Paul and the Cornetto Trilogy

Before I get carried away with what I intend to put-to-paper here, I must first note; Paul is a very funny film and is definitely worth a watch...

With that out the way, I can get to the point. Paul, for me, marks the end of my generation's crack at shaping the future of British comedy. Written by and staring Nick Frost and Simon Pegg, Paul is the latest addition to Pegg and Frost's filmic endeavors that begun in 2004 with Shaun of the Dead (SoTD) and followed in 2007 by Hot Fuzz (HF). SoTD was different, witty, fresh and, most importantly, distinctly British - the film's plot culminating at 'The Winchester', a tragic (yet somehow familiar) haunt of locals who have past their prime. HF marked the development of Frost and Pegg's writing talent, which is clear to see throughout as Pegg unearths the seedy underbelly of a quaint Gloucestershire village (of the year).


DS Andy Cartwright: Everyone and their mums is packin' round here! 
Nicholas Angel: Like who? 
DS Andy Wainwright: Farmers. 
Nicholas Angel: Who else? 
DS Andy Cartwright: Farmers' mums. 


Furthermore, just a glance at the cast list of HF (and SoTD, to a lesser degree) and one can begin to appreciate the power that Frost and Pegg begun to wield amongst the British comedy elite. Stars of the big screen flit in and out of HF so often that my first watch of the production left me astounded at how much SoTD had obviously made Frost and Pegg such an attractive force in the British film industry, even for those whose careers had achieved the success that many can only dream of; Martin Freeman, Bill Nighy, Jim Broadbent, Bill Bailey, Timothy Dalton, Steve Coogan, Stephen Merchant and Cate Blanchett to name but a few of those who play minor, cameo roles in Frost and Pegg's second piece. What I'm getting at here is the extent to which this writing duo had come to define the nature of contemporary British, big-screen comedy. These first two instalments (parts one and two of the 'cornetto trilogy') of their writing partnership (both directed by Edgar Wright, who worked with Pegg and Frost on the television series Spaced), can very much be seen as a extension of Frost and Pegg's early television work and the result of ideas constructed in a childhood of sci-fi movies and bad British television.


Paul deviates from the cornetto trilogy (to which it has no connection other than it's authors) in its unashamedly playing to an Anglo-American viewer and making itself accessible to a broader audience, a tactic that plunges Paul into the deep-end of the mainstream. It is in this aspect that, for me, Paul fails. I do not state this to conclude that this is a 'bad' film, more that it is removed from the environment that made SoTD and HF cult classics; namely, the fact that they are cult classics. For me, SoTD and HF were a breakaway from the British comedy that included Hugh Grant bumbling through romantic encounters; a time for comedy that my generation could look back on in 30 years and compare to the Monty Python era and not be embarrassed to draw that parallel. For me, the cornetto trilogy was borne out of the XFM generation - a time when I was first going to gigs, drinking, meeting new people, having sex, being independent, thinking about leaving home but having no responsibilities. Sadly, that time is gone and we are left with Paul. We are left with the kind of film that leaves me, somewhat cynically, feeling like I've seen it all before. Hopefully, the finale in the cornetto trilogy picks up where it's predecessors left off and recaptures form that it is slowly giving up to the Hollywood dollar.


Rating: 6/10