When I was in high school, my film enthusiasm and desire to make movies was the pinnacle of my identity, and I recall a video I produced for YouTube where I trashed on modern comedy films. At the time, I was conditioned by the community available to a high school student wanting to rise above the monotonous garbage that many of my peers enjoyed, I had risen to the occasion that only movies by Stanley Kubrick, Ridley Scott, Hitchcock, Fincher, etc, were good movies, and quality in cinema could only be achieved through wide shots, metaphors, and extensive dialogue to tell a complex story. Also, the quality of a movie was determined by *coughs* the Rotten Tomatoes score.
As I’ve matured, I’ve realized that not only can quality movies be absent of staunch intellectualism and extreme wide shots, but there are comedy films that are truly brilliant in both their themes and technique. I would like to briefly introduce you to three films that rank among my favorite comedies of all time, Edgar Wright’s Three Flavors Cornetto Trilogy. Featuring the same two actors (Simon Pegg and Nick Frost) playing different roles, the three flavors refers to red strawberry, blueberry, and mint flavored. The red strawberry represents Shaun of the Dead, of which the red represents the blood and gore of horror movies. The blueberry represents Hot Fuzz, in which the blue represents the police in action films, and lastly, mint, which is green and represents the science fiction of the final film, The World’s End. In this list, I will be issuing providing them in order, although, each film is a truly brilliant comedy, and, I would recommend you watch them in the order that they were released. They are different from each other but similar. Each establishes its own voice, but those voices are having a conversation.
1. Shaun of the Dead
“You’ve got red on you.”
Arguably my favorite horror comedy, Shaun of the Dead combines bland office humor with romantic comedy fanfare and utilizes dry British humor to tell a romantic comedy about average people against the backdrop of a zombie apocalypse. Although the title would imply a parody of Dawn of the Dead, the film is both a spoof as well as a love letter to horror films and, particularly, zombie films. Much of zombie apocalypse fiction attempts to portray how people would react following the breakdown of society in a nightmarish world, but, let’s be honest, it’s often done melodramatically, such as in the hit series, The Walking Dead, which is a solid show nonetheless. Other films, such as Zombieland, a very clever horror comedy, portray the aftermath as almost purely comedic and continue the awkward college humor interactions that existed before the fall. Interestingly, however, Shaun of the Dead portrays the aftermath in a manner that isn’t conventional of its genre, but, feels uniquely realistic. I think it’s fair to say that, if something resembling a zombie apocalypse were to occur, individual groups of people’s reactions would be both intense as well as funny. It’s clever, zany, shot and edited perfectly, and meticulously written and directed with an uncanny amount of satisfying circularity.
2. Hot Fuzz
“There’s always something going on.”
Personally, my favorite of the trilogy, Hot Fuzz does the same as Shaun of the Dead, by taking the exaggerated tropes of its genre, which happens to be action movies, and bringing them down to the real world while being whacky as ever. There is some honest, genuine commentary on real-world police work, and, the thematic interpretations of Hot Fuzz are very complex and provocative when analyzed at the core. The film manages to take a narrative that would be more of a quiet mystery but employs a technique that makes the film as intense and exhilarating as any action film and as hilarious as any comedy film. This isn’t an action comedy, but a comedy movie about action movies. Or an action movie about comedy movies? The characters speak to the audience, and both Nicholas Angel and Danny Butterman, the main duo portrayed by Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, are much more complex than their Shaun of the Dead characters. A police officer too concentrated to find the joy in life, another officer too silly-hearted to concentrate, and a seemingly quiet, innocent town that ostensibly holds a darkly epic secret that Angel and Butterman try to crack.
3. The World's End
“We want to be free to do what we want to do.”
This film reverses the roles of Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Whereas Simon Pegg portrayed the straight man and Nick Frost portrayed the…other guy, in the previous two films, the roles were reversed, and the film told a story of crisis in a person’s life when he begins to wonder if the best years of his life were in the past. A very satisfying science fiction movie with a linear narrative that twists and turns to the point that we have difficulty in comprehending the intentions and strategies of the alien life that challenges the main characters. The perfect sendoff to the trilogy.
Three of the most watchable, charming, clever/brilliant, and hilarious comedy movies you’ll ever see.
