Phyllida Lloyd’s 2008 film Mamma Mia! was a box-office sensation – so why are we vaulting straight over it to review its 2018 sequel? A lot of reasons, as Mark and Graham discover on this week’s episode of Pop Screen. Beginning with an absolutely gonzo rendition of When I Kissed the Teacher, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again takes plenty of big, weird chances, not least the decision to pattern its plot structure on The Godfather Part II.
This new ambition can only be ascribed to a change of writer and director, the latter post filled by Ol Parker, the former by Richard Curtis, who it would be fair to say Mark and Graham have priors with. We discuss how his sensibility gels with the Mamma Mia! cinematic universe, the way the film simultaneously celebrates and lampoons its predecessor, and the ever-vexed question of whether men can sing.
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