SF Diplomat

Do You Remember Peter Kay? the long slow death of the lowest common denominator

A year or so ago I wrote about what I then perceived to be the increasingly phatic nature of British comedy.  At the time the piece was linked to by some pretty large comedy blogs but since then I’ve not really written about comedy, this is probably because I haven’t really watched any this year apart from Entourage and that enrages me in equal amounts that it entertains me. 

Anyway, an event is taking place at the moment that has prompted me to return to writing about comedy.  In particular, I’m returning to the points I made last year as I think the chap I’m going to write about today is a particularly good candidate.

REVIEW - Hot Fuzz (2007)

It is, I am told, always difficult to create something for public consumption when your first piece is a resounding hit.  Always benefiting from a longer gestation period, that first piece invariably sets a challenge to any creator: improve with your second piece or have that first piece be considered a fluke.  So, when your first film is one of the most popular British comedies of recent years (and was made without a Hugh Grant in sight) then you had better hope that your follow up is as funny.  Hot Fuzz is the second film collaboration between Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright, the team that brought us Shaun of the Dead as well as the cult sitcom Spaced, a loud, brash and blood-soaked affair, Hot Fuzz comes roaring out of the gate intent upon leaving the more sedate and low key Shaun of the Dead in the dust.  However, despite slicker direction, a huge gag-rate and an all star British comedy cast, Hot Fuzz ultimately lacks the intelligence and depth of Shaun of the Dead, resulting in a film that’s full of blood but ultimately devoid of a heart.

Phatic Discourse and the Death of British comedy

For anyone who happened to grow up during the 1980's, British comedy has always been a quite subversive beast.  More political than the US stand-up scene that inspired it and far more confrontational and edgy than the bland variety acts that constitute most of European comedy, it is undeniable that British alternative comedy used to be about intelligent people with axes to grind.  However, it has become increasingly clear that British comedy is moving away from a confrontational and counter-cultural idiom towards a more traditional and inclusive model that is less about telling actual jokes and more about making people feel good.

The likes of Catherine Tate and Little Britain are only the tip of the iceberg.  Contemporary stand-up acts and student favourites such as The Mighty Boosh and Josie Long aren't just an alternative to an alternative, they're actually comedians with a profoundly reactionary artistic agenda, increasingly supported by the PR infrastructure of the major British broadcasters and retailers.  Faced with such an onslaught, can the spark of rebellion and intelligence that once characterised the British comedy scene ever hope to survive?

Unlikely.

Consider the following clips…

Lou and Andy from Little Britain.

Lauren from The Catherine Tate Show.

2006 Tumbleweed Award Winners announced...

It should have come to everyone's attentions having watched the British Comedy Awards that there's something very wrong indeed with British Comedy.  Where once its inventiveness and bravery dazzled the world, it is now the preserve of pompous idiots with stylish haircuts and washed-up former opera singers.

Well salvation is at hand in the shape of the 2006 Tumbleweed Awards!

Voted for by the fair people of Cookd and Bombd and produced by Neil, alan strang and Emergency Lalla Ward Ten they're a good selection and a very funny read.

The 2006 Tumbleweed Comedy Awards Nominations Open

In Response to the astonishingly smug and unjust orgy of self-agrandisement that the British Comedy Awards have become, Cookd and Bombd last year started the Tumblies, an awards ceremony devoted to drawing attention to all that is rotten and corrupt in British Comedy.

The nominations process has now started for the 2006 awards with shows such as TittyBangBang and Little Miss Jocelyn looking sure to make it onto the final ballot.  So Go forth and register and let your voice be heard!

REVIEW - Enfermes Dehors (2006) - 16/20

Enfermes Dehors is the story of a glue-sniffing homeless person who stumbles upon a policeman committing suicide and decides to put his abandoned uniform to good use.  Initially this means using it to steal food from the police canteen but soon Roland discovers that wearing the uniform gives him certain powers and responsibilities, particularly tracking down the kidnapped child of a former porn star whose picture he had fallen in love with.

It is tempting to say that English-speaking audiences are largely ignorant of Dupontel’s work as a writer and director, but in truth he is best known over here for his performance opposite Vincent Cassel in Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible.  Despite this film show-casing Dupontel’s abilities as an actor rather than as a writer and director, it is strangely indicative of the kind of artist he is because Enfermes Dehors speaks of an emerging French creative community that explores darker themes and ideas in the middle of the ocean of onanistic, self-indulgent middle-class angst that makes up the bulk of the French film industry.

