DIRECTED BY Shane Meadows
STARRING Paddy Considine, Gary Stretch, Toby Kebbell
Opened October 1, Cert 18, 86 mins
Now that the '90s trend for chucking Lottery cash at tax-break B-movies is over, we're left with a stripped-down who's who of great British directors. Jonathan Glazer's in it. Guy Ritchie isn't. Matthew Vaughn and Paul Greengrass are new entries. All great, but perhaps none are as worthy of your attention as Shane Meadows.
Like Seinfeld and The Larry Sanders Show before it, the hilarious, misanthropic mayhem of Larry David's CYE has been lamentably treated by UK TV schedulers, clearly unused to programming such unfettered genius. All the more reason to recommend this five-hour festival of mordant mirth, in whose presence humbled awe is the only appropriate response.
It was hardly a long haul, coming together in 1965 and burning out by 1968, but in the words of Papa John: "We had so much fun for two years, there was no more fun to be had."Yet in that time, The Mamas & The Papas became the USA's pop royal family, the American Beatles. Like The Beatles, they were four instantly recognisable, distinct personalities, with the same ready wit, entertainment value and high visibility factor. John Phillips and wife Michelle, Cass Elliot and Denny Doherty looked and sounded like no other band in the land.
