Post by Return of the Thin Olive Duke on Jun 13, 2016 1:12:24 GMT -5
Death at a Funeral
Dir. Frank Oz
Premiered August 17, 2007
If there has been anything to learn from this project, it is that the late 2000s represented the final years of a certain kind of cinematic snobbery, wherein genre and subject matter determined quality as much as content and production value, if not moreso.
When Death at a Funeral debuted in 2007, it flew somewhat under the radar. But when career troll Neil LaBute directed an Americanized remake in 2010, many critics took the opportunity to voice their distaste with the original. By its nature, Death at a Funeral was a divisive film for the critical elite. On the one hand, it was British, and wasn’t actually bad. On the other hand, it presented a side of British comedy that was, in the naïve Anglophilic mind, distressingly unsophisticated: a silly, light, unselfconscious farce poking fun at English repression.
Daniel (Matthew McFayden) is an insecure aspiring writer hoping to move out of his parents’ house when his father dies, bringing his emotionally distant but enormously successful author brother Robert (Rupert Graves) back into the fold. The ensuing funeral brings the entire family together, including but not limited to terminal neurotic Howard (Andy Nyman) and their foul-mouthed elderly uncle Alfie (Peter Vaughan); and drug-dealing cousin Troy (Kris Marshall), who accidentally doses sister Martha’s (Daisy Donovan) fiancé Simon (Alan Tudyk) with a custom mixture of LSD and Ketamine on the ride over.
But the funeral is also attended by a mysterious American visitor (Peter Dinklage), who blackmails Daniel and Robert into giving him some of their lest father’s money, lest he reveal that he and the deceased were in fact lovers.
Hilarity natually ensues, and I mean hilarity. Between Simon’s manic drug trip, Daniel and Robert’s increasing desperation, and the mad rush of people trying and ultimately failing to pretend that nothing’s the matter, Death at a Funeral presents a classic farce with a clockwork script and wonderful performances by all involved. I’m just hopeful that now, unlike the characters, we’re willing to admit it.
Additional Notes
The weakest link here is Ewen Bremner as Howard’s friend Justin, a wannabe-lothario who crashes the funeral to hit on Martha. Bremner gives it is all, but there isn’t really a joke there.
Next Time: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
Dir. Frank Oz
Premiered August 17, 2007
If there has been anything to learn from this project, it is that the late 2000s represented the final years of a certain kind of cinematic snobbery, wherein genre and subject matter determined quality as much as content and production value, if not moreso.
When Death at a Funeral debuted in 2007, it flew somewhat under the radar. But when career troll Neil LaBute directed an Americanized remake in 2010, many critics took the opportunity to voice their distaste with the original. By its nature, Death at a Funeral was a divisive film for the critical elite. On the one hand, it was British, and wasn’t actually bad. On the other hand, it presented a side of British comedy that was, in the naïve Anglophilic mind, distressingly unsophisticated: a silly, light, unselfconscious farce poking fun at English repression.
Daniel (Matthew McFayden) is an insecure aspiring writer hoping to move out of his parents’ house when his father dies, bringing his emotionally distant but enormously successful author brother Robert (Rupert Graves) back into the fold. The ensuing funeral brings the entire family together, including but not limited to terminal neurotic Howard (Andy Nyman) and their foul-mouthed elderly uncle Alfie (Peter Vaughan); and drug-dealing cousin Troy (Kris Marshall), who accidentally doses sister Martha’s (Daisy Donovan) fiancé Simon (Alan Tudyk) with a custom mixture of LSD and Ketamine on the ride over.
But the funeral is also attended by a mysterious American visitor (Peter Dinklage), who blackmails Daniel and Robert into giving him some of their lest father’s money, lest he reveal that he and the deceased were in fact lovers.
Hilarity natually ensues, and I mean hilarity. Between Simon’s manic drug trip, Daniel and Robert’s increasing desperation, and the mad rush of people trying and ultimately failing to pretend that nothing’s the matter, Death at a Funeral presents a classic farce with a clockwork script and wonderful performances by all involved. I’m just hopeful that now, unlike the characters, we’re willing to admit it.
Additional Notes
The weakest link here is Ewen Bremner as Howard’s friend Justin, a wannabe-lothario who crashes the funeral to hit on Martha. Bremner gives it is all, but there isn’t really a joke there.
Next Time: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters
