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thelivingguano
Reviews
To Live and Die in L.A. (1985)
Altered states
I have only seen this film once, during a period of my life beset by heavy use of various hallucinogens. As a result I was very into David Lynch, Donald Cammel etc and watched a lot of their films at the time while in some kind of "enhanced" state. I am still undecided if this made the experience better, since repeat viewings of "Fire Walk with Me" while sober have not been any less weird/wired.
"To live and die" however, I saw whilst having a clean-out and therefore in a state of complete sobriety. And that's the damnedest thing of it. It made absolutely no sense to me at all. None.
The characters seemed to be almost Artaudian, with no fixed character traits; Chance ricocheted between "hard cop" and shrieking maniac. Plot threads appeared from nowhere only to disappear and never be seen again. And the final shot of the truck driving into the fence? Where did that truck come from? I didn't remember seeing it at all. The only thing which really stood out to me was during the silhouetted "sex scene" near the end, where the gentleman's flaccid manhood was clearly visible.
I have since been informed by reliable and very cultured friends and acquaintances that this is a very high-calibre film and makes complete sense, and in fact the truck at the end had been seen before. As a liberal-minded person I must accept this possibility and have now arranged a repeat viewing. I sincerely hope that I will be able to report that it all made sense this time round. We'll have to see...
A Very British Coup (1988)
If only....
AVBC is a sort of dystopian dream of what might be in British Politics.
Like The West Wing and The Contender do for the US political system, it takes the opposition party in British and presents a vision of how it might be if people finally voted for change; including the inevitable backlash from the unelected shadow-rulers of the military and aristocracy.
Harry Perkins is the great socialist hero of the small screen - motivated purely by his will for political change and entirely sleaze-free: "I now sublimate my sexual urges into enacting the will of the people, and I have a signed letter from Mr Freud in Vienna to say so." The supporting cast is fantastic, there are no weak links in this film as far as performances go, and in particular Sir Percy is the epitome of aristocratic indignance and despotism, at times frankly scary.
In the real world of course, the left were forced to achieve political power by becoming more right-wing than the rest. But dramas like this give us the chance to continue dreaming of a time when a real government of the people might come to power, and the rulers of our nation might become accountable for their decisions.
We must keep dreaming. If you keep dreaming it, it will come to pass.
Spaced (1999)
A slice of fried gold
Spaced is, to put it simply, the best thing that has ever been produced for telly. It is a remarkably (sometimes painfully) honest, heartwarming and humorous look at what it is to be a youth (young adult) in 21st century Britain.
The acting is superlative and, while comic and absurd, incredibly realist. The technical direction and editing are second to none, and the writing displays an encyclopaedic knowledge, and reverence of, the cinematic greats. I defy anyone, ANYONE, to have anything bad to say about this series.
What amazes me is that so few people have seen it. My wife and I are evangelist in our recommendation of it (mainly because we quote from it constantly and get tired of getting blank stares when we do so, when people should OBVIOUSLY understand). Everyone I know who has seen it shares this fanatical devotion to Spaced, and for good reason.
This is the salvation of British TV - long live Ms Stevenson & Mr Pegg.