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Under discussion:

Notting Hill  (1999)

Wet Hot American Summer  (2001)

Black Books [TV Series]  (2000)

Shaun of the Dead  (2004)

Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story  (2005)

Run, Fatboy, Run  (2007)

There may not be any literal baton passing going on in the marathon-set screwball comedy Run, Fatboy, Run, but the movie, which was directed by Friends star David Schwimmer, is noteworthy for its hand-offs. The first has to do with the writing of the film, which began as an original screenplay by American actor/comedian/writer Michael Ian Black (Wet Hot American Summer) and was later reworked by British actor/comedian/writer Simon Pegg (Shaun of the Dead). Despite the screenplay credit confusingly indicating the two writers collaborated, it is more a matter of one taking over from the other and going the distance with it.

The second pass relates to the actors. Although Run, Fatboy, Run is sold as a Simon Pegg comedy, the true stand-out is lesser-known Dylan Moran, who supports as Pegg’s character’s best friend. Familiar to most Brits as the star of the Channel 4 series Black Books (which I keep meaning to finally rent), Moran has also appeared in minor roles in the movies Shaun of the Dead, Tristram Shandy: A **** and Bull Story and Notting Hill, none of which really showcased his talent the way Run, Fatboy, Run does. Because it was probably not intentional for Moran to upstage Pegg, though, it has to be said that rather than a hand-off of the spotlight, this is more a stealing of the show. And boy does Moran make a great getaway towards the finish line.
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Under discussion:

Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet  (2008)

BLIP FESTIVAL: REFORMAT THE PLANET trailer from 2 Player Productions on Vimeo.

In his first feature doc, Paul Owens looks into the ChipTunes, a new underground electronic music genre consisting of music made on out-of-date video game hardware. Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet, screening on the 24 Beats Per Minute program, premieres on Saturday night at the Dobie. The trailer’s above, and Paul Owens answers our questions below.

Tell us about your movie. Who did you work with, why did you make it? Give us the reductive, 25-word or less, “It’s like [pop culture reference a] meets [pop culture reference b]!” pitch, then explain what the quick and dirty sell leaves out.

Blip Festival: Reformat the Planet delves into this music movement known as ChipTunes, which is based around using forgotten videogame hardware (nintendo, atari, gameboy) to create new, original music.

I made the movie with Asif Siddiky, who did the cinematography, and Paul Levering, who was the producer. In the beginning, we checked out a live chiptune show and we were all blown away. We’d never seen or heard anything like it, but because it was sort of anchored to this classic videogame sound, it instantly struck a chord with us. Slowly we accumulated live footage, interviews, important moments in the scene and two years later, we had a documentary.
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