I know that the word 'masterpiece' gets bandied around a lot on this subreddit, but I do think it fits here. I watched this film for the first time on the first day of lockdown in the UK, and I couldn't have picked a better film to watch at such a confusing and uneasy time. Since then, I've returned to the film twice, whilst also listening to the soundtrack on loop for months now, and I've come to the fair conclusion that it is not only a masterpiece, but one of the ten best films I've ever seen. Let me tell you why I think this...

The Music:

Simply put...how the fuck do you really go wrong here? The songs of ABBA are some of the best pop songs ever written, and Mamma Mia is a jukebox musical in the most literal sense - there are no deep cuts here, this is the greatest hits of ABBA in film form. And what more could you possibly want!? The musical sequences in this film truly make me want to sing along and dance more than any other musical sequences in any film. Not only are they using these timeless ABBA songs that sound just as great today as they did when they came out, but they've redone the instrumentations for the modern day. It's not all orchestrated up for a film like most musicals (and indeed the sequel), but rearranged by the original members to give it a more modern flair. They are also sung to incredibly different degrees of success, which just adds to the experience! On the one hand you've got Meryl Streep who is really giving it her all like she's in an opera, and on the other you've got Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård, who are all clearly just having the time of their lives. They can't sing, but hey, neither can I, their energy just adds to the experience and makes you want to sing along with them, and Meryl Streep playing it all so seriously is just another way that this film adds a depth of humour and entertainment to go along with it.

The Visuals:

The film is almost like watching a disco. You could get the 100 greatest directors in the world to have a stab at this script, and I don't believe any of them would make it as fun as this. The hen-party in the middle is especially brilliant: Voulez-Vous is filmed as a chaotic nightmare, the camera spinning everywhere, with random people popping in and out of the screen like its a horror film, whereas Lay All Your Love on Me is this hilariously cheesy love story with men running around in flippers! The whole film seems to change its colour-palette, style of editing, and style of cinematography depending on what the song is, almost like it's a series of music videos strung together, but instead of feeling wonky or out of place, it just feels incredibly well-done, and only adds to the fun, freshness of the film, because every scene makes you fall in love with a completely different visual idea. This is not a film that warrants the precision of someone like Spielberg, or the surrealness of David Lynch, it's a film that is perfect for Phyllida Lloyd (the director) because her theatrical background gives her the sensibility to know that this film doesn't need to be in any way serious, it just needs to be fun, it needs to feel like you're at a disco, and it absolutely does throughout.

The Story:

Watching these ABBA songs strung together within an inch of their life to loosely fit a story is brilliant to watch, but the story itself is actually wonderful. On the one hand, it's about a girl who just wants to find her father, and on the other, it's about two lost lovers reconciling their break-up, and it's fucking brilliant at doing both!! The film ends by letting us think about what family truly is, and showing us how we can all continue to chase our dreams, no matter how long ago we thought it impossible. It's such a wholesome tale, told through the power of ABBA, that just lifts you right up at the end and makes you feel good about yourself. The story of togetherness is especially prescient during these trying times.

The Performances:

I briefly mentioned the singing in this film, but the performances have more depth than that. The performances in this film feel like a bunch of actors turned up on set drunk, and that is exactly the perfect feel for this film, because it feels totally naturalistic. It's almost like a Ken Loach film in how it just feels like they're filming a family. But unlike the depressing nature of Loach films, this family is having a wedding! And what do people do at weddings? They all get pissed and start singing and dancing! Of course Brosnan sounds like shit, of course Firth can't dance, and of course Streep stands out massively because it seems like she's taking the film as seriously as any of her other roles, but that's all part of the brilliance of it, because we all know those people who take everything too seriously, those people who are fairly normal until they get a bit of drink in them and start flailing around everywhere, so it's a film that everyone can relate too, and I think a lot of that is in these performances.

In short, I think that Mamma Mia takes the traditional ideas of what a 'good' performance is, what 'good' direction is, etc, flips it entirely on its head to what on the surface you might call silly, but then actually makes it brilliant. Because all the choices work, whilst all feeling original, and they all service the story and style of the film. So no, I know you all read this title and thought I was making a shitpost, or thought I was exaggerating, but I'm not. Mamma Mia is a masterpiece, and it is one of the greatest films I've ever seen.