Billy Shakespeare: He's Everywhere

Watched a couple of very fine movies via Netflix the past couple of nights.

First up on Wednesday was Brick. This came out in the last year and was instantly notable for its film-noir-takes-place-in-present-day-high-school premise. I was very impressed. As Ebert pointed out, the movie works because it plays the premise straight. Aside from the dry noir humor, some humor also flashes out via the teen angle as when the protaganist tells the principal (who in this movie plays the noir police chief role) that he doesn't accept his deal and "I'll see you at parent conferences!"

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays the teen detective lead. At first I was put off by this. Not that I have anything against this actor, just that he's been playing a teen forever - I first saw him in that sitcom "3rd Rock from the Sun," but mostly remember him from teen movie 10 Things I Hate About You from 1999 where he also played a high-school teenager. But he pulls off his role in Brick commendably - as do all of the youngsters in the flick: The informer guy, the femme fatale dame, the other femme fatale dame, the Mr. Big character, the tough guy, etc. Sheesh ... do "Hate American Culture First" snobs also hate film noir, yet another pop culture gift the good ol' USA has given the world?

Up on Thursday was Roman Polanski's version of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Good thing I read Shakespeare's text just a few short weeks ago as through the first half-hour of the movie I was pretty much going on memory to keep up with what was going on because of the old-old-school English wording. No big deal, I used to just go on "feel" for the first thirty minutes in the pre-subtitled-DVD days when watching Monty Python movies until I got the accents figured out. As Macbeth played out, I understood more and more and then fell totally into it as Macbeth slid into the dark side. Brilliant film.

Oh, and all you Culture War prudes who decry the state of popular culture these days are strangely silent on the free-for-all that Shakespeare came up with four hundred years ago. In just this one tragedy we get (don't blame it on the film, it was all in the book) ... witchcraft, the occult, druggings, assassination, insanity, more murder, killing innocent women and children ... what did I miss? Aside from Macbeth having no children and saying that he has "an empty sceptre?" Ha ha: thank you William Shakespeare - greatest English-language writer ever - for winning the Culture War centuries ago! (Culture War prudes: Name a better writer than the Greatest. Face.)

And now that I have some Shakespeare under my belt, a little Harold Ramis/Rodney Dangerfield Back to School (my third Netflix disc sitting here at home) is in order. The scene where Dangerfield replicates his spending spree in the pro shop in Caddyshack ("looks good on you though") will be like a tasty dessert. You know - the part where he declares: "Shakespeare for everyone!" He also tells the clerk that he'd like to "tame her shrew." Hey - what Shakespeare work was 10 Things I Hate About You based on again?