Edgar Wright's "Shaun of the Dead," A Rite of Twat-age

Astonishing as it seems now, Lucy "Girl Next Door" Davis was considered something of a sex symbol in the UK in 2004, thanks to her role as the token hot girl in Ricky Gervais's TV series The Office.  This explains why she is plastered in make-up and simpers through every scene in Shaun of the Dead.  In an eerily prescient taste of Davis's subsequent career, she plays a failed actress in Shaun.

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
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It's a nice touch when Davis' character uses her acting skills to coach the others in an undead masterclass so they can walk through a zombie crowd undetected.

There's really only one good joke in Shaun:  that no one notices the increasing number of zombies that have arrived in town since they are indistinguishable from the braindead humans who already live there, working their nine-to-fives for the Man.

Review continues below...

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"It's the only thing that stops her crying" Katie Alison

"All three of my children love this book"  Janice Peterson

"Moons, trees, leaves... fabulous!" Linda Matson 

Simon Pegg (co-writer) and Nick Frost play the adorable man-child leads.  Personally, I’d like to see every onscreen man-child burned alive.  As with so many man-child films, Shaun is dressed up as a rite of passage.  Shaun (played by Pegg)'s girlfriend has dumped him because he's a man-child.  He's got to become a real man if he wants to keep her.  But he reeeeely reeeeely doesn't want to give up his no-responsibility job and his computer games and his nightly drinking at the local pub.  It's another nice touch to equate the painful wrench between the states of man-childhood and adulthood with a zombie invasion.  But the film never believes that the transition is worth making.  True, Shaun mans up a little bit to take control of the zombies, but it's clear at the end that he never stopped believing that the man-child way was best.  It's less a rite of passage than a rite of twat-age.

Every student in their cups dreams of writing a screenplay full of their drunken and stoned witticisms.  Thankfully most are too drunk or stoned to complete a script and any rogue scripts that do make it into the world are quickly squashed by editors.  Not so with Shaun of the Dead.

Most people will react to this film in the same way that they'd react to a group of drunken students in the pub – either to roll their eyes or to reach for the baseball bats, depending on their temperament.

Personal Score: 3/10

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This is part of a series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer. The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.

For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on interesting films), see my introductory post here.

Original "Star Wars", George Lucas, Film Review

It seems like a good time to rewatch the original 1977 Star Wars and post my review.  'I don't like the black one,' said my young daughter as she passed through the room.  Thankfully this was not early onset racism (the original Star Wars trilogy not being overly blessed with black characters, at least not to look at) but Uncle Darth doing his evil work.

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The thing that struck me about the film on this watch was that not a lot happens – it's quite a tightly constructed plot focused on the emergence of the Death Star and its destruction – but it's clear that the wider world of the films is already known.  It's a neat writing trick to pull off: leaving a lot unsaid but having it there in the background without the need for endless exposition.  And when you've got a trilogy to play with, there's plenty of time for all that to come out.

It's a well put together film, with a good set, strong characters, and well-imagined features (e.g. the light sabres, Princess Leia's hair, Vader's mask).  Darth Vader (David Prowse / James Earl Jones) with his striking look and walk and his breathing and his mysterious history with the Jedi is another nicely unexplained aspect of the film.

Review continues below...

Inspire your baby with the Visual Baby series of picture ebooks.  Original patterns and art designed for young eyes. Try them today by clicking the covers below.

      

"It's the only thing that stops her crying" Katie Alison

"All three of my children love this book"  Janice Peterson

"Moons, trees, leaves... fabulous!" Linda Matson 

Han Solo (Harrison Ford)'s character is summed up by his line 'No reward is worth this!'

And most of the characters are defined by economical and memorable lines:

Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness): 'These aren't the droids you're looking for.'

Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill):  'You know, between his howling and your blasting everything in sight, it's a wonder the whole station doesn't know we're here.'

Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher): 'Don't just stand there! Try and brace it with something!'

Ben Obi-Wan Kenobi's fight with Darth Vader anticipates similar standoffs in the later films and lures the guards away from the Millennium Falcon.  It also conveniently gets rid of the old guy before the final action, and allows a more personal manifestation of the Force as he whispers in Luke's ear (disturbingly like a mental illness).

The garbage compressor scene is a classic and gives a touch of humour when C3PO thinks their relieved whooping is their death cries.

Of course, the Robots have as much personality as anyone else.  C3PO is fussy but loyal, a kind of metal Luke.  R2D2 only beeps but is resilient and bloody minded and carries the cool hologram message.  He also seems to hold back information (the full message) in order to get his way.  R2D2 is robot Han.

There are so many unforgettable scenes. The trench attack at the end, the sight of the rebel fighters taking off from the base to attack.  Luke observes a classic double subset and the tall lookout posts and jungle landscape are great.  The seedy spaceport with its hostile and bizarre aliens is another iconic scene.  It's where we first meet Chewbacca (Peter Mayhew), (surprisingly lean when I re-watched it).

I scored it 7 last time I watched it but I enjoyed it so much this time around I'm going to give it a promotion.

Personal Score: 8/10

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This is part of a series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer. The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.

For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on interesting films), see my introductory post here.

Woody Allen's "Manhattan" Portrait of a Control Freak

Woody Allen begs us to identify the characters he plays in films such as Manhattan and Annie Hall with himself.  The characters have relationships with actresses that Allen has had relationships with in real life (Mia Farrow, Diane Keaton), they express admiration for things Allen is known to love such as the films of Fellini and Bergman, and there are other striking relationship parallels such as in Manhattan, the 42 year old Isaac (played by Allen)'s relationship with 17 year old Jill (Mariel Hemingway) which seems to echo Allen's real-life relationship with 17 year old Stacey Nelkin.

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS
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Much is made of the age gap and illegality of the relationship in Manhattan.  At one point it is explained in psychoanalytical terms as resulting from Isaac's ex-wife leaving him for another woman, making him look for a young girl rather than form a relationship with an adult equal.

Review continues below...

Inspire your baby with the Visual Baby series of picture ebooks.  Original patterns and art designed for young eyes. Try them today by clicking the covers below.

      

"It's the only thing that stops her crying" Katie Alison

"All three of my children love this book"  Janice Peterson

"Moons, trees, leaves... fabulous!" Linda Matson 

While this is an interesting motivation for many age gap relationships, I think there is a much simpler explanation for this one: the Isaac character is a control freak who bullies woman and can do it more easily with a young girl.

Isaac accuses the Diane Keaton character (Mary) of being too cerebral several times, before going on to list Flaubert's novel "Sentimental Education" as one of the reasons it's worth staying alive for.  What a fucker.

When we make the connection from Isaac to Allen that we're begged to make, this film becomes a lot more interesting.  Not on its own terms (adorable Isaac falls in love with one girl after another and just doesn't know what to do) but rather as an inadvertently revealing portrait of a psychopathic, abusing male, able to act with impunity by bending the laws of the land just enough that he can get away with his damaging and deviant behaviour.  Nice guy.  Of course, this is just a fictional character so it seems odd that Allen would flirt with the similarities between Isaac and himself.

Personal Score: 5/10

Follow @MichaelHardach



This is part of a series of film reviews where I give my comments on IMDB Top 250 films as a writer. The idea is that over time these posts will build into a wide-ranging writing resource.

For more details about the approach I've taken, including some important points about its strengths and weaknesses (I make no claims about my abilities as a film critic or even the accuracy of my comments... but I do stand by the value of a writer's notes on interesting films), see my introductory post here.