Dupontel is an artist who wears his creative relationships on his sleeve.  In addition to the presence of his Muse Claude Perron (owner of the best cheek bones in Europe and the leading lady in all of Dupontel’s films), Enfermes Dehors features many of the same actors as his earlier films the brilliant Bernie and the cruelly over-looked Le Createur.  The feeling of a creative community is only increased by Dupontel’s enlisting of Benoit Debie, who was also responsible for the unique visual stylings of Irreversible, Innocence and Calvaire as Director of Photography on all four films.  Debie and Dupontel work brilliantly together to bring to the screen Dupontel’s own particular blending of the dark with the whimsical and the bleak with the fairy-tale. 

However, where the likes of The Mighty Boosh and Tim Burton blend these styles so as to create an intellectual vacuum that is neither dark nor whimsical, Dupontel inspires himself from Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King to tell a story that is fantastical and warm-hearted but ultimately set in a world of sex, violence and decay.  Nowhere is this more elegantly demonstrated than in the character of Marie who goes from hacking into the city’s emergency PA system to sing her lost daughter a lullaby to offering a pervert a Director’s Cut DVD of a Caesarian birth with complications.  In Dupontel’s hands, the styles compliment each other perfectly because he realises the basic truth that dark and gritty is no more realistic than warm-hearted and whimsical.  Both exaggerated viewpoints are expressed in his well drawn and engaging characters.  In fact, while many people try to combine dark and whimsical, nobody does it quite the way Dupontel does.  However, he seems aware of the popularity of his approach and by featuring characters who work in sex shops and horrible grocers, he seems to be making a sly dig at the faux grittiness of Jeunet’s Amelie.

Where most comedy films try to be as inclusive and broad as possible, it is a delight to see a film that so revels in the alternative characteristics of its comedy so unashamedly and that does so with such a high gag-rate.  With the possible exception of 10 minutes leading up to the final conclusion where the need to service the plot overtakes the need to be funny, the film is consistently funny and entertaining with hardly any jokes that misfire and a number of lines that you’ll find yourself quoting to your friends.

If I had to find something to criticise, it would be that the central love story feels slightly rushed.  Perron and Dupontel spend so little time on screen together that the final act where Marie sees the lengths to which Roland has gone to find her daughter and falls for him sees not so much fairy tale as just silly.  But this feels like an unfair criticism as it is clear throughout the film that Roland’s love for Marie is slightly otherworldly so to begrudge the otherworldly ending would be to begrudge one of the film’s defining characteristics.

On the whole, while perhaps lacking the viciousness of Bernie or the satirical bent of Le Createur, Enfermes Dehors marks a successful return to the director’s chair for one of France’s leading comic directors.  One can only hope that it will be successful enough to ensure that we won’t have to wait another 8 years for Dupontel’s next film as those years robbed us of one of the most exciting and creative film-makers around.

Peep Show - Series 2 - A

This review also featured on Videovista... what's that? why yes... I do review for them rather a lot :-)

Peep Show was something of a sleeper hit for Channel 4 in 2003.  In the sea of bland American sitcoms and Jimmy Carr-infested schlock, its frequent use of first person camera work and first person narration by the characters made it stand out from the crowd slightly.  It also appeared at the very height of Office mania and took the same cringe-inducing style and combined it with a fine line in memorable dialogue and created something truly special in this day and age; a brilliant British sitcom.

The series revolves around Mark and Jeremy.  Cosmetically, they are something of a comedy odd couple.  Mark is a neurotic geek with a joyless job eternally lusting after one of his co-workers and Jeremy is a lazy arrogant idiot who has managed to convince himself that he is a musician.  Their differences are cosmetic because their situation is ultimately the same; because of their own failings they’re stuck living together while happiness evades them again and again.

The writing for Peep Show is amid the best you will encounter anywhere.  The memorable lines follow each other so quickly that the only way to take it all in is by viewing it again and again lest you miss such gems as “It’s like watching a porno, except I can’t see anything… and I don’t have a hard on… and I feel like crying” and “I’m the alpha-est male here!” and both of those come from the first episode. But the writing skill doesn’t limit itself to zingers.

Mark Kermode says that watching horror is a masochistic experience, as you will yourself to watch something truly unpleasant.  The comedy of embarrassment is a similar phenomenon, as the characters are put through social situations so utterly mortifying that they are almost painful to watch.  The skill here lies in taking the audience to the brink and no further because if you go too far it all collapses into camp and farce.  Peep Show runs along the absolute bleeding edge of what is bearable, watching the DVD at home I frequently had to press pause as I simply could not take it.  The writers are so good at walking that fine line that the only thing stopping the series from becoming unwatchable is the promise of the next great line and visual gag just around the corner.  If you like I’m Alan Partridge, The Office, People Like Us, Curb Your Enthusiasm or even Fawlty Towers then you will simply adore Peep Show.

