🎬 "Of course, I've seen her films."

Notting Hill (1999). Welcome to the 19th edition of The Reel!

Alex Gogarty

Nov 12, 2020

Estimated reading time: 6m 25s.

The Reel recently achieved a chunk of new subscribers; my warmest welcome to you all!

I thought it best to share a little bit about me and what I’m about.

If you have doubts about the following, you may verify it with any of a small number of sources of my choosing.

Firstly, this is me:

Fat stacks, tats and cash. That’s just what I’m about, that’s who I am.

What? It is. I swear.

Some finer details:

Name: Alex Gogarty. My friends call me The Big Man, my enemies call me Merciless, and the ladies call me all the time. 😏

Age: Old enough! @Mom

Favourite non-pornographic movie: Little Miss Sunshine.

The two stages of lockdown: complete apathy, and complete apathy with a beard.

Best attribute: My physical strength, derived from many large muscles.

Greatest weekness: Spelling.

I hope you feel like you know me a little better. Feel free to ask me any further questions by connecting with me on Instagram, LinkedIn, or replying directly to this email.

Time for some reviews!

This week: Courts, shorts, and a lot of Sacha Baron Cohen.

⚖️ Severe cases of stickittodamaniosis.

Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020), film, directed by Aaron Sorkin.

Groovy, baby!

Trial of the Chicago 7 brings us back to a time when hairy men and hairier women came together to challenge the status quo.

After peaceful protests in 1968 Chicago erupt into riots, seven organisation leaders are brought before the courts and charged with conspiracy and collusion.

Mister Steal Yo’ Girl: University Challenge Edition.

Prolific, prized screenwriter Aaron Sorkin returns to the courtroom for another smash hit, this time directing as well as penning. He’s not without star power: Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt are among those fighting for attention in front of the camera.

Despite the snoozy subject material, it’s an entertaining affair that hurtles by, thanks to Sorkin’s zippy dialogue and some stellar comedic turns.

Baron Cohen and Jeremy Strong steal the show with two (mostly) comic performances as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, founding members of the “Yippies” student party.

What it feels like any time I leave my flat, for any reason.

While the major players are almost exclusively all male and white (just like the real 60s then), the cast are terrific — except perhaps Gordon-Levitt.

Is there a more boring actor working in Hollywood today?

I make more facial expressions doing a crossword than this man does doing literally anything.

“So you’re telling me that you’re not my real dad… and you’re in love with me… and I have 3 days to live? Hmm.”

JGL aside, never have I been so riveted by a bunch of students engaging in political discourse.

That said, my first debate in college had the motion: “Is pizza real, and if so, why?”

I don’t think we were solving any of society’s problems with that one.

Trial of the Chicago 7 falls somewhere between a political and courtroom drama, with enough humour to appeal to all.

Sorkin does it again.

Look out for: While Baron Cohen might steal scenes, the most powerful moment comes from Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Bobby Seale, Chairman of the Black Panther Party. His “you got the same father” exchange with Redmayne left me awestruck.

If you liked this: Sorkin’s writing credits are too many to mention, but his first film A Few Good Men is still a standard for modern legal dramas. Watch this short clip of the real Abbie Hoffman turning heads with a famous interview answer, replicated verbatim in the film.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

🇰🇿 Hiigh fiive! Well… hiigh two!

Borat Subsequent Moviefilm (2020), film, directed by Jason Woliner.

Now for an altogether different view on American society.

Upon release 14 years ago, Borat was lauded as an instant comedy classic. Its reputation has only improved since, as more come to appreciate the intelligence behind Sacha Baron Cohen’s relentlessly low-brow satire.

From front left: Me in the 90s, my sister in the 00s, my dad now, Borat.

Borat Sagdiyev as a character came close to the lofty heights of Ali G, such was the success of the film and the bafflingly outrageous statements he eked out of his unsuspecting guests.

After a few years of mixed success (Brüno = quite good, The Dictator = quite bad), Baron Cohen returns to the scene of his greatest crime with the Borat sequel.

However, much like the clothes I wore to my first school disco, some things are better left in the past.

Borat’s tache is my Movember goal. How clean he keeps his underwear is my life goal.

Borat 2 is cruder, longer, less clever, and above all, less funny than the original. The Kazakh journalist says it best himself at the start of the film:

“There was problem. People make recognise my face. How would I do my secretive mission if I was famous?”

The answer to said problem: not doing it at all.

I think it was at this point that my amusement failed.

Contrived, inorganic situations and barely a ripple of laughter consign this to the worse end of Mr. Cohen’s filmography.

Look out for: Like the first film, one of the standout scenes is in a Southern etiquette school/ballroom situation. Do these things actually exist? Sending some of these people to etiquette school is like tying a balloon on an accidentally severed limb. Yes, it might seem prettier, but there are more serious issues to address.

If you liked this: If cringe humour or uncomfortable situations are your thing, then you might as well go fully fictional, instead of this semi-staged nonsense. I Think You Should Leave, a Netflix sketch show, is the absolute cream of the crop.

Rating: ⭐⭐

⏩ Quickies

Short and snappy reviews for a short and snappy time:

Heathers (1989, film, dir. Daniel Waters): ⭐⭐⭐

“What’s your damage, Veronica?!” I’ve been saying this non-stop to anyone who’ll listen (so, to myself) since watching this dark teen classic. A disappointing ending saves it from challenging Clueless and Mean Girls in the all-time stakes, but the dark subject matter and relentlessly quotable characters are worth the admission.

Wow ladies, would you like some shoulders with those pads?

Bad Boys (1995, film, dir. Michael Bay): ⭐⭐

What did this film do to deserve its near-cult status? It’s loud, cheesy, and inane, with bad action and even worse acting. Will Smith has charisma, but himself and Martin Lawrence’s characters are thinner than Denny’s lunchbox ham. Should be called One Dimensional Boys.

ABOVE (Bad Boys II): While the original is lacking, this scene from the sequel will never get old.

Music & Lyrics (2007, film, dir. Marc Lawrence): ⭐⭐⭐

Ah, the simple pleasures in life. Sea salt caramel! Beaming sunshine on a crisp, cold day! Getting a handjob as a teenager! And now, Hugh Grant singing love ballads. In the match-up we never knew we needed, Hugh and Drew Barrymore pair up to write songs and wrangle feelings. Simple, pleasurable.

📃 Quote of the Week(s)

In a week of eminently quotable films, Heathers threw up enough to fill an entire blog. The most famous, of course, is Heather Chandler’s irreverent:

“Well, f*ck me gently with a chainsaw. Do I look like Mother Teresa?”

But my favourite has to be Veronica’s outlook on her toxic friendships with her popular friends:

“It’s like they’re people I work with and our job is being popular.”

📅 Previously, in pop culture…

Landmark events from the last two weeks in film and TV histoire:

Nov 1 - Titanic premieres at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 1997. Icebergs, fancy parties on boats, and girls named Rose will never be the same again.

Nov 3 - Olivia Newton-John's black leather outfit from the film Grease goes on auction in 2019, selling for $405,700.

The first time I saw this… Let’s just say I had chills. And they multiplied.

Nov 4 - In 2001, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone premieres, the first film adaptation of J.K. Rowling’s book series. Forehead scars, cupboards under the stairs, and boys named Harry will never be the same again.

Nov 12 - This day last year, in an unprecedented move that literally nobody asked for, Disney launches its proprietary streaming service Disney+. The Mandalorian is phat though.

✅ Th-th-that’s all, folks.

Thank you very, very much for reading!

As I try to spread the (not so) good word of The Reel to people near and far, I’d like to say a quick thank you to all those who have shared the blog so far. 😍