The World's End (2013)

Director: Edgar Wright

Cast: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman

Have I Seen it Before: Sure.

Did I Like It: This is probably the weakest of all the Cornetto films, but that’s kind of like saying that the third greatest thing to ever happen to you was kind of a letdown after the other two things. The energy of the filmmaking, the chemistry of Pegg and Frost, and the fundamental charm of British immaturity all come together once again into a pleasing celebration of genre—this time an alien invasion piece—that stands right along with the films its gently trying to satirize.

Beyond hitting all the things one would expect from the series, there’s something so refreshing about the notion of a story ultimately about the reuinion of childhood/school friends, where the majority of the friends would rather be doing anything else. Set aside Glenn Close whoring out Kevin Kline in The Big Chill (1983), my main complaint about that film is that I wish more of the gang didn’t really want to be there.

Where things don’t quite hold together for me is the third act of the film, where things happen that don’t quite gel in my head, leaving the film less satisfying than it could have been. The problem is that Gary King’s (Pegg) brand of self-destructive childishness is the only skill suited for the new world order, leaving his refusal to go along with the semi-altrusitic (if ultimately draconian) invading aliens.

And that refusal ends up ruining the rest of humanity. Maybe the film’s attempting some sort of reverse world view, but why leave things that way? Shaun of the Dead (2004) may leave the zombies still running roughshod over humanity, but humanity adapted. There’s only disaster here, leaving me with the same feeling I often got watching The Walking Dead, in those times that I decided to do such a thing. There’s enough about the world that’s crushingly depressing, I’m never overly fond of when it happens in my entertainment.

The Death of Stalin (2017)

Director: Armando Iannucci

Cast: Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend

Have I Seen it Before: Never. It feels like a film I’ve always been orbiting around watching, but kept missing it for one reason or another.

Did I Like It: I remember being very down on Ridley Scott’s Napoleon (2023) for a myriad of historical sins, the most egregious of them being that not only did every figure depicted speak English, they also appeared to be writing in English as well. Now, this film engages in a lot of the same chicanery as displayed in that film, with a cast that is blissfully content to either sound 100% American or British while they bicker their way to a post-Stalin politburo. Here, I’m fine with it.

Why? Because it’s a damn comedy is why. From all accounts, this is a fairly accurate depiction of a pointedly preposterous series of events. I don’t know what Ridley Scott’s excuse is, but Armando Iannucci is absolutely running laps around him with this one. My favorite gag in the entire film is when the politburo decides to pause mass executions, after which we cut to one final guy getting shot by a firing squad, and the next guy in line realizing he can just walk away. An absolutely perfect depiction, if ever there was one, of the insanity of a government out of control.

I don’t think the film would have hit the same as it did when it hit wider release in 2018. Applying the same sense of open-eyed cynicism Iannucci brought to American politics in Veep and British politics to the horrors of the peak of the Soviet system. We live in a time where it’s easy—and plenty rationale—to be afraid of the faceless horrors of our current system, but there’s more than a little bit of comfort to remember that it’s run by a bunch of childish fools who are just a few moments away from being completely removed from everything they reflexively hold dear.