edgar wright – NZ Film Freak

Hot Fuzz

Director: Edgar Wright
Writer: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
Released: July 2007
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Jim Broadbent
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A brilliant action-comedy from writers Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. It’s one of my favourite films, and I can’t believe I’d never gotten around to review it.

Hot Fuzz is the second instalment of what is referred to as the ‘Cornetto trilogy’ by Edgar Wright fans (due to the ice cream’s frequent appearances). Shaun of the Dead being the first, The World’s End being the third.

This is my favourite film of the three because it is so cleverly written and very funny. It follows the story of goody-two-shoes London policeman (rather “police officer. Being a man has nothing to do with it.”) named Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) who gets transferred to a small, rural village against his wishes.

Sergeant: …we’re making you sergeant.
Nicholas: I see.
Sergeant: [mumbles]
Nicholas: In where, sorry?
Sergeant: In Sandford, Gloucestershire.
Nicholas: But that’s in the country…
Sergeant: Yes! Lovely!

The straight-laced Sergeant Angel is frustrated by the Sandford police who prefer to turn the other cheek rather than causing a fuss when someone breaks the law. He soon discovers there is a reason for this.

So, with amateur officer Danny Butterman (Nick Frost) as his sidekick, Angel’s love for the law is put into full swing as they begin a full-on investigation into what is going on in the village.

Inspired by stereotypical action films, the writers have made fun of the genre by including all the sorts of characters you’d usually see in an action film. They even go as far as re-enacting popular action movie scenes, or quoting them. They’ve studied the genre very well!

Danny: Where’s the trolley boy?
Nicholas: In the freezer.
Danny: Did you say “cool off?”
Nicholas: No I didn’t say anything…
Danny: Shame.
Nicholas: Well, there was the bit that you missed where I distracted him with the cuddly monkey then I said “play time’s over” and I hit him in the head with the peace lily.
Danny: You’re off the fuckin’ chain!

This entertaining and fast-paced film is littered with hilarious one-liners and nods to action film tropes and quotes. The script for this movie is so clever – it must have taken ages to work out how it was all going to piece together.

The script has a lot of fore-shadowing all through it, weaved through an intriguing mystery of murders and outrageous characters. My favourite being two officers, both named Andrew – AKA ‘The Andes’ played by Paddy Considine and Rafe Spall.

The editing is incredible, which is classic Edgar Wright. We studied his work for an entire year at high school; I can see his influence a mile off now, even in his most recent film, Baby Driver.

If you love gun fights, car chases and a good belly laugh, then this is the perfect film! A classic date night movie too, I think. Just like Shaun of the Dead and The World’s End, it’s a great blend of genres to keep everyone happy.

For me, some of the action scenes were a bit long-winded, and just when you think the film is finished, it doesn’t. But maybe that’s because I don’t actually like action films all that much.

Danny: Have you ever fired two guns whilst jumping through the air?
Nicholas: No.
Danny: Have you ever fired one gun whilst jumping through the air?
Nicholas: No.
Danny: Ever been in a high-speed pursuit?
Nicholas: Yes, I have.
Danny: Have you ever fired a gun whilst in a high speed pursuit?
Nicholas: No!

I love films that make fun of themselves, and this is the king of them all. I can recite the whole film, I think – I’ve watched it so many times!

Jodie’s rating: 8/10

Baby Driver

Baby Driver Movie poster

Director: Edgar Wright
Writer: Edgar Wright
Released: June 2017
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Kevin Spacey, Ansel Elgort, Lily James and Jon Hamm
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From the genius that is Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, The World’s End and Scott Pilgrim vs the World), comes Baby Driver. A music-infused movie about a getaway driver named Baby, played by baby-faced actor Ansel Elgort (The Fault in our Stars).

Deborah (Lily James): “You’re name’s Baby? B-A-B-Y, Baby?”

Baby scores his own life by picking the appropriate music on his iPod for everything he does. He doesn’t do anything without music playing in his ears, stemming from a traumatic car crash as a child that left him with tinnitus.

Doc (Kevin Spacey): “Still got a hum in the drum, he plays his iPod to drown it out”

I’m thinking this might be converted into an all-singing, all-dancing musical or stage play one day.

In some ways, it’s a ‘runaway film‘. But this theme in the movie is soon hijacked by reality, how you can’t run forever and how you must face the music at some point. This realism is something I like about the film.

Baby Driver movie

Whereas I usually fall asleep during action films, such as in various James Bond scenes, I didn’t in Baby Driver. I think because it was mixed with comedy a lot of the time, and it appears to be a tad more realistic, because the protagonists actually get hit in gun fights.

Bats (Jamie Foxx): “The moment you catch feelings is the moment you catch a bullet.”

