If predisposed to irony, does anxiety complement reasonability?

Is irony more traditional than superficiality?

Hot Fuzz

Wow. Ever been worried that the warm and friendly atmosphere blossoming in your small town is being sinisterly manufactured in order to preserve an antiquated way of life? Ever considered that beneath the pristine picturesque pastimes coordinating your daily pastoral activities lies a determined sect dedicated to ensuring that those activities will remain unchanged, forever?

Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg sure have and the result is a chilling satirization of life in the country, complete with down home cute and cuddly clementines and the infrequent honk of a rebellious swan.

Or Hot Fuzz for short.

Police officer Nicholas Angel (Simon Pegg) excels at his job. But he performs beyond exceptionally thereby alienating most of the force.

This results in his transfer from London to Sandford.

His dedicated uncompromising bullet proof rectitude also frustrates many in Sandford, but not before he acknowledges that he may have a problem and also befriends partner Danny Butterman (Nick Frost).

The two form an unlikely duo determined to prove that a series of recent deaths are in fact the product of murder, Simon Skinner (Timothy Dalton) being their principal suspect.

Should Angel proceed with the traditional traction that has failed to serve him well professionally, or should he relax his pursuit of justice in order to make a more homely fit in his new town?

The answer enriches the ultimate battle of good versus evil, sublimely crafted and ridiculously executed, truly one for the ages.

If you like watching well-written films wherein characters are given seriously comedic room to maneuver, films which seem like they're unconcerned with their narrative's meticulously researched playfully cohesive structure, films which set up over the top stereotypes in opposition and then provide them with plenty of ammo, films where representatives of law and order break down and descend into total chaos, while still upholding the law, you'll likely enjoy Hot Fuzz's bizarre relationship with tradition and redemption, give or take a theoretical posture regarding communal individuality.

Obsessed unyielding conviction. Authority and a pledge of trust. Guns.

Hot Fuzz.

My favourite type of irony satirizes while elevating its subject.

Sympathy for the Devil

Showcasing The Rolling Stones (1968) as they record different versions of "Sympathy for the Devil," Jean-Luc Godard's Sympathy for the Devil tamely presents the to-be-legendary band while interspersing footage of the Black Panthers, a verdant interview, and an idealistic book shop. Political verse read from different texts is interjected throughout as graffiti artists championing the left take to the streets. Rich with ambiguous irony and multidimensional interpretive layers, Godard phantasmagorically makes several points which, as far as I can tell, seek to establish, amongst other things, a Marxist film industry in the West and a legion of intellectuals who pursue their activity by abandoning traditional paradigms, creating new compelling forms to provocatively distribute their countercultural content, i.e., The Rolling Stones's "Sympathy for the Devil," communism being demonic in Western eyes precisely because it attempts to politicize the teachings of Jesus Christ while giving birth to monsters like Stalin. Are artists using the internet to create a politico-economic infrastructure that can effectively sustain Marxism in order to promote a more peaceful egalitarian culture that doesn't pervert its altruistic ideals while specific outlets continue to foster a divisive mainstream capitalist agenda? In Sympathy for the Devil, Godard sets up culture and art in opposition so the aforementioned could lead to a material synthesis of some kind (a Dharma Punx video game?). The verdant interview depicts a woman named Eve Democracy (Anne Wiazemsky) being asked wide ranging questions in a forest to which she only answers "yes" or "no," which, according to my interpretation, states that 1960s women were politically situated within a wild uncultivated box that limited their productivity to monosyllabic replies which men preferred and ignored because they possessed no elaboration but still provided the illusion of a voice. The Black Panthers make sharp points concerning language and communication etc., notably in regards to semantics and the ways in which different groups can speak the same language and have no idea what the other is trying to say. A lot more could have been illustrated in the film if The Rolling Stones weren't consistently brought back to the forefront, although, since they're one of my favourite bands and their consistent return represents form working hand in hand with content, it's not such a bad thing. Whether or not they forged and continue to forge a countercultural realm in line with Godard's vision could be the anti-intellectual subject of a poetic montage worked into the chorus of a new podcast.

Crimes and Misdemeanours

Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors snuck up on me. The first half of the film was slow moving and mundane, leaving me to concentrate more thoroughly upon the divergent dimensions of different varieties of dragonflies than its developing motifs. But as the videotape ran on, I discovered another multi-layered take on life, morality, and existence, with relevant themes breaking through a tragically-comedic allegory. Hence, we are not surprised when we discover characters marrying and divorcing in the film's final moments, nor do we startle when the pretentious wealthy "glad handing dandy"(Twin Peaks Pilot) steals the woman of Allen's dreams. Allen's nemesis is played by Alan Alda and their polarity metaphorically examines the old artistic-merit versus kitschy-sensationalism dialectic, hilariously, especially since Allen is filming Alda's biography. Allen's attempts to expose Alda's shallow character are juxtaposed against Martin Landau's moral battle throughout, a moral battle waged with his conscience after severing ties to his mistress once and for all. Landau (Judah Rosenthal) can't decide whether or not to go public with his guilty conscience (thereby ruining several lives) or to simply get over it. All in all, Crimes and Misdemeanors is worth viewing just to hear some of the jokes, such as, "hey kid, don't listen to what your teachers are saying, just look at them and see what they're going through." Etcetera.