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Film · Warner Bros. · 1928

Pass it on

The Singing Fool

25Leave it.

Jolson sells a dead child and sings the hit in blackface, and I would not leave it on.

Take controlThis scores 25. The Singing Fool cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

Al Jolson is the singer. He loses his wife, then his little boy, and Sonny Boy is the tear the country bought. The crowd was larger than The Jazz Singer in those early sound years. The child dies. I'm not lingering on that. What I won't skip is the rest of the act.

Blackface numbers are part of the performance, and the film treats them as the show. That is not a neutral musical. I wouldn't put it on and call the crying harmless. If adults watch, somebody has to say the makeup out loud. The song is what they sold. The boy is how they sold it.

Journal

Keep The Singing Fool in the record.

No house has filed a sentence for this yet.

Live Historic number 25. Yours can differ.

The glance

Industry and Household and Piety and Courage and Republic and Temperance and Truth and Stewardship are the thin ones.

Does anyone here do a real job, and does that job matter?

This phone is set for a grown person, just me. Change the ages.

Consider this

The Greatest Showman

40 instead of 25

The Greatest Showman is still a musical film, and it scores 40 instead of 25. What you gain is courage: The performers walk into a room that came to gawk, and stay standing.

The eight

4
Industry
Jolson's job is the act, and blackface numbers are treated as the show.
3
Household
He loses a wife and a little boy, and the boy is the tear they sold.
2
Piety
Nothing in the act lets a conscience stop the number or the makeup.
2
Courage
The losses happen to him; he never risks a life he still gets to keep.
2
Republic
The country bought Sonny Boy, and nobody owes that child a refusal.
2
Temperance
The tear-song trains a crowd to want another cry, and the film sells it.
3
Truth
The child dies, and blackface is played as if it were only the performance.
2
Stewardship
Left behind: a hit song, a dead child, and blackface as entertainment.

Where to watch

Finding the page.

Live Historic · The Singing Fool · 25IMDb

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Film · Not named in the listing · 2026

Pass it on

Backrooms

25Leave it.

It sells that yellow-office dread as a product and you leave with nothing solid.

Take controlThis scores 25. Backrooms cannot be blocked by name on this shelf. The lock is the phone. Block it

The review

Backrooms takes the internet's ready-made picture of endless yellow offices and makes it the movie. Fluorescent, windowless, work space with purpose and exits stripped out. What it gets right is the monotony; the dread holds steady before anything else is asked.

Corridors that never end make the thrill of getting lost the whole product. A tired family finishes with no solid room left to keep.

Journal

Keep Backrooms in the record.