The plan today was to write about Helvetica, Gary Hustwit's 80-minute documentary about the world's most iconic typeface. It's a fascinating piece of filmmaking, thoughtfully shot and soundtracked and featuring interviews with luminaries of the design world both old and new. I loved the serenity of it and the people it introduced me to, the discussions it provoked with Mr. B and the way I'll never be able to look at another poster or brochure or sign without thinking of what cultural significance the style of lettering might carry. I'm not sure it's the kind of film I could sell to anybody, though - if it's your sort of thing, chances are the mere knowledge of its existence will be enough to have you hunting a copy down. I know that was how it happened with me.
Besides, it's been a while since I've written something rambly about the Cornetto Triology, hasn't it? Luckily, ITV2 was showing Hot Fuzz last night and there aren't many pleasanter ways to spend a quiet evening. Granted, I dozed through a line or two of dialogue, but I've been watching it three or four times a year since a cinema trip during its original release period, so I feel this is probably forgivable.
As with Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz takes a genre dominated by the US, translates it to a typical UK setting and then follows this to its extreme logical conclusion. This time round we have a typical buddy cop set up, as we're introduced to London supercop Nick Angel (Simon Pegg) just as he finds himself uprooted from his preferred environment to sleepy Sandford, a village so beautiful it wins awards. Here he lands up partnered with the hapless Danny Butterfield (Nick Frost) who he first encounters when he drunkenly reverses his car into a fountain. An amiable sort, Danny has apparently gained the entirety of his knowledge of policing procedure by watching the likes of Point Break and Bad Boys 2. Of course, this is hardly going to be a problem in Sandford, is it? Not Sandford, where everybody's lovely and the most hardened criminal is an escaped swan.
Nick's a stickler for the rules and takes a lot of flak as a result. You'd think that once the murders start the rest of the local plods would be glad to have someone like him around, but no, it's easier for everybody simply to pass them off as accidents and the new face in town as a fanatic. Only the faithful Danny is prepared to believe he might be onto something...
Boasting the same top-notch editing as Shaun, Hot Fuzz is a delight from start to finish. Granted, it rambles a little more than Shaun, but then, I'd argue that the world it presents is more detailed and benefits from a more lengthy viewing. I was raised in England's leafy shires, in the world of church fetes and vegetable growing contests, and I know the levels of spite and superiority that lurk beneath the immaculately-manicured flowerbeds. It's nice to see it all, err, honoured, particularly (spoiler) in the climactic shootout scene.
There's lots of other things to enjoy here, in any case. Is actor-spotting your thing? On your left, look out for veteran character actor Billie Whitelaw of The Omen fame. As we travel on further, meanwhile, you may catch a glimpse of a tall gentleman of somewhat limited intellectual capacities. Are you sure you haven't seen him before in, say, Game of Thrones, as Sandor Clegane, the Hound? Particularly perceptive types may even notice appearances by Cate Blanchett and Peter Jackson, although if you find these without looking them up you have sharper eyes than I do.
The humour is a nice mix of slapstick and on-point satire; Frost in particular has a bunch of quotable lines. He has the difficult task of providing the film with its heart and moral grounding, and in the end, the gifted but tightly-wound Nick has as much to learn from Danny as Danny does from him. The friendship elements here are absolutely spot-on, far more nuanced than they were in Shaun and at times, genuinely touching.
It's not perfect, of course, and it probably wouldn't be even if the casting team had seen fit to furnish the film with a single non-white face. Women receive similarly short shrift, for the most part - granted, not everybody in a comedy needs their own character arc, but there's a real lack of three-dimensional female characters here. This is, unfortunately, becoming something of a trademark in Wright's work, and is part of the reason I've given up trying to like his Scott Pilgrim vs. The World no matter how great it might look.
Still, Hot Fuzz remains close to the top of my list of favourite comedy movies, and to paraphrase Shaun of the Dead's Ed, I'll only stop watching it when ITV2 stops showing it.
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