The Interview

Want reliable film criticism? In the absence of a new and reliable Halliwell (I'm afraid that the modern editions are a parody of the earlier austere and authoritative volumes) you can try IMDb but my preference is the site that preserves the name of the late Roger Ebert - Ebert Reviews . But, of course, you must not always get your opinions second hand. Sometimes you just need to watch the damned film. Which is what we did last night. We watched The Interview, a satire which attracted the vain ire of that paragon of democracy the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, North Korea to you and me. That ire is understandable when you realise that the film is a comedy about the assassination of the Republic's Darling Leader Kim Jong-un. The ire was (eventually - the delay is mildly shameful) ignored and the film got its limited theatrical release. You see North Korea's disgust at the premiss of the movie is rendered wholly irrelevant when you slap yourself in the face and remember that this is the most ludicrous and bonkers country in the whole wide world. And, shit man, remember they beat off some pretty strong competition to win that staus. Here is the Ebert site review of The Interview - Ebert: Interview

Point one of the OG review - no problem with the premiss. Point two - we have been in this territory before - Team America: World Police had its puppets fight against Jong-un's father and predecessor as Darling Leader, Kim Jong Il. I have reviewed Team America: World Police before and it is a film on which I diverge from Ebert - his review here: Team America: Ebert Review . Also linked is Ebert's laudatory piece on the more famed Dr Strangelove Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Strangelove, Ebert Review . Strangelove is of the same poitico/military genre and seemingly canonical. [Here's an interesting aside - how many films are there with a colon in their title?]

Point three of the OG review of The Interview: I liked it. It has its longeurs and is just a little too scatalogical (it was certainly very different from Sense and Sensibility which we had watched the night before) but it has funny/daft and funny/serious moments. Seth Rogan is exteremely good, James Franco a little too reminiscent of Jerry Lewis. You will see that the Ebert reviewer is not so enthused and when it came to Team America, Ebert himself was definitely not a fan. Risking impertinence, I disagree with both. And perhaps yet more heretical, I never did find Dr Strangelove that funny. It may well be that Strangelove has to be considered in the context of the red heat that characterised the Cold War of that time, but in my defence I first saw it in the 70s and the Cold Was was still pretty serious shit at the time. My problem may in fact be Peter Sellers. Except as Inspector Clouseau I don't find him very funny. Too often (and this is true of the later Clouseau) he was over-indulged. I think Kubrick indulged him in the physical comedy of the Strangelove character. Come to think of it over/self indulgence afflicted the Goons generally, particularly Milligan (the real genius of the troupe and a sadly troubled man) and Sellers. But back to The Interview, not a great film, but not an unimportant one and in its way sweetly ambitious. 7.5/10.

Roger Ebert's conclusion to his Strangelove review was this: 'If movies of this irreverence, intelligence and savagery were still being made, the world woud seem a younger place.' My point? Last night I watched The Interview and this morning the world seems if not younger, at least not any older. Small victories are still victories.