July 2016

What I’m Learning From Edgar Wright and “The World’s End”

I watched "The World's End" the other night, and found it to be an outstanding piece of storytelling. The basic premise is: Gary Knight, wanting to relive his self-professed "best night of his life" cajoles his estranged friends into trying to try The Golden Mile, and complete it this time. This is told in obvious flashback, where we get to see just-out-of-school Gary, Andy, Steve, Peter and Oliver as The Fateful Night played out. . . And then, we see Gary King in his present context: telling this to the other participants in some type of group therapy or 12-Step program. He stares off into the distance, a smile frozen on his face. Note: the Golden Mile is comprised of 12 pubs, a detail Edgar Wright likely included in the story as a parallel of the 12-step program. I won't go into all the particular layers in the movie (and there are), since...