Watched on Friday January 26, 2024.
Funseekers, 1988 – ★★½
The final episode of the final season of ‘The Comic Strip’ to be shown on Channel 4 is messy to say the least. Chiefly because it seems to be brimming with utter contempt, so much so that it doesn’t know exactly who to turn it on.
It’s essentially a 50 minute multi thread story following a group of holiday makers on a club 18-30 called ‘The funseekers’ and predominantly its a lambasting of the way British people behave abroad, particularly on these cheap package holidays to Spain and the canary Isles.
The British are notorious for binge drinking, disorderly conduct and being yobbish when abroad, and this film shows that side of things in absolute unflinching detail…only it also seems to continue the trend of punching down on the working class, foreigners…basically anyone who’s put in front of the lens is shown to be pathetic and awful.
But the issue is, it isn’t PORTRAYING the lifestyle as awful. It shows the ups and downs, but it makes it out to be some kind of great big fun game that people can relate to fondly.
EVERYONE in this thing is awful, there’s not ONE salvageable character here. And the ending. To modern or progressive eyes is frankly just depressing.
A real downer to end ‘the channel 4 years’ on…if you ever wondered why Europe treat the UK with contempt. This film will show you why…
Didn’t You Kill My Brother?, 1988 – ★★★½
An Alexi Sayle penned and led story of two brothers sperated by greed and socialism. Previously both criminals (the story seems to be a ribbing on the Kray twins) it follows one half of the duo as they take on a VERY restrictive educational role in a local school, where he introduces socialist ideas to a despondent classroom.
I actually quite liked this one, I thought it balanced reasonable drama, with some thought provoking sequences and wasn’t afraid to be a bit silly as well.
Tonally solid and decently paced. Sayles duel performance as both of the brothers is excellent and the story has a rather satisfying (if not open) ending that I really quite enjoyed.
Not the absolute best of ‘The Comic Strip’ but one I could easily see myself revisiting.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/didnt-you-kill-my-brother/
The Yob, 1988 – ★
Hey, did you know the remake of ‘The Fly’ came out in 1986? Well, if you didn’t, ‘The Comic Strip’ sure as hell is going to remind you of it…TWO YEARS after the fact.
Landing with a wet limp squelch onto television screens in 1988, ‘The Yob’ has one joke and that is to parody ‘The Fly’ but instead of a scientist and a Fly getting mixed up, it’s a yuppie and a yob.
That’s it. That’s the whole hour long episode. And it’s unappealing in almost every sense of the word. Nauseating direction, irritating scoring, bad performances. Jokes that fail consistently and border on the homophobic and full on tip into the sexist and classist.
Someone turns up dressed as a nazi in black face at one point…its boring. A waste of an hour and arguably the worst of the comic strip…if it wasn’t for a literal handful of interesting cine choices. This would be down at a half star.
I’m not a fan of Keith Allen, and I’m not a fan of punching down. This does both.
Video Diary of a Lost Girl, 2012 – ★★★½
I picked up ‘Video Diary of a Lost Girl’ as a near enough blind buy, quite literally I saw the poster art, watched the trailer that AGFA had cut for this and figured that it must have been an art house Lomography piece combining the 80s ‘Dr. Caligari’ with the work of ‘Tom Rubnitz’ This proved not to be the case, but was a quite interesting journey non the less.
The plot follows Louise, a (possible) offspring of Lilith (Adams first wife) after banishment, god cursed Liliths children to bleed uncontrolably to death. Only, they found a way to circumvent that, if they ‘feed’ (see here: Have sex) with a spawn of adam once every 28 days, they’ll stave off the curse and live for another month, if they fail, then their period will start and they’ll bleed to death.
Louise has been getting by for the last few hundred years by basically going out to get raped, thinking if she kills a rapist by their own actions. its justified. She’s friendless, hates her sisters (who are all quite uppity and see themselves as ‘above’ humans, even though they need them to live) and she’s fairly miserable working in some kind of german expressionist nightmare video store called ‘Sinima video’.
