After a grueling day with Habitat for Humanity, I watched L.A. Story. I had never even considered watching it before, since I am not a big fan of Los Angeles. Or Steve Martin, really. But I found the movie really charming.
I loved the gratuitous Hamlet references peppered throughout, which of course get more and more explicit over the course of the equally gratuitous gravedigger scene.
The freeway sign was a touch of Douglas Adams (sophomoric zaniness, working as comic deus ex machina) and coincidentally reminded me of a device used in the Blue Man Group show (I'm not saying Blue Man Group got the idea from L.A. Story, but it's chronologically possible).
There are some loving spoofs of celebrity culture, including the difficulties of getting into an outrageously popular restaurant - some of the humor comes from the fact that the characters repeatedly refer to this restaurant by name (sounds like "Leedio" in an American accent) before we see the spelling. Let's just say it's a French restaurant.
As a side note, in this flick, New York sophistication is not even a glimmer in Sarah Jessica Parker's eye, although her character's mores (though not distinct from Steve Martin's) perhaps presage the world of Sex and the City.
No comments:
Post a Comment