"Sex lives of the Potato People"

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After the Daily Mail outrage/front page, and the pleasant interview on Parkinson with Johnny Vegas,

1) Who has seen it (or going to)
2) Any good?

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 11:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I have a sneaking suspicion that this might well be the worst film ever!

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 11:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Kermode said that it made him want to drink bleach, it was that seedy and grubby and downright nasty. I can't imagine JV doing something so crap though.

― chris (chris), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 11:27 (twenty-two years ago)

it does look awful. i reckon Baran will give it the thumbs up tho.

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 11:28 (twenty-two years ago)

It would seem to be in "Rita sue and bob too" territory.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 11:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Last night I dreamed that Laura Barton had taken over film reviews at the Guardian and that her review of Sex Lives Of The Potato Men began like this:

"The people of the planet Earth are sgsfgsrfsrf and their lives are characterised by adsdg fvgfrsrgt dfefd. Their history began in the sddf of adqerfcxfd [...several paras of similar...].

Is this review incoherent and annoying? Sex Lives Of The Potato Men pulls the same trick and asks the audience to accept that that's the point."

She awarded it one star.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 11:34 (twenty-two years ago)

i'll have whatever's in your cocoa, N.

― zebedee (zebedee), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 11:36 (twenty-two years ago)

It would seem to be in "Rita sue and bob too" territory.
-- mark grout (mark.grou...), February 25th, 2004.

RS&BT is freaking classic! by the best brit director since michael powell!!

― ENRQ (Enrique), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 11:40 (twenty-two years ago)

I dunno. My point being:

Films that portray the working classes get good reviews if:

1) Said people are nice, funny, sexy, or a combination.
2) Other than that, film has to be set in Spain or Guatemala or something.

Conclusion:
Film might actually be total pants. But the inbuild nature of the people that review films means they could be unpredisposed towards it anyway.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

I agree with Enrique here, I think RS&BT is crude but genius for delivering the line
Son-in-law to father-in-law 'I can't help being a p@ki'
father-in-law 'yes you f@#king can'
Completely cringeworthy & racist, but a fantastic film nonetheless.

― Pinkpanther (Pinkpanther), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

RS&BT also contains the exchange:

"You've done nothing and you've been nothing all your life."
"I have done some things."

The way the response is delivered is the sgsfgsrfsrf of the adsdg fvgfrsrgt dfefd and should be regarded as such.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 11:57 (twenty-two years ago)

yeh, but doesn't it also have Black Lace?

― zappi (joni), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I think, in a very real sense, we all have Black Lace..

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 12:02 (twenty-two years ago)

I think it's about trusting the 'auteur': I don't think RS&BT director Alan Clarke (also did 'Made in Britain', abt a skinhead, 'The Firm', about hoolies, 'Elephant' abt sectarian violence) was a racist. I think he was a genius.

Films that portray the working classes get good reviews if:

1) Said people are nice, funny, sexy, or a combination.
2) Other than that, film has to be set in Spain or Guatemala or something.

Conclusion:
Film might actually be total pants. But the inbuild nature of the people that review films means they could be unpredisposed towards it anyway.

'People who review films' tend to be middle class, but politically there's a world of difference between the ultra-right-wing Alexander Walker and the lefties at Village Voice. The main issue in films abt working class character's is the authorial viewpoint: for some reason, Mike Leigh (okay his characters are usually lower-middle class) is seen as condescending; Loach, these days, is sentimental; Clarke was a freaking anarchist. Walker loathed Loach (largely cos of their views on Nornirn. Leigh is a favourite of middlebrow liberals. Clarkey is more like a European director or summat.

But, y'know, the Torygraph's review of 'Sweet Sixteen' explicitly called out the Tory party's policies of the 80s for the social slump depicted in the film.

― ENRQ (Enrique), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 12:02 (twenty-two years ago)

The way George Costigan says 'Fat Fucking Mavis' always made me crease myself, as did the bit where the dad says 'fuck it, I'm off to bed'. brilliant brilliant brilliant.

― Dave B (daveb), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 12:04 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm not saying crits are always wrong, far from..

The main thrust of the Daily Mail thing was that "Lottery Money" was used to fund this "vile trash", and a list of other films that LM funded that lost money (none of which were vile trash just rub presumably), but then, if the LM had funded Trainspotting the reaction would have been the same.

So LM should not fund VT, however successful, and not rub films either.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 12:06 (twenty-two years ago)

ps. can someone correct the name in the thread to 'men' from 'people' - it's vaugely bothering me.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 12:14 (twenty-two years ago)

You can correct 'vaugely' too.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 12:14 (twenty-two years ago)

Hmm, that's classic Walker -- he devoted acres of paper to it. It's not like they don't have a point! Brit-film is still fatally TV-oriented. The thing is, the Mail would hate it if they funded good films as well. Arguably the Brit industry is a victim of its own success: we rocked in the 80s, but on a small scale, with small films that made profits but not huge ones. Film Four and Working Title (who were the big movers then) got too big and made rubbish like 'Love Actually' and 'Charlotte Gray' while the BFI (who made 'Caravaggio', 'Distant Voices, Still Lives', 'Draughtman's Contract') was kicked in the gonads by new labour.

― ENRQ (Enrique), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 12:15 (twenty-two years ago)

"Sex lives of the Potato Men", quite right.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 12:56 (twenty-two years ago)

"Sex lives of the Potato People" sounds like an X-rated version of some Poddington Peas type cartoon characters

― pete s, Wednesday, 25 February 2004 13:09 (twenty-two years ago)

You can understand my mistake then.

― mark grout (mark grout), Wednesday, 25 February 2004 13:11 (twenty-two years ago)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/fridayreview/story/0,12102,1156773,00.html

Hmmmm! Well, the magazine I work for wasn't given a preview screening. So shove yer prolier-than-thou posturing. Most film critics are under 40 anyway.

― ENRQ (Enrique), Friday, 27 February 2004 10:23 (twenty-two years ago)

Umm, I was meaning the Daily Mail / Times / Guardian axis..

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 27 February 2004 10:26 (twenty-two years ago)

OK, I have read the link now. All that was kinda my point.

(ENRQ - you mean the director to shove the 'prolier' biz? OK, thought you meant me for a minute...)

― mark grout (mark grout), Friday, 27 February 2004 10:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm seeing it this weekend. Will report back. Beware though, I am surprisingly working class.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 27 February 2004 10:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah Mark was talking abt the director.

― ENRQ (Enrique), Friday, 27 February 2004 10:33 (twenty-two years ago)

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