YMMV / Dreamgirls

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Did Curtis ever really care about either Effie or Deena, or did he just use them the way he used everyone else? If he had known that Effie was pregnant with his child, would he have still kicked her to the curb, or would he have tried to work out a situation that would work for all of them?
  • Related to this, Curtis' relationship with Deena can come off as ephebophilic. His obsession with her is creepy enough and has undertones of sexual grooming, but his insistence on her starring in that Cleopatra film even with her strong reluctance (particularly how she feels she's too old for the role, since she would have to play a sixteen-year-old) and his comment to her of "You'll always be sixteen to me". Additionally, even though it's a great song, Curtis' "When I First Saw You" can be viewed as him being interested in her from the very beginning.
• Angst? What Angst?: Some viewers have noticed how quickly Lorrell gets past Jimmy's death, with her only being sad about it in one scene and then getting back to business as usual. Given the fact that it came out of nowhere, mostly forgotten by everyone other than Effie, C.C. and Marty and that it's a Death by Adaptation makes one even wonder why he was killed off in the first place.
• Award Snub: The movie earned eight Academy Award nominations, more than any other movie of its year, yet got denied a Best Picture nomination. Eddie Murphy fans were rather vocal about his being denied the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his performance as Jimmy, which the man himself blamed on the release of Norbit during award season. Likewise many people are outraged that Jennifer Hudson only received Supporting Awards, only so Beyoncé Knowles would have no competition, mitigated by the fact that with her in the supporting category, Hudson had no real competition, guaranteeing her win, compared to her going against Helen Mirren and her brilliant performance in The Queen if she had gone in the Lead Category.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • Many fans of this film dislike the fans of Little Miss Sunshine and vice versa. While one reason is due to the acrimony over Alan Arkin winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar over Eddie Murphy, there have been other glaring reasons for the strife.
  • Inevitably, there is one between the 2006 film version and of the 2012 remake of Sparkle. Many fans and critics of both films have called out the latter film of being too similar to the former in spite of the original 1976 version pre-dating Dreamgirls by five years. Additionally, it was a sore spot for Sparkle fans that while their rival received lots of critic and commercial praise, their film was largely ignored and received mixed reviews.^note This is likely for a variety of reasons: aside from the play Dreamgirls being more well-known than the original Sparkle, other factors that may have lead to its disappointing performance is both the bigger star power in the former and the belief that it was wrong to release the film in August and not sooner after Whitney Houston's death, especially with it being her final performance
• Harsher in Hindsight: The entirety of "Love You I Do." The whole song is about how Effie trusts Curtis completely to do right by her and how they'll go far in the world together. Well Effie, the thing with that is...
  • Similarly, whenever The Dreamettes/The Dreams/Deena Jones and the Dreams sing "Family", a member of the so-called family is shortly pushed out or otherwise shafted in some way.
  • Another moment from the film is when Effie becomes estranged from her brother, C.C. It becomes worse when you learn that Effie's actress, Jennifer Hudson, suffered through the murders of her mother, brother, and nephew (at the hands of her brother-in-law) in 2008.
  • Remembering the outrage everyone felt after their version of "Cadillac Car" was stolen by another band to greater popularity is this after Deena Jones and The Dreams stole Effie's version of "One Night Only", which became a disco hit (although Deena nor the band knew about the previous version and apologized when the truth came out).
• He Really Can Act: And sing! It's safe to say that Eddie Murphy's come a long way since "Party All The Time." See Award Snub.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • "And I Am Telling You..." is Effie's lowest point— she's been kicked out of the group, lost Curtis, and in her delusions is clinging on desperately to whatever level of stardom she thinks she is owed. And despite all this, the song, and the actress' power as a singer and humanity, ends up becoming the standout moment from the show, receiving some of the biggest cheers and thundering applause from audiences in any musical. Such is her ability that it usually wins people back to Effie's side for Act 2, after her Jerkass Diva-ish personality throughout Act 1 usually turns people off to her.
  • In the movie, Beyoncé plays the Spotlight-Stealing Squad. However after the movie came out Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy took it over.
• I Am Not Shazam: Despite the title of the film and the song, they are called the Dreamettes, the Dreams, and then Deena Jones and the Dreams.
• LGBT Fanbase: "And I am Telling You" has been a Drag Queen anthem for decades.
• Memetic Mutation: For a time, "And I'm Telling You Im Not Going" was better remembered for a scene from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, in which Will does a hysterically over-the-top lip-sync of the song to Uncle Phil. Jennifer Hudson would later reveal that this is where she first heard the song.
• Misaimed Fandom: A few fans see Lorrell as "the only Dream without flaws" because of how Deena was a pushover and Effie was a bitch, but they forget that Lorrell was a mistress to Jimmy, and was willing to stay in a relationship with a married man for a few years.
• Narm: The scene with the reprised version of "Cadillac Car" has been known to made several audiences laugh rather than share the sense of annoyance/outrage that Curtis and company felt. Arguably, it can be read as Black Comedy, that this rip-roaring R&B song got more popular as a terrible teen pop ballad that sucked all of the coolness out.
• Signature Song: "And I'm Telling You I'm Not Going".
• The Woobie: Effie and Deena.
  • Jerkass Woobie: Effie, while a Jerk with a Heart of Gold, can count. Although she was selfish, rude, and self-absorbed at first, she loses her spot and her boyfriend, who she really wanted to stay with while she was pregnant with his baby. It's not that hard to feel sorry for her. Plus, seeing him getting married to Deena must have hurt her a lot.