REWIND REVIEW: Hot Fuzz (2007)

I recently joined Jono Pech on his excellent podcast Comedy Rewind, which re-examines funny films from a "bygone era" and looks at how they hold up. Our topic was the classic British action-comedy Hot Fuzz. Listen here as we dissect the film in great depth.

Or you can read this blog. Or both.

(M) ★★★★★

Director: Edgar Wright.

Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent, Timothy Dalton, Paddy Considine, Rafe Spall, Billie Whitelaw, Edward Woodward, Adam Buxton, Olivia Colman, Ron Cook, Kenneth Cranham, Peter Wight, Julia Deakin, Kevin Eldon, Paul Freeman, Karl Johnson, Lucy Punch, Anne Reid, David Threlfall, Stuart Wilson, Bill Bailey, Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Steve Coogan.

Detective Swan and his colleagues were in hot pursuit.

Consider the lily.

Or, in the case of Edgar Wright's flawless comedy Hot Fuzz, consider specifically the Japanese peace lily. 

This seemingly innocuous flowering plant is one example of the genius hidden in plain sight in Hot Fuzz's script, written by director Wright and star Simon Pegg. The film is remarkable in many ways, but the script is, to quote the script itself, "off the chain". 

Like so many other things in Hot Fuzz, the lily is not just one thing; nothing in Hot Fuzz is only ever one thing. Almost every moment, object, joke, and line of dialogue does an incredible amount of heavy lifting, and the lily is a prime example. This is sharp writing that's especially rewarding for the audience, but also efficient, allowing more room for even more moments, objects, jokes and narrative elements, which is even more rewarding for the audience. It also enhances the film's rewatchability, which, again, is rewarding for the audience.

So let us consider the lily.

The first mention of the lily comes during a conversation between Nicholas Angel, played with wonderful balance by Pegg, and his ex Janine (a near-faceless cameo from Cate Blanchett). She calls it a rubber plant, he corrects her - a great show-don't-tell moment. The whole conversation is a mini-info-dump about their recent break-up, but we also learn Nicholas is pedantic, by the book, married to his job, and feels being right is important, both in broad terms of justice and the small-scale terms of a conversation. The lily correction is just one example, but a very key one, of Nicholas' character.

Soon after, we get the excellent high-speed montage of Nicholas moving to the country, which is made all the more amusing by Nicholas clinging to this lily. It also adds pathos - we start to care about Nicholas in part because he cares about the lily. It's kinda sad to see a grown man with no family, no friends, no pets, forced to relocate holding close his most treasured possession, which is a plant.

As Nicholas's relationship with his colleague Danny Butterman (Frost) grows, Nicholas tries to buy Danny a Japanese peace lily for his birthday. This coincides with a major plot point - while Nicholas is outside the nursery retrieving his notebook, Leslie the florist (Reid) is murdered, leading to a thrilling foot chase and Nicholas thinking he's closer to uncovering the murderer.

Now let's hone in on the plotting of this scene. It could have taken place anywhere. Nicholas could have bought something else for Danny - he knows of his love of action movies, so he could have bought him some DVDs or a poster or something connected to that passion. He knows Danny loves Cornettos - he could have bought a bulk supply of the ice creams. Both these ideas work, and the scene could have played out the same way, with Leslie running the local video shop or milk bar. Nothing changes to the plot, and the movie still works.

But the gift of the peace lily is far more personal, so it has far more impact, both when we see Nicholas ask if Leslie has any peace lilies, and later when he tells Danny what he was trying to purchase for him. This plant that had previously been a joke and a symbol of Nicholas' pedantry and loneliness becomes a symbol of what Danny is beginning to mean to Nicholas - a symbol of their blossoming friendship, if you will. 

And later, when Nicholas fights for his life against Michael "Lurch" Armstrong in Nicholas' hotel room, the pot of the peace lily proves an effective and ironic weapon. It's almost a literal take on Chekhov's gun, which is the idea that if you show a gun in the first act, it has to go off in the second or third act. 

More accurately, Chekhov's gun is a screenwriting principle which says that every element of the story must be necessary, and all irrelevant elements should be removed. And that's something Hot Fuzz adheres to, although it goes one better by making the necessary elements necessary for multiple reasons.

