, Max Adrian, Bryan Pringle, Murray Melvin

Backstage musical
Light-hearted

Ken Russell's gloriously unhinged musical adaptation transforms a slight 1920s stage farce into a dizzying, visually baroque fever dream. Twiggy morphs from model to star, and Russell throws everything—color, dance, surrealism, meta-theatricality—at the screen. It's utterly mad, genuinely inventive, and exhausting in the best way.

TMDb rating

3.2

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love old-fashioned backstage musicals played with wide-eyed sincerity, where the songs are the point and the plot is a pleasant excuse for dancing and frilly costumes.

Skip it if you find pastiche twee, or you want a tight, modern story; at 138 minutes the gentle, deliberately flimsy plot can feel stretched thin.

What it asks of you: Expect a long, leisurely run of chirpy numbers and winking artifice; the mood stays light and sunny, so it rewards patience more than close attention.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Singin' in the Rain1952

The template for everything Russell builds on: effervescent charm, dancing that defies gravity, and a love story that feels earned. Pure joy in motion, with Gene Kelly at his peak.

But Nearly seventy years old, and the earnestness might feel dated if you're expecting cynicism or grit.

Pennies from Heaven1981

Another musical hidden inside a depression-era drama, with stunning dance sequences erupting from domestic misery. Transforms the genre to hold real heartbreak and desire alongside the spectacle.

But The tonal whiplash between graphic sex scenes and Astaire-style dancing unsettles many viewers. Bleak underneath.

Cabaret1972

Released the year after *The Boy Friend*, it shows what Russell's fearlessness opened up: a musical about decay and desperation, where song numbers become ideological. Liza Minnelli is astonishing.

But The Weimar corruption is the point, which means it can feel punishing. No catharsis in the traditional sense.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Boy Friend

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Phantom of the Paradise1974

Russell and De Palma were contemporaries making musicals dangerous again—using the form to house perversity, theatricality, and high artifice without apology.

Brian De Palma's glorious trash opera: Phantom remake as 1970s rock musical with horror movie DNA. A deformed composer in a leather outfit, decadent excess, and genuine songs. Utterly singular.

But The dialogue is sometimes awful on purpose, the sexuality is weird and predatory, and it trades in B-movie sincerity that wears thin if you're not on its wavelength.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch2001

Rock musical about identity and reinvention, shot through with theatrical artifice and real emotional rawness. It knows the stage is where truth lives. Meta, funny, and heartbreaking.

But The first half can feel scattered and the rock songs are deliberately abrasive. Asks you to work a little.

8½1963

Fellini's masterpiece about a director staging a musical in his head—backstage chaos, dream logic, sex and spirituality tangled together. The DNA of every self-aware musical since.

But Nearly three hours, in black and white, deeply Italian and philosophically demanding. Not light entertainment.

The Umbrellas of Cherbourg1964

A musical where every frame is a painting, colors sing before the characters do, and romance is as fleeting as weather. Achingly beautiful and genuinely sad.

But The stylization can feel suffocating if you're expecting naturalism. The ending is a mirror, not a resolution.

Mamma Mia!2008

Unapologetic ABBA jukebox on a Greek island, shot in bright daylight with no irony whatsoever. Meryl Streep having the time of her life. Wildly entertaining if you surrender to it.

But The plot is nonsense and the self-awareness is zero. Pure commerce, not art. Many find it exhausting.

Chicago2002

A musical that became a cultural moment: stylish, cynical, and danced to death. Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones in a 1920s corruption narrative. Sleek and propulsive.

But The heavy stylization distances you emotionally. It's beautiful but cool, more a music video than human drama.

Dreamgirls2006

Ambitious musical about ambition itself: the Supremes' rise traced through R&B history and show-business hunger. Jennifer Holliday's performance is seismic.

But Nearly three hours and structurally dense. The tone can feel muddled between camp, tragedy, and spectacle. Uneven in execution.

Pose2018

Like Russell, *Pose* understands that dance and costume are how marginalized people make meaning from nothing. The musical number isn't escape—it's truth-telling.

A dance-heavy drama series about 1980s ballroom culture in Harlem that erupts into choreographed sequences of staggering beauty. Mourning and celebration, spectacle and survival, every episode.

But The first season leans heavy on a white character's perspective. Pacing is deliberately slow. Not fast entertainment, though genuinely moving.

All That Jazz1979

Russell and Fosse were both directors who weaponized visual excess to make musicals confess. Both believed the form could hold darkness, ego, and mortality. Both were brilliant and cruel.

Bob Fosse's autobiographical fever dream: a choreographer dying onstage while his life becomes a musical in real time. Mirrors, cigarettes, and an eight-minute audition sequence that will change how you see dance.

But Visually suffocating, morally grimy, structurally chaotic. A masterpiece about a miserable man. Not entertainment—an ordeal, albeit a brilliant one.