🎬 Please, sir, can I have some more?
Welcome back to The Reel! Edition numero nine.
Estimated reading time: 6 mins 34 seconds.
“You’ll neeever beat the Irish!”
Well, when it comes to TV & film output you might.
We punch above our weight in many areas, no less so than in Hollywood. But quality, 100% grass-fed Irish productions?
Few and far between.
That the Irish Times list of the greatest Irish films ever made includes the average Cardboard Gangsters is not a ringing endorsement of our canon.
ABOVE (Cardboard Gangsters): Back once again for the Darndale master, D17 damager.
Much like this week’s Normal People, often our highlights are not even Irish productions. Cult favourites like Father Ted and In Bruges are prime examples.
But we are not without gold. Who could forget Tom Vaughan-Lawlor’s Nidge in Love/Hate? Brown sauce and tea in Intermission? Guy and Girl’s love story in Once? Adam & Paul’s ending?
And of course, we don’t want for quality live broadcasting:
ABOVE: Aengus Mac Grianna is what you get when you cross a Ravenclaw with a Hufflepuff - smart yet stupid, uptight yet bumbling.
Our production rate may not be high, but with a small population and a national arts budget of about €9, I think we can be pretty proud.
Anyway. What’s that you have there?
Broccoli, deadly! I’ll swap you some brown bread for it?
This week: Raptors, rinks, and raunchy teens raring to go.
🏛️ The new normal.
Normal People (2020), series, directed by Lenny Abrahamson & Hettie Macdonald.
(Note: This is a spoiler-free review.)
The hype machine is in overdrive during lockdown. Would Tiger King or Love is Blind have gotten such attention if not for COVID? Probably not.
Thankfully, the Normal People bandwagon is justified.
ABOVE: Call Me By Your Name-esque setting, but with a heterosexual couple. Finally, something for straight people!
Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones play Connell and Marianne, classmates from the west of Ireland who develop a deep, complex relationship over their time in school and college.
The two leads are jaw-droppingly good.
Though Mescal (and in particular, his chain) is getting most of the attention, Edgar-Jones is the real powerhouse here. Marianne’s evolution over the course of the series, and Edgar-Jones’ performance, is remarkable.
ABOVE: Be still my beating loins! These two have more chemistry than Mentos and Diet Coke.
Warning: There is a lot of sex. My girlfriend, who lives abroad, said: “Watching Normal People is the most action I’ve gotten during lockdown.” … I would certainly hope so? 🤔
There are flaws. Like the novel, the series is style over substance. Drawn out sequences of long stares and tracking shots establish a contemplative tone at first, but soon become self-indulgent and repetitive to the binge-watcher.
And despite their short length, 12 episodes is probably two too many for this unforgiving journey.
ABOVE: Like Connell, I studied English at Trinity. Unfortunately for me, that’s where the similarities end.
But it’s a journey worth taking. Normal People is a heartbreaking tale of love and pain between two flawed, human young people that we should all watch.
Even if you have to call in to Liveline to complain about it after.
Look out for: Pretentious prattle in Trinity tutorials. The amount of shite spouted in those classes could fill 690,000 of these blogs. Sarah Greene as Connell’s mother Lorraine gives a nuanced performance as perhaps the only positive influence in Connell and Marianne’s lives.
If you liked this: Is this what the kids are listening to these days? Mescal and the show’s music supervisors have curated this sweet playlist on Spotify. If you’d like a more lighthearted read of two lovers drifting in and out of each other’s lives, One Day by David Nicholls is just the ticket.
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
😒 Le Misanthrope.
After Life: Season 2 (2020), series, created by Ricky Gervais.
You’d forgiven for thinking After Life is another Ricky Gervais concept comedy film.
Like The Invention of Lying: man discovers he has the ability to lie in a world where people only tell the truth.
Or Ghost Town: man discovers he can talk to ghosts. Hilarity ensues.
After Life: man dies and comes back in a new body?
Becomes friends with an invisible alien?
Has a bad comedown following a scauldy techno music festival?
No. Man’s wife dies, leaving him depressed and suicidal, so he decides to become a miserable pseudo-vigilante who calls annoying people c**ts.
