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The premise of two childish, unemployed 40 year olds, still living with their respective parents may translate into great comedy but the reality is that the stigma of living with one’s parents well into adulthood is not as absurd as it was once considered.
This is characteristic of generation Y, an anomalous generation. They generally exhibit deferred emotional and intellectual development and, as many have proclaimed, display a ‘sense of entitlement’ and a lack work ethic. They rely on their parents to finance their ambitions and bail them out from mistakes. It has become more common for this newly created category of ‘young’ adult (most likely to address this phenomena) to live at home after they’ve left school, postponing the prospects of a family, a mortgage, dog and 2.5 kids.
So when you watch Will Ferrell and Adam McKay’s on screen reunion after Talladega Nights, their comedic abilities to portray the insolent man-child may very well be hilarious, but that hilarity underpins a social commentary on today’s spoiled gen Y’ers.
A band of likeable cockney criminals, a despicable underworld boss, a rare coveted item, a seemingly impossible debt to be honoured and a complex sequence of interconnected events overlaid with a traditional narrative are just a few of the formulaic aspects found in Guy Ritchie’s new film, Rock n Rolla. One would think that his conventional methodology would prove tiresome and unoriginal but Guy Ritchie has been able successfully create a sub-genre for his films that remains workable and entertaining.
This time the band of criminals is lead by Gerard Butler (300) as One-Two, who gets caught up in a multimillion-dollar heist to settle a debt, with the assistance of a crooked, cool and calculating accountant, Thandie Newtown (Run fat boy Run) as Stella. The onslaught of characters include the usual seedy underworld types, the Russian mafia, American music execs (Ludacris and Jeremy Piven), with the most notable performances by Jamie Campbell Bower as the strung out rock n rolla and Mark Strong as the loyal right hand man, provides a humorous and entertaining crime caper comedy.
There is a Tarantino-esque element to his film, in particular a hilarious dance sequence that may almost be as memorable as the famous Pulp Fiction dance scene. In the end, Guy Ritchie fans will definitely not be disappointed and despite some of his abject failures (how can we forget his recent separation from the material girl and the film we wish we could all forget, namely, Swept Away) he has redeemed himself as a noteworthy director and writer.
While I appreciate a good satyr, I don’t appreciate satyr that leaves me open mouthed and feeling dumb. Following their Grammy award winning film, No Country for Old men, and their impressive list of cult classics including the Big Lebowski, Fargo and O’ Brother Where Art Though, I was thoroughly frustrated with the film’s inane plot littered with moronic characters. That or perhaps the film was just too clever for my simple mind.
The twists unfolds somewhat like a modern Shakespearean tragedy, except for the important fact that none of the characters, though flawed, are likeable enough to allow an audience to sympathise with them. Though supported by big Hollywood names, including heavyweights Pitt and Clooney who try to show that they are more than just charming, pretty faces, Pitt’s portrayal of a clueless meathead and Clooney’s as a seedy philanderer are overly exaggerated. John Malkovich plays a spitting, temperamental and profanity shouting ex-CIA analyst with his cold English wife played by (a perfectly casted) Tilda Swinton. And of course, it was due time that Mrs Joel Coen or should I say Frances McDormand be cast in a Coen brothers movie, with her character, I found, the most unlikeable and irritable of all. Don’t get me wrong, the performances are hilarious and entertaining but I couldn’t help feeling that the attempt by the Coens to be clever masked a certain degree of smugness and arrogance that left me dumbfounded and unsatisfied. By re-casting the same group of elite A-list actors, instead of risking fresh new faces, the Coen brothers prove that Hollywood continues to be rife with cronyism and nepotism.
Ms V is lapsed artist, a lapsed ninja assassin, a lapsing law student and a practicing cinephile.
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