Sgt. Angle Reporting for Duty!

Today’s Cinegasm has been invaded by a TVgasm. Thanks for tuning in! (pun#1)

Like most of you (we can hope) I’ve been visiting NBC’s Community weekly since it’s premiere last season. The show (about six misfits attending community college who form a study group) has remained consistently entertaining, thoughtful, and hilarious through seasons one and two (its’ current season). What allows Community to stand out from the rest of American sitcoms is the recurring use of thematic lessons and examinations of American culture, hidden beneath the bitter, selfish existence of Jeff Winger (Joel McHale) and the rest of the group.

Community’s more recent episodes have included plots and subplots revolving around homophobia, drug addiction, unplanned pregnancy, marijuana, alcoholism, divorce, religious exploitation, bullying, and loneliness & suicide. Other “one-off” episodes featured a zombie attack (Halloween), a Christmas Claymation episode, and simulated journeys on a boat and in a spaceship.

The “Advanced Dungeons & Dragons” episode of two weeks ago stands out as one of the finest TV moments from any network this season. The episode began with a Lord of the Rings–like parody of the introduction of Fat Neil, an obese student who was given the unfortunate moniker and had fallen into loneliness and depression. The group decides to play a game of D & D with Fat Neil to remind him that there are people who care about him, and the episode ends with Fat Neil turning to a more confident, happier “Neil”. The story was a touching experience, well-disguised in parody and absurdity, and this blog points out some darker undertones of the episode.

I wanted to direct you to watching Community in the future, if you haven’t already caught up, because it’s fast emerging as America’s overdue equivalent of the infamous, fantastic, British comedy: Spaced, created by Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg, and Jessica Stevenson.

Spaced is about a group of tenants living in a flat house as they wind their way through everyday life. The main characters, Daisy and Tim, are twenty-somethings with nothing specific in their future but day-jobs and big dreams of success (one as a writer, the other as an artist). Other neighbors include an eccentric artist, a much older and promiscuous landlady, and a gun-toting war monger who is Tim’s best friend. The series only lasted 14 glorious episodes, and is known for its’ cinematic style of filming, numerous film and television references, and clear parodies in many of their storylines — Fight Club, Robocop, Star Wars, to name a few.

There was a pitiful attempt to adapt Spaced into an American series by McG, but thankfully it fell apart. Lucky for us that Community is created by Dan Harmon, who is miles ahead of McG’s sense of humor or storytelling skills. Community also involves twenty-somethings, in search of their own futures with their big dreams not far behind, and even a few characters who’ve left their day-jobs (either of their own accord or against their will) to become part of a smaller, more tight-knit family.

One of the closing lines of Spaced states: “they say the family of the twenty-first century is made up of friends, not relatives.” This thematic line of thought rings true in countless American sit-coms. None of them so eloquently, or meaningfully, as Community does (close seconds are Scrubs, Friends, even Seinfeld… but only Scrubs comes close in the use of parody and poignant moments).

One of my gripes, though, is the length of the seasons on network television. Imagine, if you will, if shows like Community shortened their seasons to 12 episodes, or even 18 (to stretch it). More time could be spent writing out of character rather than to fill commercially planned timeslots. The reason British television, HBO, and AMC series are so great and wonderful is because of the extended hiatus, doubling the amount of time the producers can spend developing each episode as if it were a mini-movie. Spaced season 2 was filmed over a few weeks (all seven episodes) as if it were really a long movie. This method kept the outcome tight, focused, and more entertaining. Never does Spaced have a moment in an episode that feels like filler.

The other bone I have to pick with Community is the current state of Chevy Chase’s character Pierce. An old millionaire with a curmudgeony attitude, Peirce needs to be pulled back a bit with his comments and off-color insults. I pity him, especially at the end of last week’s episode, alone on a park bench hopped up on drugs, but I want to get the feeling he’s a better man than what we’ve been shown recently.

Ah well, I can comfort myself by looking at this:

Better than Spaced.

Happy viewing, see you next week…

You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

Sgt. Angle Reporting for Duty!

Before today’s briefing, be sure you check out Semantink’s countdown to Wondercon here. This information is by no means top secret, so be sure to recruit some new readers on the double.

And now this:

Last week, the cinematic world was stricken with laughter by screenwriter J.D. Shapiro’s apology for the worst movie of the decade (Battlefield Earth). Is this the first time a writer/creator has apologized for putting pen to paper? Probably not, but I digress.

Also this past week, the trailer for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World premiered, and it’s quite a doozy. Such a doozy, in fact, that it fits right in time with today’s Film Creator Spotlight on the co-writer and director of the comic adaptation, EDGAR WRIGHT.

