14 Love Stories: DR. HORRIBLE

Happy February!  We're halfway through the late winter doldrums, and that means its time for candy hearts and movies about young beautiful people trying to score.  Don't give me any of that anti-Valentine's Day crap.  I'm single and even a bit cynical, but I think that just makes it better.  The nice thing about Valentine's is that, being about romantic love, there's a whole genre of films appropriate for holiday viewing; the trick is finding the good ones!  I'll give you a few of my recommendations, 14 to be exact.  I don't know if these are really the "best" romance movies ever, and I few of them I'm sure are not, but I personally love each one.

Every so often, a non-movie medium comes along to work as powerful effect as even the best movies, and in 2008, a three-part internet mini-series starring a few television actors came along, and continues to be discovered by new and quickly devoted fans.  It's only 40 minutes long, and completely defies proper description, but so totally deserves to be seen by everyone, a recommendation I can only so wholeheartedly give to a few movies.

DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG  (2008)
Directed by Joss Whedon
Starring: Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, Nathan Fillion, Simon Helberg
Not Rated (contains some PG-13-level sexual references and a brief violent image).
Availability: Available on most major streaming services including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu

In order to coast over the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America Strike, Joss Whedon (creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and director of MARVEL'S THE AVENGERS) conceived of a project that he could work on while circumventing the issues of the strike.  The result was a three-part, grand total of 42-minutes long, independently financed musical tragicomedy web series, and one of the best things that I've ever seen.
Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris), an aspiring super villain with a Ph.D in Horribleness, is plotting the big crime that will finally land him a spot in the infamous Evil League of Evil, led by Bad Horse, the Thoroughbred of Sin, who rules the League with an iron hoof.  His plan: to build a freeze ray to wreak havoc on the city.  But he also has a secret crush on Penny, good-doer he sees regularly at the neighborhood laundromat, but to whom he's never spoken, right up until he's about to pull off the big heist that will get him wonderflonium, the final item he needs to finish his freeze ray and hopefully earn him the notice of Bad Horse.  Dr. Horrible is conflicted somewhat between his evil ambitions and the good-natured Penny, but he believes that when he rules the world, he'll be better able to win her over.  But in the course of the wonderflonium heist, the city's shallow, dimwitted superhero, Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion) interferes, more or less rescuing Penny from mayhem of his own creation.  Dr. Horrible gets the wonderflonium, but Captain Hammer gets the girl, and as Billy, Dr. Horrible's alias, he finds himself friend-zoned.  Now, Dr. Horrible's plans change; his freeze ray is now a death ray, and the crime that will earn him a spot in the League will be killing Captain Hammer.  But as usual, Dr. Horrible's plans don't go according to plan, concluding in a masterful and wrenching irony.
Technically, it isn't a movie, but is instead a web series that was released in three separate parts over the span of five days in July 2008, but if it were a movie, it would be one of the best ever.  Only forty-two minutes long, with 12 aggressively catchy/cool original songs (including one reprise), DR. HORRIBLE is an emotional roller coaster (yes, believe it or not) that takes you from riotous laughing fits to jaw-dropping yet strangely satisfying tragedy, and it never misses a beat.
Available to stream on Netflix, Amazon Instant Video and other streaming sources, as well as available for purchase on Blu-Ray and DVD, it was always destined to be a cult favorite.  It's impossibly likable, irrefutably memorable and very quotable, with a soundtrack that begs to be listened to in binge sessions.

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