I have studied Wright’s films ever since I started studying media at high school. Baby Driver exhibits classic Wright hallmarks, including extremely layered shots where you’ll pick something new up on every watch. There is nothing in this movie that is there by accident. Their costume, the music; everything is there for a reason.

Baby Driver movie - Kevin Spacey and Ansel Elgort

My favourite Wright hallmark is the very long scene without a single edit, all perfectly choreographed, just like in Shaun of the Dead when Simon Pegg’s character walks to the corner shop and back.

Another one, is the compilation of short, sharp edits. Finally, Wright’s English humour running through the dialogue, making Baby Driver stand out from the more glossy Hollywood action films.

Baby (Ansel Elgort): Your tattoo says ‘hat’?
JD: Yeah, it used to say ‘hate’. But to increase my chances of employment I had the E removed.
Baby: How’s that working out for you?
JD: Who doesn’t like hats?

While I thoroughly enjoyed the first third of the film, it went a bit long and flabby in the middle. Toward the end it picks up again, until the very end, which seems rushed, causing my suspension of disbelief to be stretched.

JD: I left my shotgun behind.
Bats: Not groovy JD. Not groovy at all.

While this isn’t a favourite film of mine, it is certainly a one-in-a-million film, and a good date night movie. The characters are cool and are played by talented actors, with a love story and a ton of wicked car chases and gun fights.

Griff: Is [Baby] retarded?
Doc: Retarded means slow. Was he slow?
Griff: No.

Jodie’s rating: 6.5/10

The World’s End

Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
Released: July 2013
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan and Rosamund Pike
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…what the hell did I just watch..?

So I’m guessing most of you are huge Edgar-Simon-Nick combo fans! I’m sure you were just as psyched when you heard about the final instalment of the Cornetto trilogy being released!

Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz and The World’s End – bring your check list for all of the similarities and shared jokes! It’s like being a part of a huge inside-joke.

Anyway! So I was so excited to see this film! But this was more wacky, more psychedelic, out of left-field, ‘what the hell’ material that I ever thought could be possible for these three guys to invent.

The movie started out awesomely! It was hilarious as they introduced the main characters.

The general storyline was that the five main characters wanted to complete the 12 pub pub-crawl they failed to finish in highschool. So these near-on 40 year olds begin their journey, until they realise the people in the town are super weird.

Many people in the town turn out to be blue-blooded robots. And a Shaun of the Dead-esk pursuit begins… It got pretty weird. Not going to lie.

Just on a deeper note, I felt the robots were a metaphor for being in the institution of 9-5 jobs and not fulfilling the more enjoyable parts of life.

Simon Pegg’s character is my favourite of all their creations within the trilogy! He was absolutely convincing! Fantastic!

Simon Pegg and Nick Frost had loosely swapped their Hot Fuzz characters around, as in, Nick Frost had the straight-laced character and Simon Pegg had the weird and lazy guy. It was cool to see a different side of them.

I wish more of the characters from the previous two films showed up in this one… Although I did adore Rosamund Pike! I’ve been a fan of hers since Made In Dagenham.

I felt bad noticing how old everybody looked in this film. But I LOVED how they wrote that into the script – their story is about 40 year olds rediscovering the freedom of their youth.

It was sort of nostalgic reflecting on how long ago Shaun of the Dead was made – 2004 and Hot Fuzz – 2007. For some reason, I think all of their fans feel like they’ve followed them on their journey for the last eight years.

I really want to see it again – I feel like it will be better the second time around. But, it’s definitely in third place within the trilogy, for me. I feel like the storyline was a little too similar to Shaun of the Dead, and it didn’t flow nearly as well as the other two films.

Just like the other two films, the structuring was impeccable. Although the ending was… Questionable.

However, the strong character development was enough to keep you totally engaged throughout the entire film. Let alone the well-choreographed fight scenes.

OMG I HAVEN’T REVIEWED HOT FUZZ YET! It’s on my priority list!

Jodie’s rating: 7.5/10
PS: You’re going to feel the urge for an ice cold lager after this movie.

Shaun of the Dead

Shaun of the Dead Poster

Director: Edgar Wright
Writers: Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg
Released: April 2004
Starring: Simon Pegg, Kate Ashfield, Lucy Davis, Nick Frost, Dylan Moran, Bill Nighy, Penelope Wilton
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The best black comedy of all time.

I have a weakness for zombie apocalypse movies anyway. However, this film has taken every zombie cliche` in the book and ends up pointing fun at themselves, which is hilarious!

The creators called it a “Rom Zom Com” aka a “Romantic Zombie Comedy” and the “perfect date film” because it has a heart line of a romantic comedy that happens to be set in a time where zombies are attacking the world.