To wit: the simple act of doing a crossword is a clever comedic sketch, a portent of things to come, and eventually an opportunity for pithy action-movie one-liners. The model village is a stereotypically quaint (and vaguely hilarious) small-town tourist attraction, an ideal setting for a King Kong Vs Godzilla-style finale, and a wonderfully symbolic and foreshadowing narrative device - the darkness at the heart of Sandford comes from its residents' quest to be "a model village".

Wright and Pegg's script is filled with countless examples of this multi-layered thinking. Even "yarp" does heavy-lifting beyond its jokiness. It's initially a gag about inbred country folk, but later becomes used as a moment of tension important to the plot, followed by a great gag to release the tension ("narp?").

Similarly, the over-the-top nature of action movies is used as a joke that demonstrates the naivety of Danny in contrast to the seriousness of Nicholas, but also a bonding moment between the pair, a source of parody and comedy, and an opportunity for massive third-act action sequences. 

This aspect of the film is also impressive - Hot Fuzz is simultaneously a spoof and loving homage of the action genre. It manages to somehow have its cake and eat it too.

As with Shaun Of The Dead's deep love of George Romero and zombie films, Wright and Pegg invest their own passion for the tropes and clichés of action movies, but send it up by being typically British about the whole thing. The pair reportedly watched 138 action films as research for writing Hot Fuzz - everything from Chuck Norris B-movies to classics like Dirty Harry and LA Confidential - but remained intent on infusing what they had seen with their own Englishness.

"There isn't really any tradition of cop films in the UK," Wright told the New York Post in 2007. 

"We've got a lot of TV cop shows, but we wanted to make a cop film. We felt that every other country in the world had its own tradition of great cop action films and we had none."

The first draft of Hot Fuzz took nine months, and the re-writes stretched out for another nine months. 

It shows - there's not a wasted moment in the film. It takes less than 10 minutes for the story to arrive in Sandford, by which point we understand who Nicholas Angel is, what the tone of the film is, the film's sense of humour, and the filmic language of exaggerated sound FX and sharp edits that it's using. Not to mention cameos from Cate Blanchett, Peter Jackson, Bill Nighy, Martin Freeman and Steve Coogan, amid a who's who cast of British comedy. 

Hot Fuzz is an incredibly rare beast. It's a laugh-out-loud comedy that boasts one of the sharpest and best written scripts of any genre of the era. It's both a piss-take and a love letter. It's built on clichés and tired tropes yet it's something completely new and fresh. In short, Hot Fuzz is an unrepeatable masterpiece of both the buddy-cop action genre and the comedy genre.

Senior Year

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on May 26, 2022.

(MA15+) ★★

Director: Alex Hardcastle.

Cast: Rebel Wilson, Sam Richardson, Mary Holland, Zoë Chao, Justin Hartley, Chris Parnell, Angourie Rice, Avantika Vandanapu, Michael Cimino, Jeremy Ray Taylor, Brandon Scott Jones, Ana Yi Puig, Zaire Adams, Molly Brown.

"You can't call people 'old AF' - that's not very woke."

High school is, was, and probably always will be difficult. There are good bits, but they're usually peppered in between the heartbreaks, bullying, self-doubts, mistakes and the general awkwardness of being a teenager. Somehow, for most people anyway, high school manages simultaneously to be one of the best and worst times of your life.

Good teen movies understand this. They empathise with their subjects and audience of teens and former teens. The lows are like mortal blows that we all feel, and the highs remind us of our own small victories. Good teen movies get what it is to be a teen.

Senior Year is partly a fish-out-of-water comedy, but it's mainly a teen movie, and it's on this front that it fails. Its characters are caricatures and there is little-to-no empathy for teenage life. And there's nothing Rebel Wilson or anyone else can do to save the film.

Wilson plays Steph, who awakes from a coma after 20 years with one aim in life - to return to high school and pick up where she left off. That means throwing herself back into high school, trying to be prom queen, and regaining her status as the most popular girl in school. 

Naturally Steph is going to learn some life lessons, but her dim-witted desires make it hard to get on board with her quest. When we finally get an insight into why it means so much to her to be prom queen, it actually doesn't really make sense.

Not that the rest of the film does. Steph almost dies when she lapses into a coma, and it's caught on camera, but there are no recriminations for the perpetrator. But more frustrating is the film's narrow view of its main teen characters, none of whom seem like real people, despite the best efforts of the cast.

Wilson is a prime example. Only sporadically amusing, Steph never comes across as an actual person despite Wilson's earnest efforts. It only makes it harder to care about her situation. It also amplifies the idea that Wilson doesn't have what it takes to lead a film. This is probably not true, but this isn't the movie that will change minds. 

All of this would matter little if the film was actually funny, but outside of the efforts of Mary Holland (whose timing and delivery is perfect), very few jokes land. So many gags hit like "teens are too woke LOL" or "teens are too fixated on being insta-famous LOL", both of which feel like simplifications that aren't even that funny to start with.

The occasional pop culture reference works, but the film suffers from failing to either properly parody teen movies or be one. 

Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness (no spoilers)

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on May 12, 2022.

(M) ★★★½

Director: Sam Raimi.

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, Rachel McAdams, Benedict Wong, Xochitl Gomez, Chiwetel Ejiofor.

Ooh, red stuff.

With every addition to the MCU, a growing number of critics ask the question of when the Marvel bubble will burst. 

Everything ends, after all, and the departure of figurehead characters Iron Man and Captain America has made many wonder if the end is nigh. 

The strangely flat The Eternals helped spur this line, though the massive success of Spider-Man: No Way Home gave pause for thought. That could be dismissed as an aberration due to the webslinger’s inbuilt popularity and the film’s audacious “multiverse” plot line, which tied together two decades of character legacy in a beautifully satisfying way. 

But this second solo outing for Marvel's Sorcerer Supreme is likely to spark further discussions about how much fuel the MCU has in the tank. The film is good without being great, and while it's daring in some ways and does a few tonal things not previously seen in the franchise, it will ultimately be remembered for its fan-service cameos rather than its remarkable plotting or character development.

The film finds Dr Strange (Cumberbatch) troubled by nightmares in which he fails to save a young girl (Gomez). When that girl appears in real life fleeing from a many-tentacled demon, Strange is sucked into an interdimensional battle that sees him flung across the multiverse and battling alternate versions of himself.

The much-heralded return of Sam Raimi to the Marvel fold has its upsides - namely a sporadic horror bent that keeps Multiverse Of Madness feeling fresh. Whether it be a rotting corpse rising from the dead or a baddie limping down a dimly lit corridor like a zombie, the movie stands out from the other previous 27 MCU instalments when Raimi lets his inner Evil Dead out to play.

Outside the horror and the occasional sense of dread, the rest of the film is merely okay. The biggest disappointment lies in Gomez's America Chavez - not through any fault of Gomez's, but due to the script. Chavez is reduced to little more than her multiversal powers. She basically becomes the movie's MacGuffin, her arc is left unresolved, and her biggest impact on the film is to help humanise and test Strange, rather than truly grow as a person, beyond a horribly cliched and predictable final showdown.

While it leaves Chavez frustratingly undeveloped, her presence helps shape Strange's journey and amplifies the film's themes about morality. So much of the story is predicated on the definitions of right and wrong, of the greater good vs the necessary sacrifice, of the choices we make, and the murky spaces in between. This stuff is fascinating, and also helps give us a villain whose motivations are understandable and occasionally truly frightening. 

Ultimately this film's genuinely surprising guest spots and Raimi's dalliances with his dark past are the most memorable bits. The rest serves as solid development for the increasingly heroic Stephen Strange, played with growing ease by the perfectly cast Cumberbatch, in between some so-so moments. 

Multiverse Of Madness gives good villain but disappointing sidekick, throws up some interesting ideas about choices and morals, and tries admirably to introduce some new flavours to the infinite stew that is the MCU. Will it be enough to keep Kevin Fiege's pot bubbling? More than likely for now.

The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on April 28, 2022.

(M) ★★★★

Director: Tom Gormican.

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Pedro Pascal, Sharon Horgan, Lily Sheen, Tiffany Haddish, Ike Barinholtz, Alessandra Mastronardi, Neil Patrick Harris.

Jokes - not for everyone.

The post-modern thing of an actor playing themselves in a film has a couple of stellar examples - Being John Malkovich is a modern classic, while Jean-Claude van Damme's little-seen JCVD attracted the best reviews of his career.  

You can add to that list this wonderfully absurd comedy in which Nicolas Cage plays himself and his insane alter-ego Nicky Cage. It's hard to imagine anyone else being able to deliver such a high-wire act of naturalism and self-parody, or anyone else with the chops, balls and craziness to pull it off.

