Welcome to Monday, Dear Listeners; we’ve had a busy weekend with viewing and recording; and the new episode of TFT is now available for your listening pleasure.
We talk about ‘Up’, which both of your genial co-hosts liked a lot (Jett a great deal) and ‘The Hangover’, which divided our team in two.
In short – Jett’s of the mind that ‘The Hangover’ is a subversive and thoughtful movie; on the other hand, I experienced it as a celebration of idiocy and selfishness that lionises ‘an absurd childish ritual involving sex drugs and a waste of money. It’s in love with a particular kind of youthfulness, it also manages to be both homophobic and racist, and it underlines the individualism that is at the root of why community has broken down. It made me feel sick to my stomach even though I was laughing every minute.’
As for Jett: ‘It’s pro-community and a wonderful celebration of different cultures coming together. It’s about joining community and growing up. It’s a brilliant, transgressive picture. I didn’t just laugh during this film, I laughed harder and louder than in recent memory…[It's] occupying a mythic space of our consciousness. Feels very Greek to me.’
Listen closely for Jett’s view that this movie is a direct descendant of ‘Eyes Wide Shut’. And for my attempt at solving 17-across in the LA Times Crossword. (Full disclosure: I think Jett at least has good reasons for thinking what he thinks about the movie; and even though I think he’s over-reading, his one-man-film-school analysis, as is often the case, makes me want to see it again. Maybe.)
And let us know what you think: ‘The Hangover’: Kubrickian reflection on contemporary masculinity? Or nothing more than a slightly classier-than-most buddy gross out comedy?
posted in forum Miscellaneous by zad1138
posted in forum Miscellaneous by seanpdudley
posted in forum General Movie Stuff by seanpdudley
posted in forum General Movie Stuff by Jett Loe
posted in forum General Movie Stuff by prawnman
Thanks for the show — I rather like it when you two disagree. It makes things interesting!
For what it's worth, your dispute over “The Hangover” has inspired me to want to see it to find out whose side I'm on.
The Hangover
The Hangover
Layers upon layers
'classic' meaning we actually live up to our strapline by disagreeing on films! we'll see what happens with 'the taking of pelham 123'!
OK, so I've seen The Hangover now, and I agree much more with Jett than with Gareth. While I agree that the film goes out of its way to be offensive here and there, I think there's some real heft beneath the crudity.
In particular, I think the frame of reference is Shakespearean comedy — the move from civilization and all its constraints (L.A.) to the wilderness and all its excesses (Las Vegas) is a telltale sign. That it ends with a successful wedding ceremony — one that seems doomed over and over — is another. The question is what it finally affirms about the nature of the compromises involved in “the war of the sexes,” and what this says about questions of maturity/childishness.
Somebody could (should?) explore the notion that it's a re-do of A Midsummer Night's Dream, complete with the big dream sequence — was all that incoherent craziness in Vegas just Doug's sun-baked hallucinogenic dream? Maybe, maybe not.
This was my take on it:
http://danceswithanxiety.blogspot.com/2009/06/h…
Thanks!
Also: try playing that excellent '70s score to Pelham 1-2-3 a little speeded up — my MP3 player does that, and it sounds even better!
OK, so I've seen The Hangover now, and I agree much more with Jett than with Gareth. While I agree that the film goes out of its way to be offensive here and there, I think there's some real heft beneath the crudity.
In particular, I think the frame of reference is Shakespearean comedy — the move from civilization and all its constraints (L.A.) to the wilderness and all its excesses (Las Vegas) is a telltale sign. That it ends with a successful wedding ceremony — one that seems doomed over and over — is another. The question is what it finally affirms about the nature of the compromises involved in “the war of the sexes,” and what this says about questions of maturity/childishness.
Somebody could (should?) explore the notion that it's a re-do of A Midsummer Night's Dream, complete with the big dream sequence — was all that incoherent craziness in Vegas just Doug's sun-baked hallucinogenic dream? Maybe, maybe not.
This was my take on it:
http://danceswithanxiety.blogspot.com/2009/06/h…
Thanks!
Also: try playing that excellent '70s score to Pelham 1-2-3 a little speeded up — my MP3 player does that, and it sounds even better!