I’m a big fan of Caspar but I’m not 100% sure I am with him on this line, yeah.
Oh god, I then wrote 3 rambling paragraphs. Read if you want but I’m hiding them. Sorry:
Summary
It’s certainly true that his is critical and I like that. And it’s also true that this sort of film criticism has been hugely watered down by the kind of “check your brain at the door” journeyman reviewing where people go, “Yeah I guess I had fun, fuck it that’s all that matters, right?”.
That definitely exploded with the internet because previously that kind of nitpicky reviewing was basically what you always saw and it was why most ‘geeky’ fantasy type films would get poorer reviews I think. Caspar doesn’t like stuff like that but these days it’s so prevalent that it makes him seem unusual.
AND I think part of the problem is that MCU films and the like are easy to enjoy and they’re everywhere, but also they’re hard to actually be critical about. The entire fabric of a Fast and Furious movie is really the James Bond thing of stuff happening which is sort of hyper-real. There isn’t really an acting performance to consider, there isn’t a reality to consider.
So that means a lot of reviewing becomes pretty much, “was it fun?” and so criticism feels redundant. You get a much loved but dated film like Shrek - and yeah it’s very dated, I mean you hold it up to Toy Story and Toy Story feels like it could have come out yesterday - so obviously if you try to pull out why it feels weird now it just falls apart because it feels like we don’t want to critique such films.
Yeah I recall all the stuff about mo-cap, so is it not actually rendered at all? I mean isn’t there a term (toto scoping) for when you take imagery and make it cartoonish? Whatever that Ralph Bakshi LotR did was properly disjointed
The Wedgewood Rooms in Southsea does a night every December where local bands collaborate and do cover sets. This year there were some good showings from the likes of Dinosaur Jr Junior but by far the biggest crowd and loudest reception of the night was for Shrekultura, who played All Star, I’m A Believer and Livin’ La Vida Loca interspersed with an occasional 5 seconds or so of Sepultura riffs.
But before I headed to the dance floor I first availed myself of a Shrek- themed cocktail. My Donkey Punch mixed drink cost twenty-six dollars before tax and tip although I really should have paid seven dollars extra and gotten a glowing green swamp-themed concoction that came with its own collectible container but the dad in me recoiled at the idea of paying thirty six dollars for a drink.
I’m waiting for my man
$26 in my hand
I’m at the Shrek rave
Want some punch
This donkey-themed drink’s gonna cost tomorrow’s lunch
I’m waiting for my man
My recollection is that Shrek was a big hit across generations before Disney became ‘okay/cool’ again to see if you were an adult. I mean I know Pixar started that really with Toy Story but Shrek was sort of brash and ‘edgy’ and (at least at the time) seen as anti-trope.
Loads of people my age certainly loved it so I’m not really so surprised it might have this ability to get people down for a rave leaning into people’s love for it.
Could do a decent little crawl on the next DiS Manchester meet - pints at that Captain Tom pub, and then finish off the night with pizza and wine at Shrek’s pizza.
