"Comedy is a cop out" is a bad take.
Let me tell you, it's a lot harder to write comedy that lands than it is to write overwrought melodrama and then just tell Hans Zimmer to lay it on thick.
Check out the prose of the average literary minded teenager and dollars to donuts it descends into the most insufferable, melodramatic tragedy porn. It's basically an attitude of "what if emotion, but at 11?"
And there's nothing inherently wrong with melodrama. I actually quite like it. But it's a lot harder to land than most people who write it are capable of. You can't aim for the juicy tragedy -- rather it's the result of the hard work in building to that.
Take THE CROW for example. This is an excellent film to look towards. You'd be hard pressed to find a more melodramatic film.
And it's still pointed with little bits of much needed comedy to break it up.
And it's still pointed with little bits of much needed comedy to break it up.
In one scene, in between taking bullets, Draven tells a joke about Jesus handing an innkeeper 4 nails and asking to be put up for the night.
Michael Wincott's great moment where he says "I've got an impersonation for you. Caw! Caw! BANG! Fuck I'm dead!"
Hills and valleys folks. These moments of levity allow the rest of the film that exists in high melodrama to not become exhausting.
Hills and valleys folks. These moments of levity allow the rest of the film that exists in high melodrama to not become exhausting.
The moral of the story is go watch THE CROW again, because that movie fucking rulez.
