I believe the highest praise that one can give to a work of imagination (book, movie, series, painting, etc.) is that "it rearranges your mental furniture." That is, you view things differently after experiencing the work.
And -- as a downwardly mobile lower highbrow from the upper middle class -- I find that this happens, for me, with roughly approximate frequency between cannonical works (classic novels, great symphonies, etc.) and pieces from popular culture (good movies, fun series, the occasional computer game or web site).
Slings & Arrows is definitely in this class. It is a best-of-breed collection of work. The writing, the acting, the production... All are essentially faultless. (I don't find the castng faultless.. I have some quibbles there.) Some works rearrange on's mental furniture by subversion, by making you rethink things (like, David Lynch movies would be a good example). Slings and Arrows isn't like that... there's nothing subversive about it. Instead, it rearranges by enlarging... I gives an enlarged sense of the actor's craft, of the enduring value of Shakespeare, and ways people can be people.
It's not epic, it's not mind-blowing, it's just really really good. Really.
Annn-nnnd... Why Paul Gross is not an A-list, top-billing, Oscar-winning actor.... I dunno. Some smart scriptwriter really should write a movie that features him and Tom Hanks as brothers in a complex relationship.
And -- as a downwardly mobile lower highbrow from the upper middle class -- I find that this happens, for me, with roughly approximate frequency between cannonical works (classic novels, great symphonies, etc.) and pieces from popular culture (good movies, fun series, the occasional computer game or web site).
Slings & Arrows is definitely in this class. It is a best-of-breed collection of work. The writing, the acting, the production... All are essentially faultless. (I don't find the castng faultless.. I have some quibbles there.) Some works rearrange on's mental furniture by subversion, by making you rethink things (like, David Lynch movies would be a good example). Slings and Arrows isn't like that... there's nothing subversive about it. Instead, it rearranges by enlarging... I gives an enlarged sense of the actor's craft, of the enduring value of Shakespeare, and ways people can be people.
It's not epic, it's not mind-blowing, it's just really really good. Really.
Annn-nnnd... Why Paul Gross is not an A-list, top-billing, Oscar-winning actor.... I dunno. Some smart scriptwriter really should write a movie that features him and Tom Hanks as brothers in a complex relationship.