Perhaps that's why director Tom Gormican pursued Cage (who turned it down three or four times) so hard for the role. No other actor has the actual acting capabilities, action hero cred, and bonkers mythology to make this work.

Cage plays a fictionalised version of himself who is washed up and on the verge of quitting acting. When a billionaire uber-fan (Pascal) hires Cage to be a celebrity guest at his birthday party, an unwitting friendship is born. But the CIA is lurking on the periphery, hoping Cage will help them solve a kidnapping case with geopolitical implications.

Part-buddy comedy, part-goofy actioner, part-Cage-spotting worship-athon, The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent is unexpectedly hilarious, fun, and clever. It unfolds in a pleasingly predictable manner, but is elevated by Cage's willingness to go along with everything and his utterly charming partnership with Pascal. The latter makes for a wonderful foil to Cage's dynamism, bringing a wide-eyed charm to mega-fan Javi.

The meta-ness of Cage playing Cage is a highlight, but even more so when he's playing "Nicky Cage" - a Vampire's Kiss era version of himself that is utterly insane. Equally fun and meta is the film script that Javi and Cage start writing together and the way it mirrors what actually plays out in The Unbearable Weight Of Massive Talent. It's this sharpness that elevates this beyond being a one-note joke.

The supporting cast beyond Pascal, particularly Horgan and Haddish, is great, and everything moves at a good pace. The finale is suitably meta, and helps the whole thing lock together. And it's funny - one of the funnier movies to hit the big screen in a while.

No one else could have worked as well in the lead role of this particular movie, so kudos to Gormican for pursuing Cage, and kudos to Cage for having enough self-awareness and courage to go along with it.

Summer Of Soul (Or When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on April 14, 2022.

(PG) ★★★★★

Director: Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson.

"Mister, won't you please help my pony!"

Concert films are usually just documents of bands doing what they do - playing live on stage, in front of fervent audiences, running through their hits.

Sometimes they end up being more than that. Sometimes they become a snapshot of a moment in time, or even an historical document. Sometimes they capture a profound turning point in culture, or demonstrate the deeper power of music and how it connects a community.

Summer Of Soul does all that and more. It captures some incredible artists at the peak of their powers, all performing at a remarkable event, the likes of which have never been seen again. But it's also a powerful essay on civil rights, politics, religion, and black identity, as viewed through the prism of a forgotten piece of history.

Questlove (of The Roots fame) does a marvelous job of capturing and celebrating the vibe and power of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival, an event that drew a largely black audience of around 50,000 people to Mount Morris Park over several weekends.

The festival took place the same summer a certain other music festival happened, leading some to dub it the Black Woodstock. The event was filmed, but very little of it was ever aired, despite boasting a killer line-up that included Stevie Wonder, Sly & The Family Stone, The Staple Singers, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Nina Simone, BB King, The Fifth Dimension and more.

In between banging musical performances, Questlove slices in interviews from those who were there, providing important context to the festival. In some cases, he drops pieces of dialogue in between lyrics, like a DJ sampling. In other places, he lets the performances or the recollections run on, like a muso feeding off the audience, not wanting to break the spell.

The magic of music is definitely the key attraction, but it's also used in fascinating ways to explore the culture and politics of the time. The film segues seamlessly through its high-profile line-up in between discussing civil rights, black identity, the importance of the church in black culture, the role of the Black Panthers, the politics of the time, and Harlem's multi-cultural make-up. It's an impressive juggling act that seems effortless.

In Summer Of Soul, the festival becomes not only a lens through which to explore black society and the issues facing it, but a metaphor for black history. That this important event and its amazing line-up were largely forgotten about by the wider American society says it all really.

Questlove's film show the capacity for the music doco to be about so much more than music. It's one of the best examples of the genre to date.

REWIND REVIEW: Beastie Boys Story

This is a version of a review airing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on April 14, 2022.

(M) ★★★★

Director: Spike Jonze.

Cast: Adam Yauch, Michael Diamond, Adam Horovitz. 

Beastie Boys Story is streaming on Apple TV.

"Welcome to Old Men Dancing!"

On May 4, 2022, it will have been 10 years since the death of Adam Yauch, aka MCA, aka the heart and soul of the hip hop legends Beastie Boys. 

That the band ended with his passing is testimony not only to how integral he was to the group, but also the integrity of the remaining members Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horovitz (Ad Rock). Since Yauch's passing, Diamond and Horovitz have used the Beastie Boys' name selectively, and predominantly to celebrate Yauch and their legacy as a trio.