That is until Charlie walks through the door, an awkward and egotistical ass of a man, who Louise almost immediately recognises, as back in the 1920’s he was the first man she fell in love with and accidentally killed. but now! he’s been reincarnated, and the pair slowly begin to fall for each other yet again. But this time Louise is determined to prevent his death…by ANY means necessary.
And…I enjoyed what was here. But its a VERY messy film. While I get that the script is trying for a bit of a woozy vibe, and theres themes and messaging around finding your place in the world, healing from trauma, how love is imperfect and true love can heal. Its a bit all over the place in terms of its execution and how it wants to present those themes.
The pacings quite jumpy, going from slow rolling tension to border jump cutting at times to crash through the ‘lore’ of this universe as quickly as possible.
The dialogue isnt particularly naturalistic and is at times a bit cringey. But it does have heart behind it which is to be admired. I’d rather a film have some life behind the eyes than just be another roll into the melancholic.
It cant seem to settle on a tone either. For the most part, it’s bleak. But then a lot of the scenes in the video store have a kind of acidic snarky 90s sarcasm to them, Charlie as a character is very dry and sarcastic too. But it all feels out of place agains the ‘End of Evangelion’ style visuals and morose acting of the rest of the cast.
Part of its framed like a kitchen sink drama, part of it is framed as farse…and im not sure which one I should be holding onto as the dominant form here. It means I dont know whether I should be embracing its themes and shades of style, or viewing this with a bit of distance as some kind of ‘multi layered’ parody of sorts…
Theres a bit of a disconnect on the visuals as well which caused some confusion. Realistically, this story could have been told in the real world…it didnt necessarily *need* the ‘Dr. Caligari by way of Eurotrash’ Aesthetic to sell me on it. To be completely honest, this whole thing could have been grounded in reality, with the more ‘supernatural’ moments utilising the Analogue ‘video art aesthetic’ and it would have worked just as well in my opinion.
Instead, im left in a situation where I found the visuals *largely* appealing. there was some wonderful experimentation on show, some genuinely inspired work that really got me thinking. But then in the same breath. the flip flopping between clean digital footage and analogue video was distracting to me. the aesthetics (outside of the dream sequences or kill scenes which I thought was well utilized) didnt really add anything to the actual plot…Which is a shame as had the visuals had a PURPOSE in relation to the story, I think i’d have gotten on better with it. And the overreliance on clips from public domain movies and references to many MANY other (better in my opinion) movies, was also distracting and, I feel didnt add anything of value to the production.
The cast were a little stiff and awkward, they didnt really seem to know how to hold themselves, or play in front of the camera, there seemed to be an overeliance on nudity (I appreciate its code for vulnerability and ‘release’…I just feel it’s quite heavy handed) and I wasnt ultimately won over by the portrayals. they lacked depth, complexity or any charictaristics that would really invest me in these characters world.
The score is good! but repetative. Honestly; at this point im still not sure if they just kept looping tracks or if they were variations on a theme. But it all started to sound a bit samey by about half way in which did bring it down a bit for me. What I heard was good! but it would have been nice to have had just a little bit more…
Ultimately; while I did enjoy ‘Video Diary of a Lost Girl’ I found it to be a flawed production. Heavy handed on it’s themes, it seemed to use ‘wacky’ sets as a contrast to an otherwise dark plotline…and I dont think that was enough really. It felt like I was watching the plot of one film genre play out in the style of another. Like ‘What if Scarface was shot like a kids movie…’ or something like that…
Its a bit heavy handed, incoherent at times and a bit awkward in places…I didnt like that it traded on ‘Analogue’ but predominantly the film is ‘digital’ with heavy analogue filters applied…But contrasting that is some very nice cine and crew direction, a few nicely played out scenes and a half decent soundtrack. Its imperfect. But I could see myself watching this one again…I dont think I could recommend it though.
