Okay, let’s dig deeper shall we?

Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again was/is an odd beast of an animal. When I walked in to a packed theater opening day I wasn’t expecting anything. Cause the first one was mediocre at the very best, cringeworthy terrible at worst. I just thought this would be a pointless sequel just rehashing the same songs for a cheap quick buck. However, apparently there was a little magic in the air when making this masterpiece. Roughly 20 minutes in when Christina Baranski sets her eyes on Andy Garcia and utters the line “Be still my beating my vagina” I was floored. I was not expecting to laugh as hard as I did watching Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again, but there I was chortling my skinny fat ass off. It became clear to me, that I was in fact dealing with something special.

However, the most fascinating part of it all was that for moments and minutes and hours after seeing it I was shell shocked. I simply was not prepared for the what this movie brought to the table. I was even unsure how I truly felt about it. I kinda loved it, but I was unsure if I understood why. Now having seen it 3 times. I can safely piece together why I love this goddamn movie and why I believe it’s one of the best sequels/musicals films ever made.

Now, if you strip this movie down it really shouldn’t work. There is very little in the plot and conflict department. Typically speaking that would mean death to a movie. However, to my utmost surprise. It’s because this movie is light on plot and conflict that makes it work as well as it does. It’s quite the conundrum you see. The first Mamma Mia, outside of just feeling lifeless and cynical, got bogged down in too much plot from the stage show, which truthfully, isn’t very good. (The plot, not the stage show). It suffered for it. This movie is not bound to staying truthful to a stage show or being a faithful adaptation. It’s free to be what these movies should have been from the start. A light musical in which they sing ABBA really well.

It also is a movie which happily celebrates life in aspect. In the current world we live in when Xanax is the drug of choice, it’s rare to see a movie just be happy it exists and just happy about life. The core and crux of the film is to celebrate the life of Lily James/Meryel Streep’s character. And celebrate it does. We see all the moments in life that we want to see and feel. We see her graduate in spectucular fashion, we see her follow of her crazy far fetched dream of living in Greece, we see her have flings and fall in love with all 3 of Amanda Seyfried’s dads. We see her deal with heartbreak. He see her overcome the heartbreak. We see her live out creating the hotel in Greece and finally we see her give her life to her daughter all alone.

Now, Meryl Streep/Lily James character in the first Mamma Mia wouldn’t haven’t got the emotional resonates Mamma Mia 2 got out of the character towards the end. Because we never really got to know her. It just seemed like Streep was just having fun singing ABBA. This movie kills that character off and what would usually feel like fridging or lame killing off of a main character off-screen, the movie doubles down on making her the lead. The incredible performance from Lily James (This is her breakout role. She literally played a Meryl Streep part better than Meryl freaking Streep. That says it all) and fantastic writing and direction makes us really fall in love with that character. It retroactively makes us go back and love her from the first movie. They do this so well, that by the time this movie ends you really get choked up at the fact that her character is dead. They kinda did the impossible really.

The movie is filled to the brim with cliches. Like the movie was probably written from someone pulling cliches out of a hat and writing them down. However, the movie is so unapologetic in doing so that the audience doesn’t give a damn and just goes along with it. The movie gleefully knows it’s cliche, but doesn’t give a damn. It just wants to create a good time for the audience and play some fuckin’ ABBA. I’m sorry, in this day and age when the world has turned to shit and is dominated by anger and sadness, this movie is highly welcome. I would even claim it is important. The world desperately needed a Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. Movies are meant to be an escape. Why wouldn’t anyone want an escape from a movie that happyily celebrates we are all alive and how wonderful the journey of life can be, while also making us laugh with some seriously funny jokes, while also dazzling us with incredible musical sequences. The Waterloo sequence is one of the best musical sequences of all-time. The Dancing Queen sequence will never fail to bring a smile to my face when I absolutely need it. The My Life, My Love sequence will all always bring me on the verge of tears. Which finally brings me to the Fernando sequence.

I’m going to end this talking about The Fernando Sequence because this sequence alone encapsulates everything that makes this gem shine. Okay, Cher is needlessly here and that’s okay, because we all wanted Cher there. All of a sudden she and Andy Garcia appears and they scream towards each other proudly proclaiming they were lost lovers. They sing Fernando because there just so happens to be a song Fernando by ABBA. They embrace as Baz Lurman’s Great Gatsby fireworks go off. Now, this is cliche, dumb as hell, and just plain silly. But goddamn it, it was just so happy and joyful. I could not help but laugh and just be happy I witnessed it happen. It’s one of the most purely happy moments in cinema history. That’s the best way to describe Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. Happiness.