Tracey Ullman: A Class Act (1993)
A short series of 15 minute programmes, really expanded sketches, in which Tracey Ullman and Michael Palin play various roles satirizing the British class system.
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It is a performances centric movie
It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.
this is the only movie i can remember seeing that explicitly talks about the class system and damn does it make me laugh while doing so. but if you stop and think, well, its kind of more than just a laugh, isnt it? since most movies dont go anywhere near this territory, pointing out the things this movie does.it follows the lives of various people in different classes and watches them thru their life at different stages as they grow up. go off to school, get married, get divorced, and so forth.I wont spoil it but let me note the people whose lives it follows: a lower class, lower middle, upper middle, and upper class person, all played by either michael palin or tracey ullman. and i busted a gut several times laughing. it includes mock interviews with the peoples parents, their wives, etc. it shows scenes from their lives, whether its snotty prep schoolmates or a rich wife reminding her husband of how many children they have. it shows the relationships and the emotions they all go through and absolutely skewers some of the crazy things people do, either to move up the class ladder, to stay up, or simply because they are stuck at some place in the class ladder. is the upperclass guy stuck or just afraid to move down? hmmm.the only thing missing is some kind of rich person who 'gives it all up' to be a hippy, moving down the ladder. that would be funny to poke fun at them.then there is the random plane sketch that has named the passenger compartments by 'lower class' or 'upper class' and tracey ullman as 'trevor' the airline attendant. classic tracey ullman, that.