The first season was an enjoyable if unnecessarily glum dark comedy. It ended with Gervais’ Tony resolving to be a better, more positive person, and begin moving on from his wife’s passing.
Cue Season 2. In the first scene of the series, after an opening montage, Tony’s colleague Lenny calls round to his house to pick him up for a day’s work:
Lenny: “Are you all right?”
Tony: “Huh? Yeah.”
Tony sighs, and sits down.
Tony: “Just feeling a bit low.”
Lenny: “Come on mate, you were doing so well.”
Tony: “Just feeling sorry for myself.”
Tony talks shite about guilt for 20 seconds, and then:
Tony: “I still miss Lisa. All the time. But she wouldn’t want me to, not like this. Not in this much pain. I’m getting a bit better every day.”
Pause.
Tony: “Come on.”
Tony stands up, and they leave.
And just like that, in an extremely unsubtle manner, Gervais puts us back to square one.
No character progression, no change in circumstance. It’s the same jokes, same situations; even a romance with Tony’s father’s nurse has been reset to 0% progress, for the excuse of plot.
Seriously. This is the exact same as the first season, only worse.
Oh well. At least we’ll always have this clip to look back on:
Look out for: As is their wont, several UK comedians play supporting roles. As is not so much their wont, their acting does not embarrass them - props to Joe Wilkinson and Roisin Conaty.
If you liked this: Most people will say The Office, but I believe Extras to be Gervais’ finest work. And then there’s the odd gem thrown up by Life’s Too Short, like this all-time classic scene with Liam Neeson.
Rating: ⭐⭐
⏩ Quickies
Short and snappy reviews for a short and snappy time:
I, Tonya (2017, film, dir. Craig Gillespie): ⭐⭐⭐
Margot Robbie plays her heart out, but like its subject, I, Tonya struggles to achieve greatness. The faux-documentary format muddles a remarkable story and character. But dat triple axel, doe! Almost as good as the Iron Lotus.
ABOVE (I, Tonya): “See, Leo, I know how wide 2 metres is! Look, Leo! LOVE ME, LEO!”
Middleditch & Schwartz (2020, series, cre. Thomas Middleditch & Ben Schwartz): ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Have you ever come up with a clever comeback or funny comment hours after the fact, and wished you thought of it at the time? These two comedians do think of it at the time, every time. Three completely improvised, off-beat comedy specials that are as impressive as they are hilarious.
ABOVE (Middleditch & Schwartz): He’s just a guy, standing in front of a guy, asking him to love him.
Jurassic World (2015, film, dir. Colin Trevorrow): ⭐⭐⭐
Always wanted more films about dinosaurs? No? Me neither! But here’s one anyway. This relaunch to nobody’s favourite franchise is a decent, surprisingly violent watch. It also becomes the latest film to try answer the question: is Chris Pratt kind of jacked, or kind of fat? Answer: we still don’t know.
📃 Quote of the Week(s)
LaVona: “I made you a champion, knowing you'd hate me for it. That's the sacrifice a mother makes! I wish I'd had a mother like me instead of ‘nice.’ Nice gets you shit! I didn't like my mother either, so what? I fucking gave you a gift!”
Tonya: “You cursed me.”
Allison Janney’s LaVona erupts in I, Tonya.
📅 Previously, in pop culture…
Landmark events from the last two weeks in film and TV histoire:
May 1 - Citizen Kane, directed by Orson Welles, premieres in NYC in 1941.
May 4 - Seth McFarlane becomes the world’s highest-paid TV writer in 2008, after reaching a $100-million dollar agreement with Fox to continue Family Guy and American Dad.
ABOVE (Family Guy): 95% of people when I ask them if they’d like to sign up to my blog.
May 5 - Childish Gambino aka Donald Glover causes a stir with the music video to his single This is America in 2018.
May 6 - Friends airs its final ever episode in 2004.
✅ Th-th-that’s all, folks.
This is the end, my only friend, the end.
Thank you very much for reading!
If you are new to the blog, my name is Alex Gogarty and in real life I am extremely good-looking with big muscles and definitely not a small penis.
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xxx
Other Recent Reels:
🎬 Apr 29 - Extraction, Sense & Sensibility, 12 Angry Men.