For a laugh; Double feature this film with ‘Penetration Angst’ as a ‘forbidden fruit’ double header. Im sure you’ll have a great night…
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/video-diary-of-a-lost-girl/
Mr Jolly Lives Next Door, 1988 – ★★★★½
Easily the best of ‘The Comic strip’ this I’d essentially a proto hybrid of ‘Filthy Rich and Catflap’, ‘Bottom’ and ‘Withnail & I’ following two drunken escorts (Rik Mayall and Ade Edmondson) accidentally ending on a mission to murder Nicholas Bloody Parsons!
First off, this is shot on film. It looks GORGEOUS on the recent severin Bluray. Near faultless direction throughout. The pacing is breakneck, the humour crude and violent. The scripts FULL of PROPER gut laugh moments. Rik, Ade, Nicholas and Peter Cook are all absolutely in their elements.
If you only watch one ‘Comic Strip’ short, make it this one.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/mr-jolly-lives-next-door/
More Bad News, 1988 – ★★★★
A follow up 5 years on from the original ‘Bad News’ finds the lads being reunited after an unceremonious break up to perform at a rock festival and release a new album.
I think this arguably has a bigger hit rate on jokes than the original. Getting actual rock royalty in the form of Motorhead, def leopard and Ozzy to cameo was lovely. Its more varied and the ‘aging rockers acting like teens’ trope will never not be funny to me. Loved it.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/more-bad-news/
The Strike, 1988 – ★★★★
A socialist writes a dramatic account of the miners strikes of the 70s, but when a US exploitation film studio picks it up for more money than the writers ever seen before. He’s forced into a situation where his vision of a faithful recounting of terrible events is twisted into an exploitation film with Al Pachino starring as Arthur Skagill.
Fantastic fun, especially if you know the history of the miners strike. Having lifelong communist/socialist Alexi Sayle play the writer in this adds a whole other layer to proceedings. Dancing a wonderful line of slow burn comedy and pathos. I thought this one was really well handled. The disillusionment is palpable.
I’d read up on the miners strike before going into this one, if you wernt aware of what happened previously…just to get the absolute most out of it…but yeh, this one’s a riot.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/the-strike-1988/
Private Enterprise, 1986 – ★★★½
This one feels like a more gentle ‘Black Mirror’ or something by Chris Morris. It follows a recently released prisoner trying to make ends meet as a supply delivery man, but old habits die hard and he’s been skimming supplies and selling them on for personal profit.
He eventually stumbles in on a recording session with a band and gets a hold of one of their demos, and while on a run to a record label, decides to drop it in as a chancer.
The label love it, and want him to promote the single, but that’s when the problems begin when he finds out the band ended permanently literally the day after the demo was made. Leading to him having the great idea to make the band ‘whatever the person listening imagines they are’ complete with fancy dress costume outfits and a photo fit music video, it all begins to spiral.
It’s good! A nice balance between comedy and serious acting a twinge of the dystopic about it and a lot to say about disposable pop culture. Definitely one to check out if your looking for the best of the ‘comic strip’
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/private-enterprise/
The Naughty Victorians: An Erotic Tale of a Maiden’s Revenge, 1975 – ★★★★½
Watched as part of a larger project im currently working on…So to keep it brief.
This is a HELL of a picture. debauched, sadistic and twisted in the most delightful ways. Robert Sickinger puts his extensive knowledge of set and cast direction to the best of use here in realising the twisted harem of a mad man.
Dancing the line PERFECTLY between steamy eroticism and hardcore, its a minimalist piece (1 set and 1 location shoot for the most part) that feels rich, sumptuous and downright impressive honestly. While the location footage doesnt *quite* manage to capture victorian london. the set work is very impressive.
The English accents are quite impressive, though they do wobble in places and a couple of the cast basically dont even bother. But thats fine, this films quite acidic in tone and still rather controversial nearly 50 years on. Its geared more towards a BDSM audience. So your milage may vary, but I thought this was technically impressive and it astounded me that the director only ever shot one more film before returning to an on/off career in the theater. Wild.