This integrity and sense of legacy is evident in the two-shot of Beastie Boys Book and Beastie Boys Story. The first is an essential tome detailing the big and small of their career. It allows Diamond and Horovitz to right wrongs, set records straight, and peel back the curtain on a fascinating and hugely influential career.

 

The second is essentially a live stage show version of the book, turned into a semi-documentary in order to allow it to travel the world without Mike D and Ad Rock having to actually travel the world.

The advantage the doco has over the book is the endless stream of footage and music available to help sell the stories, give visual context, and provide opportunities to poke fun. When things go awry in the live show, Jonze leaves them in, because that's part of what Beastie Boys were all about - goofing around, making each other laugh, and generally having a laugh.

However there was always a seriousness hidden in the beats and rhymes of their music, and that's even more in the mix in Beastie Boys Story. Mike D and Ad Rock talk candidly about the mistakes they made and the personas they created around their smash-hit debut Licence To Ill, and how the touring and success of that record turned them into the very things they despised. Their honesty and mea culpas are impressive.

But it's when they talk about Yauch that the doco really hits hard. Watching Ad Rock struggling to talk about his departed friend is heartbreaking. It's part of the honesty that makes the film feel valuable and important, and not a cash-in - paying tribute to Yauch and his work is a key reason for this doco to exist.

Most of the film is excellent, but some parts don't work. While Ad Rock sounds like he's just chatting with the audience, Mike D sounds like he's reading off an autocue (because he is). Some bits drag and some gags bite. There's also nothing on their final two albums, with the doco skipping from Hello Nasty to Yauch's death - a 14-year leap that omits their post-September 11 album To The 5 Boroughs and their brilliant comeback/farewell Hot Sauce Committee Part II.

Perfect for the hardcore fans, it also serves as a great overview for the casual passers-by. A deeper dive would be welcome, but it feels like this is the best insight we'll ever get into the band, and perhaps the last word on a stunning and influential career.

CODA

This is a version of a review appearing on ABC Radio across regional Victoria on March 31, 2022.

(M) ★★★★

Director: Sian Heder.

Cast: Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Daniel Durant, Marlee Matlin, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Amy Forsyth.

CODA is streaming on Apple TV.

"Honey - you don't have red wine with fish."

Is CODA the best film of 2021? 

No, it isn't. I'd give that honour to The Power Of The Dog or Belfast. 

But is it the kind of feelgood movie we all need after a couple of tough years? Absolutely.

CODA's high-concept story of a girl from a deaf family wanting to be a musician sings as sweetly as its star Emilia Jones, and its themes of dreams, outcasts, communication, joy and family help make this the uplifting and sincere movie experience many have been searching for.

Jones is excellent as Ruby Rossi, the only hearing member of her family. Between her schoolwork, her family's fishing business, and serving as her family's interpreter, Ruby's life is full. When she tries to squeeze in her dream of becoming a singer, as well as having a love life, her world overflows, and she's forced to choose between her own needs and the needs of her family.

CODA succeeds thanks to its great cast, its strong idea (adapted from the French film La Famille Belier), and the sincere way it tells its sweet story. Jones is brilliant, carrying the weight of the film and the singing with apparent ease. She is the shining heart in the centre of the movie and it's no exaggeration to say CODA stands or falls on her shoulders.Thankfully, Jones delivers. 

Kotsur is also great, and a worthy winner in a tough best supporting actor field at the Oscars. His award season success has overshadowed Matlin however, whose role is arguably more difficult and multi-faceted than Kotsur's lovable crank. Matlin deserves just as many accolades. Also noteworthy are Durant as Ruby's brother Leo, and Derbez as the passionate music teacher, Mr V.

Heder's adapted screenplay is a neat ball that wraps up most of its story strings nicely. Her direction is unfussy and to the point, which only helps the film's heartfelt sincerity and uplifting nature shine through.

So why isn't it the best film of the year? Compared to the likes of The Power Of The Dog and Belfast, CODA is a safe bet that doesn't push the limits of its artistic endeavours. The cinematography, complexity and thematic depth of the other two mentioned films are leaps and bounds ahead of CODA, as is The Power Of The Dog's score.

But that's ok, that's fine. CODA isn't that kind of film, but it's a beautiful, well-told story is one well worth many accolades and your time.