“One of the all-time great comedies”: the British farce Adam McKay called a masterpiece
In recent years, Adam McKay has made some of the most interesting and discussion-worthy movies to come from Hollywood.
Don’t Look Up split people right down the middle, where some thought it was a genius satire of modern politics and a stark warning about climate change, while others felt it was painfully direct and obvious. Then there’s Vice, his unorthodox profile of one of US politics’ most divisive recent figures, Dick Cheney, and he also produced the smash hit horror flick The Menu.
This phase of his career is very different to the one in which he first found success, as for decades, McKay was known for making straight-up comedies. He worked closely with Will Ferrell, directing him in Step Brothers, Talladega Nights, and Anchorman, among others, and the two were incredibly close until a disagreement over casting brought an end to their professional and personal relationship, something McKay deeply regrets.
Given the impact McKay has had on the world of comedy, it’s no surprise that Den of Geek wanted to know what some of his favourite funny films were. “We were talking about Four Lions,” he told the publication in 2016.
“An amazing film. One of the all-time great comedies”.
Released in 2010, Four Lions is a black comedy from the mind of legendary satirist Chris Morris, starring Riz Ahmed as the leader of a group of bungling Islamist terrorists living in Sheffield. The group travels to Pakistan to train as suicide bombers before returning to Britain to enact their plot, but unfortunately, as they’re all mostly idiots, things don’t go well.
Morris spent years researching this incredibly delicate subject, interviewing a number of people in preparation, including terrorism experts, members of the police, and ordinary British Muslims. He wanted to expose the more farcical side of religious radicalism, as well as to challenge certain stereotypes about terrorism and Muslims that were present in the media at the time, co-writing the screenplay with Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, the duo behind the iconic sitcom Peep Show. Armstrong would go on to create Succession, the pilot episode of which was directed by none other than Mr Adam McKay.
“A lot of those terrorists are weird hillbillies,” McKay continued. “They’re idiots. They’re people in some of the poorest areas too. There’s a horrifying documentary on the attack on Mumbai, and one of the guys lived. They’re interviewing him, and it’s clear the guy is from the middle of nowhere, and it’s hit him what he’s done. And I thought that’s what Four Lions really nailed…That movie really is a masterpiece.”
It’s not hard to understand why McKay loves Four Lions so much, as akin to many of his later works, it challenges the audience to laugh at incredibly serious, often deadly scenarios.
Its humour is outlandish and often incredibly bleak, and you’re left wondering how anyone could have come up with this idea in the first place, and while Morris’ film certainly isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, it is certainly worthy of the term ‘cult classic’.