How must one begin? To start with, you can get your own brief summary here, suffice it to say that Wright has been making home movies since he was a child in Somerset and/or Dorset, England (isn’t that how it always starts?). Just before he met his collaborators for most of the next decade, Simon Pegg and Jessica Hynes nee Stevenson, Wright directed an indie feature spoofing Spaghetti Westerns called A Fistful of Fingers.

Wright then went on to direct a couple of British TV series, including “Asylum” which co-starred and was co-written by Jessica Hynes nee Stevenson and Simon Pegg. Pegg and Hynes would then become the creative force behind “Spaced,” the television series which launched Edgar onto the international stage, and solidified his style as well as his contribution to the genre. Wright uses quick cuts, wiping edits, and cinematic techniques that are still fresh to television comedies. His shows and films contain multiple homages to movies past and present, so much so that he often includes an “homage-o-meter” track to his DVD releases.

“Spaced” revolved around two twentysomethings in England struggling to pay rent, find work and love, and resist growing out of their childish ways. Pegg plays an artist just dumped by his girlfriend, works in a comic-book store and who has an extensive love of obscure films, paintball, and nights out drinking. Hynes plays a freelance writer moving out of a squatters’ flat. They find each other and move in together, in a building with a drunk landlady and an eccentric artist. And here’s where Nick Frost enters, playing Pegg’s best friend Mike who was kicked out of the territorial army and is essentially a cuddly die-hard soldier.

The series often involves slick references to pop culture and overly profound discussions of events (Star Wars plays a rather large role in many an episode) that usually stemmed from, or led to, drug or drink induced sleep or laughter. The show also references, either in words or style, everything from Robocop to Pulp Fiction, Dawn of the Dead to One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. (*if you get the chance and money to purchase the entire series on DVD, there are two commentary tracks, one from years ago with Wright, Pegg, Hynes and Frost, and a new track with contributions from Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, Patton Oswalt and Diablo Cody).

After the success of “Spaced,” Wright and Pegg co-wrote Shaun of the Dead, their rom-com meets zombies film, paying homage to Romero and Raimi while capturing that sense of loss in twentysomethings that the team has become known for. Dead reached $30 million worldwide, and did fairly well on DVD. It furthered Wright’s reliance on editing to induce laughs as well as scares, and catapulted him into the friend circle of Tarantino, Kevin Smith, and Eli Roth, thus allowing Wright to contribute to Grindhouse with the faux trailer to Don’t.

Next came Hot Fuzz (a personal favorite of mine) wherein, once again, Pegg and Wright wrote the script, and Nick Frost played the reliable best friend to real life best friend Simon Pegg. This time around, Wright tackled the buddy cop and action movie genre, referencing over 120 films, and reading Roger Ebert’s book of Hollywood cliches, to be sure to hit all the familiar cliches.

Wright’s love of all genres of music and his respect for the history of filmmaking bring a lively, personal touch to his films’ music and scene structure. His website features, among the obligatory self and movie news, a daily photo update from the set of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, introducing cast and crew members and revealing a little at a time of the set and the world of the story.

SPVTW trailer (linked at the top) debuted to a fury of love last week, and is now something more to look forward to this year after April’s release of Kick-Ass. Michael Cera plays Scott Pilgrim, a young guy who falls for the girl of his dreams, and must fight her seven evil ex-boyfriends in order to be able to date her. (For more on the Scott Pilgrim adaptation, read this article at Chud.) This movie also indicates Wright’s shift away from constant collaboration with Simon Pegg after a decade, so it’ll be interesting to see if the style remains strictly in the footage, or if Wright’s scripting abilities are the constant more than anything else.

Following that, Wright has been rumored to be covering the Ant-Man adaptation, as well as The World’s End, the final film in the ‘Blood and Ice Cream trilogy’ started with Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This time around, the team will cover disaster movies.

Edgar Wright has been the director to watch over the last decade, and one can only assume a positive direction for his career after Scott Pilgrim, arguably his highest-profile project yet. By the end of the year, he should become more than a niche attraction at the movies, much the same way Tarantino exploded after Pulp Fiction.

I had the pleasure of attending two “Edgar Wright related events” in Los Angeles, one was a fun Q & A for the Hot Fuzz sneak peak, and the other was a double-feature at the New Beverly Cinema during his “The Wright Stuff” festival (occasionally, the New Beverly will allow guest filmmakers to curate two weeks of films, hopefully bringing in special guests). The night I attended, he screened An American Werewolf in London. John Landis was there for a Q & A, and in the audience were Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino, who at one point stopped in the middle of the aisle after grabbing some popcorn to watch a particularly fun scene in the film.

