It is no secret that I am a sucker for sparkly costumes. And teenage love stories. And musical numbers. 

The Prom, a 2020 film based on a Broadway musical of the same name, delivers each of these in spades.

It happens like this:

Four down-on-their-luck Broadway stars decide that what they need is a good publicity campaign. As Angie Dickinson (Nicole Kidman) is scrolling through Twitter, she happens across a worthy cause. High school student Emma Nolan (Jo Ellen Pellman) is gay, and her school is refusing to let her bring her girlfriend to prom. Angie, along with her friends Dee Dee Allen (Meryl Streep), Barry Glickman (James Corden), and Trent Oliver (Andrew Rannels), march off to Indiana to wage war on homophobia with fancy lighting and well-rehearsed dance breaks. Things don’t go as planned, but our heroes do have fun, sing songs, and learn lessons.

For all its glittery glory, I felt like the story was a little bland. Show-stopping dance sequences aside, not much happened. The film took two hours to tell a story that could have wrapped up within ninety minutes. If there was a method to the madness that was the story progression, I think I missed it. 

However, I can easily forgive the jarring nature of the storyline when there are songs and sparkles. 

James Corden’s portrayal of a gay man is less excusable. It’s frustrating that he was cast when there is a wealth of queer actors that would have brought more authenticity (and Americanness) to the role. This exclusion feels off, especially when The Prom’s message is centered on the representation of members of the LGBTQ+ community. Even without taking the debate on straight actors playing queer characters into consideration, Corden’s performance feels forced. He played to stereotypes, made lots of jokes, and the acting felt like acting. I thought all of this to be incredibly tone deaf for a musical whose premise is focused on inclusivity.

I also have a bone to pick with the ending of the film. It’s a happy one, but it is also remarkably unnatural and affected — even for a musical. I love happy characters and reconciliation, but not at the expense of believability. I won’t go into detail, but the redemption arc for the main antagonist happened in under five minutes. It was enough to give me mental (and emotional) whiplash. 

That being said, I still had a good time with The Prom. It addresses the ridiculous fluff-fest that is celebrity culture in a way that is entertaining but poignant. It also tackles discrimination in a way that is sometimes overbearing and misguided but is definitely necessary. The film doesn’t gloss over the difficulties of being an LGBTQ+ youth, but it doesn’t dwell on them either — instead choosing to focus on the beauty that a world without stigma could be. And, of course, the sparkly costumes and extravagant dance numbers cannot be overstated. 

At its heart, The Prom is a deeply flawed but fun piece of cinema, which celebrates relationships of all kinds, people of all shapes and sizes, and the sheer joy that being queer can be.