Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Mike Leigh: Nuts in May















What's remarkable about Mike Leigh is how he can do so much with so little. His Nuts in May (1976), mixing two main and three secondary characters in an English campground (in Dorset), manages to cleverly produce themes more saliently found in, say, Lord of the Flies or The Sopranos. It's mostly about how people relate, or fail to, when fate dictates they must in order to avoid some level of catastrophe.

First we see how fussy and control freaky Keith and Candice Marie (the main characters) are even left to their own devices. Then we see them thrown for one loop after another by the others, even while occasionally making efforts to socialize and compromise. Given their rigidity, just about everything drives them batshit. One might say literally, but that wouldn't make any sense, now, would it?

After seeing this, I made sure to round up a lunch of bangers and mash the next day. It certainly triggered fond memories of hiking around England.

Today's Rune: Initiation.    

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