Edgar Wright certainly knows the right movies and scenes that trigger a moviegoers sense of enjoyment. As a director, he certainly does have the Wright Stuff (awkward pun hit!).

If you enjoy comedy, watch an Edgar Wright movie. If you enjoy feel good film and/or television, watch an Edgar Wright production.

Oh, and here’s a Pizza Hut commercial he directed during a brief brush with commercialism.

You are now dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

Sgt. Angle reporting for duty!

The news, as recently reported in The Hollywood Reporter, is that “Fight Club” director David Fincher and dark childhood memory thriller writer Andrew Kevin Walker (both of Se7en and Fight Club fame) will be joining forces yet again, this time for a remake/new adaptation of The Reincarnation of Peter Proud. Story centers on a dude who starts to have visions of one of his past lives, and the dark places these visions lead him. The concept and powerhouse duo got me thinking of some other great film collaborations. I’ve compiled a list below, in no particular order.

1. Steven Spielberg and John Williams (Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Jaws, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List). Spielberg’s always hitting audiences with the semi-fantastical yet always grounded in reality stories of human wonder, whether involving children or hopeful adults. John Williams has composed the musical scores of nearly all of Spielberg’s films (notable exception being “The Color Purple”). Without his melodies and memorable themes we might all still be able to enjoy swimming in the ocean.

Don’t steal his sandwich.

2. Orson Welles and Joseph Cotten (Citizen Kane, The Third Man, The Magnificent Ambersons) A kind of bizarre choice for a filmmaking creative team, but when you look at their films together, Welles and Cotton — both part of the same radio performance group who brought the world to its’ knees when they broadcast War of the Worlds — dominate every scene together, and apart. Welles as Harry Lime has one of the best character introductions, anticipated through the first half of “The Third Man,” and the impact is felt when looking at Cotten’s reaction to seeing his childhood friend alive.

Ride the Stache.…

3. Tom Selleck and his Mustache (Quigley Down Under, Mr. Baseball, Three Men and a Baby) Don’t whine how this doesn’t qualify. Sure, it’s a mustache. Sure, it goes where Selleck goes, all the time. This team is inseparable — and unbeatable. Nobody messes with the stache, and, therefore, you do not mess with the Selleck.

It’s the secret ingredient.

4. Billy Wilder and Jack Lemmon (The Apartment, Some Like it Hot) In film, Comedies are always hard to make funny. It’s a fact. You have to worry about the shot you’re getting, what you’re going to show the audience, the characters in the scene, and the timing of the actors. Wilder gets it right nearly every time, and it certainly doesn’t hurt to have Jack Lemmon, one of film’s greatest physical and verbal comedic actors, every step of the way. Lemmon is believable and sympathetic as an average schlub in love in The Apartment. We root for him to win Shirley MacLaine’s heart, and our own hearts break as she falls for the jerk instead. Despite the tugs on the heartstrings, nothing relieves an audience more than the comfort of Lemmon straining spaghetti through a tennis racket.

The Western’s western makers.

5. John Ford and John Wayne (The Searchers, Stagecoach, The Quiet Man) Men, and Westerns, and women. John Wayne and John Ford collaborated on 20 films (at least), defining an American film genre, and crystallizing the mere idea that our landscape and the stories it tells can be captured and remembered on celluloid.

6. Sylvestor Stallone and Montages (Rocky III, IV, V, and Rocky Balboa) You cannot — and should not — have a Sly film without a montage. It’s a law, I believe.

I watch. You read.

7. Humphrey Bogart and John Huston (The Maltese Falcon, Treasure of the Sierra Madre) This duo helped define Film Noir, and if there’s a detective movie out there without at least one reference to The Maltese Falcon, I dare you to show me.

8. Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz) Male-themed bonding over finger-guns may be the all-time favorite collaboration here. Wright’s slick editing style, along with Pegg’s wit and quick-thinking, make for a perfect team for the not-so-perfect 20s crowd.

Nom-Nom-Noms.

9. Woody Allen and various young women under the age of 35 (including Diane Keaton, Mia Farrow, Mira Sorvino, Scarlett Johansson, Penelope Cruz) The Wood-ster is a jack-of-all-trades, leading ten of his actresses to Oscar nominations since the 70s (four of them won).

The dude playin’ a dude.….

10. Robert Downey, Jr., and himself (Tropic Thunder, Chaplin, Iron Man, Zodiac) There is no other actor working today who has as much on-screen chemistry when he is alone as he has when he is acting with other people. Check out this scene for an example.

Sound back in the comments below with your preferred filmmaking team, with recommendations.

Until next time,

Sgt. Angle