Peep Show is also lucky enough to have a talented cast to deliver that wonderful writing.  Mitchell continues to be superb and the talent he displays really begs the question about his recent tendency to appear on terrible comedy panel shows.  Webb is skilled at making a hateful character appear hateful and the supporting cast are all amazing and include Rachel Blanshard whose most notable role was taking over from Alicia Silverstone in the TV version of Clueless.

The one flaw in Peep Show’s otherwise immaculate façade is the Mark/Sophie relationship.  A perversion of the Ross/Rachel relationship from Friends, the writers clearly consider it a golden goose, allowing them to truly turn Mark into an absolute maniac as he goes to more and more desperate ends to seduce Sophie.  However, Sophie remains an under-written role when you compare it to the other supporting characters. However badly Mark behaves, his relationship with her remains a tabula rasa; at the end of every episode it goes back to normal.  This means that Sophie can never really develop as a character so the amount of screen time she gets starts to irk when characters like Superhans, Johnson and Toni are reduced to little more than cameos.  The reason why the Mark/Sophie relationship works is because of Mark.  I think the writers would get a very similar effect if rather than failing repeatedly with Sophie, he failed with different girls, allowing other supporting characters more room and getting rid of the reset-button problem.  The second episode demonstrates this wonderfully as Mark and Sophie aren’t speaking, allowing a new character to appear and put Mark through a completely different kind of emotional wringer.  However, this is a relatively minor matter and is more of a potential problem than an actual one.

In conclusion, this is simply sublime TV comedy.  Anyone who wants more out of their comedy than the mindless repetition of Little Britain should buy not only this DVD but the first series too.

Festival (2005) - B

This review also appeared at Videovista.  Go forth and bookmark it.

Festival is a difficult film to make your mind up about.  On first appearances it seems like a lazy gimmick; an ensemble piece about the Edinburgh Festival filmed in and around the Edinburgh Festival and about people launching their careers in comedy and drama starring people launching their careers in comedy and drama.  It seems a little bit too reflexive and self-referential to be of any substance at all, but surprisingly there is some meat here.

The film juggles a large cast of characters who represent all spectrums of the Festival.  From the successful established comedians returning to their old haunts to the new and up-coming comedians of the future and from amateur one-man-shows to seriously high-brown theatre troupes.  All of these surrounded by a host of journalists and TV executives.  Each of these little groups has their own story to tell and their own path to travel.

As a comedy/drama the balance is perhaps slightly tipped towards the comedy end of the spectrum and is in a style similar to that of something like The Book Group (which was written and directed by the same person).  The dramatic plot lines tend to be a little bit undercooked as they are quite melodramatic but the large cast means that each character only has a small amount of screen time.  So in effect you barely have time to get to know some of the characters before they start to go into meltdown.  This is most blatant in the case of Brother Mike and the owner of a flat rented to a troupe of Canadian actors.  The comedy, on the other hand, is more successful.  Never riotously funny, Festival is at its best when it is talking about the comedy industry. 

Festival pulls no punches in its portrayal of the comedy industry. While comedians are either psychological wrecks trying to become famous or psychological wrecks that are famous, the TV industry is full of critics and commissioners who are venal and arbitrary in whom they choose to make famous.  Even comedy fans are portrayed as know-nothing sheep who would laugh at any old rubbish.  While this makes for some really funny moments and some grotesque characters, it does leave something of a bitter aftertaste.  While Festival clearly hates the comedy industry, it is a part of it and so are the actors.  This results in a film with shaky intellectual foundations as it tries to be modern comedy whilst spitting venom at modern comedy.  This shakyness is nicely symbolised by the casting of Richard Ayoade.  Ayoade is most famous for appearing in Chris Morris’ disappointing Nathan Barley and in Festival he reprises the role of a stupid media professional.  The problem is that many comedy critics argue that Ayoade is, in fact, someone whose prominence is due more to political skill than talent.  So like Ayoade, Festival criticises what it itself is.

On the whole though, this is a decent and funny little film.  The writing is really quite good, generating some memorable lines and exploring some nice ideas.  The ensemble cast also do a very good job.  It’s nice to see that despite being quite a sedate film, the writer was not afraid to throw in jarring moments and characters meaning that you’re never quite sure what to expect as the next scene starts.

Also worth praising are the DVD extras.  There are a number of deleted scenes that should arguably have been left in as they are genuinely funny and we have two featurettes about the pre-production process including the sound track and the read-throughs.

In conclusion, this is a rather enjoyable film and, between the good quality extras and the chance to re-watch certain key moments, could arguably stake its place on the shelf of any serious comedy fan.