It starts out with Shaun (Simon Pegg) and Shaun’s girlfriend Lizz (Kate Ashfield) at a bar on yet another date at the Winchester Pub, as Lizz bickers about how they never do anything different. The shot slowly widens to show, Lizz’s friends David and Di (Dylan Moran and Lucy Davis) and Shaun’s foul-mouthed best friend, Ed (Nick Frost). Of course, what better to change the monotonous situation than have their lives bombarded with the living dead!?

That’s what I like about the Wright-Pegg-Frost trio. Their ideas are crazy!
Yet they always work.

These zombies are the classic, lazy walker-types where unless you got trapped or are a really slow walker, you would probably not get caught, unlike the kind that is on the TV series The Walking Dead where they run when they are desperate. But these zombies imitate the world we live in – we wake up, go to work, come home again, miserable. So it does have a bit of a wake-up call feeling to it.

Edgar Wright’s signature fast pans, quick cuts and cut always were present which definitely suited the shocking humour and gruesome occurrences.

Another of my favourite things about this film is the parallels between the start and the ending. Such as the trolley boy collecting stray trolleys in the car park of a shopping centre with little enthusiasm. By the end, the remaining zombies are trained and take over the chore in an equally unenthusiastic way… I don’t know. I just find it amusing…

This is the best black comedy because, unlike some others I’ve seen of the same genre *cough* Zombieland *cough*, the comedy element runs through the entire film, not just random crucial parts. Shaun of the Dead make fun of the terrifying situation at every turn.

This is a must-have item in every film-watcher’s collection.

Jodie’s rating: 8/10

Juno

Director: Jason Reitman
Writer: Diablo Cody
Released: December 2007
Starring: Ellen Page, Michael Cera, Jennifer Garner, Jason Bateman, Allison Janney, J. K. Simmons
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Holy crap, if you haven’t seen this, you are seriously deprived of life. Likewise, if you saw it and didn’t like it, you have been shunned.

juno-bleeker-juno-2098226-1024-576 However, I saw it. Then I saw it again. Then I purchased the DVD with my hard-earned pennies and enjoyed it a whole lot more. Juno is more than just a “comedy drama” as Wikipedia so conservatively stated. It is the hilarious and refreshing story of a typical teenager, Juno McGuff (Ellen Page), and her slight mishap of falling pregnant by the introverted and slightly cheesy Paulie Bleaker (Michael Cera).

It is a movie like no other… It may be distantly related humour-wise to the likes of Little Miss Sunshine (another film dear to me), but its use of language and musty image wreaks of painfully ordinary and very relatable environments.

juno bren mac Juno is a fantastic movie because it has a serious undertone blended with the raw and in-your-face snarky remarks of the teen characters. It’s a story of family, essentially. The relationship between parents and children, divorce and innocence, as well as the relationship – or lack of – between generations. Juno’s love of rock n roll and horrors from the 70s, and the longing for youth that some of the adult characters experience.

The humour is split down the middle; the adults of the audience will laugh at the parent’s reactions and the teens of the audience will be quoting McGuff for the next few months. It’s not a vile rom-com or on par with “Knocked Up”, it’s emotionally deeper than those one-hit-wonders.

The writer, Diablo Cody, was a blogger, that’s how she was approached by a film producer and asked to write a script. She came up with Juno. The shocking dialogue sometimes provokes nervous laughter, or may be tear jerking or blatant Laugh-Out-Loud material! It’s quite an intricate script which essentially follows the awkward storyline of Juno McGuff as well as the adoptive parents that “June-Bug” picks out (who’s marriage is subsequently on the rocks).

The first thing I had to do after seeing this film was to buy the DVD. The second thing I had to do was buy the soundtrack. The tracks are just as quirky as the film, particularly Kimya Dawson’s many songs and instrumentals that made the final cut. They go very well with the feel of Juno, particularly the bluntness of the protagonist.

Reitman’s dedication and patience is obvious when you see the clearly painstakingly long time it would have taken to create the intro – it was worked on from the beginning of the shoot to the very first viewing, nevertheless, worthwhile. The shots are mostly static.

ellen-page-j-k-simmons-fox-searchlights-juno-970464168 It’s all in the lighting and seventies colour scheme of clashing reds, oranges and browns with knitted-looking clothing and dated throws on furniture. Reitman’s work reminds me of Edgar Wright’s (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz…) approach to filming. You can tell it’s an off-beat approach somehow, yet refreshingly upbeat and incredibly honest.

It’s not a fast-paced movie anyway, but I think the montage scene I found on the DVD extras was something that would have kept up the pace… Although it may have detracted from the overall emotion of the film, so in the end the scene’s absence was a blessing in disguise, even if it did tie a ball and chain to the overall pace.

Still one of my favourite films even after all these years.

Jodie’s rating: 8.5/10