It really shouldnt work. A black comedy thats basically about four terrorists, planning an atrocity on UK soil? Thats surely a film thats designed to wind up tabloid newspapers? In the wrong hands, it certainly could have been. But under the diligent stewardship of Chris Morris, Four Lions emerges as one of the best films of the year. Its a perfectly pitched, at times rightly uncomfortable comedy, that brings together a quartet of inept terrorists, who when we meet them, cant even put a video together without it falling into farce. Its an opening scene that sets up Four Lions perfectly. And led by the terrific Riz Ahmed and the scene-stealing Nigel Lindsay, the company of actors rise to the challenge that Chris Morris sets them. Four Lions isnt a perfect film, though. The tone is a little uneven at times, and its very much one thats going to feel more at home on a television than a cinema screen. But its still a daring, risky and at times extremely funny piece of work. And its one not afraid to pull the rug on you, either, never shielding itself away from the undercurrents of its subject matter. Its the most ambitious comedy in a long, long time, and its credit to all concerned that it works as well as it does. --Simon Brew
Chris Morris' "Four Lions" is a funny, thrilling comedy that illuminates modern jihadism through the prism of farce. It understands jihadists as human beings. And it understands human beings as innately ridiculous.
With midterm elections looming Vice President Selina Meyer is scoring higher ratings than the president in several popularity polls which she hopes will boost her influence and help her curry favour with the chief executive. But as she knows all too well even the most banal action can set off a ripple effect that has unexpected far-reaching and often disastrous - consequences. Episodes Comprise: Midterms Signals Hostages The Vic Allen Dinner Helsinki Andrew Shutdown First Response Running D.C.
With Jam, the TV follow-up to his Radio 1 series Blue Jam, Chris Morris focuses more on unease more than the satire of Brass Eye. Indeed, it's a moot point whether Jam can actually be categorised as comedy at all. Each sketch is steeped in a heavy brine of dark, ambient music (including Bark Psychosis, David Sylvian and Brian Eno), grainy imagery, fast-cut editing and slo-motion. Its mirthless, Kafka-esque scenarios feel like an attempt to morph into some new species of post-comedy that is more like the stuff of nightmares. The credits, in which Morris stalks the moving camera, uttering Lear-esque words of foreboding immediately announce that this "sketch show" is a galaxy apart from The Two Ronnies. The appalled look on actor Kevin Eldon's face in the opening sketch of the series, as a young couple invite him to endure being buggered by a mutual acquaintance ("I need a break"), sets the tone. Rape, chemotherapy, wanton urination--as a naked "Robert Kilroy-Silk" goes insane in a sketch full of detestation for the oleaginous TV presenter--and recurring sketches involving callously authoritarian NHS doctors, all go to make up these annals of the bizarre and perverse. Ultimately, Jam doesn't quite work, not on TV anyway. The repetition of the same, small cast over and over, broken up too briefly by Morris' own appearances (as a "country gentleman" living outside his house, for instance), coupled with the gruelling treatment of the sketch material makes for a psyche-probing, jaw-dropping experience--but in parts also a nullifying and strangely predictable one. Morris's "failures" are far more interesting than most people's successes. --David Stubbs
As Chris Morris ventures into the realms of the short film with My Wrongs Number 8245-8249 and 117 it makes complete sense that the king of vicious satire should team up with Warp Records' new film section. Warp have constantly strived to subvert the norm in music--signing acts such as Boards of Canada and the mad yet beautiful music of Aphex Twin--and so Morris has been able to lay a superb soundtrack over the top of his film. Having merged the spoken word with Warp-style music in his earlier release Blue Jam, Morris goes one step further with My Wrongs and adds multiple layers to the visuals. Imbued with surreal and macabre comedy, it follows one man's descent into an off-kilter world where dogs and babies become lawyers defending everything he has done wrong since the age of four. Don't expect any political Brass Eye-type wranglings from this Morris creation, though, since My Wrongs is more concerned with the turmoil of the subconscious mind. As such it looks set to become a darling of the alternative scene. On the DVD: My Wrongs Number 8245-8249 & 117 offers a surprising amount of extras for such a short film, including a commentary from one of the production runners, a number of remixes (including a superb mix of Barbara Woodhouse's dog training sessions) and an inner-monologue from the starring man. --Nikki Disney
The brainchild of Charlie Brooker and Chris Morris Nathan Barley is their latest comedy assault on society; a satirical parody of the Hoxton-finned style obsessed world of the new media. Nathan Barley is 26. He is a webmaster guerrilla filmmaker screenwriter DJ and in his own words a ""self-facilitating media node"". He is convinced he is the epitome of urban cool and therefore secretly terrified he might not be which is why he reads Sugar Ape Magazine - his bible
Chris Morris' "Four Lions" is a funny, thrilling comedy that illuminates modern jihadism through the prism of farce. It understands jihadists as human beings. And it understands human beings as innately ridiculous.
Newly-promoted Inspector Jean Darblay takes charge of the police station in the Lancashire town of Hartley. As the first female Inspector to be placed in charge of the station there is initially considerable scepticism from the long-standing staff... Episodes comprise: 1. New Arrivals 2. Arlene 3. Party Fun 4. Lies and Liars 5. A Private Place 6. Unpicking the Stitches 7. Clever Boy 8. Aunt Sally 9. Gorgeous 10. Whispers 11. Barriers 12. Journeys 13. Cat
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