I was apprehensive about watching the early to mid aughts English Channel Four series, Black Books. But I should not have been. It is a delightful little piece of toffee, hard and brittle on the outside but rich and sweet in the center. I love how we get to see just about the entire Spaced/Shaun/Hot Fuzz Rep Company (incl Jessica Stevenson and Simon Pegg.) I love how they are constantly consuming red wine and cigarettes (with nary an apology and without a morsel of guilt.) I love how good-hearted the show is despite its rough, unshaven exterior. I love Tasmin Grieg and I wonder why I have never seen her in anything else before? She has a very unusual, kind of handsome prettiness. I mean that it the nicest possible way, and she is obviously very talented. Bill Bailey, meanwhile, is Bill Bailey. But the real reason I love the show is Dylan Moran. There is just something about him, his dishevelment, his intelligence, his Don't Give A Toss attitude that endears him to me so much. (And all during the second season Moran looks like the Jazz Butcher.)
Anyhoo, Black Books streams on Netflix, and it is fun, so you should check it out.
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| "She's not your Mother anymore!" |
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Just read Manohla Dargis' review of Bernie yesterday in the NYT and, boy, does this look like my kind of film.
Bernie is directed by Richard Linklater and is his first film since the absolute near-perfect masterpiece, Me and Orson Welles.
Bernie is a black comedy based on real events that happened in a real East Texas city called Carthage. Basically, the Godfearing, Godloving mortician, Bernie, played by Jack Black falls in love with the meanest, nastiest widow lady in Texas, Shirley MacLaine, much to the entire town's horror. Then the widow ends up dead. Matthew McConaughey is called upon to solve the crime.
Linklater uses real interviews in the film with the real citizens of Carthage who were there when all the craziness happened.
It is shot by Dick Pope, one of my all-time fave DPs, who has done most of his work with Mike Leigh in England. Pope is amazing.
Cannot wait to see Bernie.
That is it. Not much today. Love you all,
Ardent.
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