7/21/16

Absolutely Fabulous: The Movie

When "Absolutely Fabulous" finished its lengthy run on BBC, a generous friend allowed me to watch six seasons in one hilarious binge. Now I'm prepared to reunite with my two most outrageous friends for another shameless get-together. It was a pleasure to share this experience with an enthusiastic screening audience last night.

Written by the brilliant Jennifer Saunders ("French & Saunders") and directed by Mandie Fletcher ("Hamish Macbeth") we know we are in good hands from the very beginning, which starts out full throttle and rarely lets up.

Our old friends (and a few new):
  • Jennifer Saunders ("The Vicar of Dibley") Edina must somehow cope with the loss of income. Her daughter has taken in boarders, but even that device might fail. She has alienated a book publisher by offering a "blah" book (REALLY!), and she thinks a pariah is a fish.
  • Joanna Lumley ("Me Before You") Patsy will never change, e.g., she still chases young men (and old) and tries to trade on her hard-earned reputation not only as a fashion maven, but as a high-end slut and porn queen.
  • Julia Sawalha ("Lark Rise to Candleford") Saffron has given up on her mother (Again!). Now her main concern is keeping her daughter Lola out of her mother's sphere of influence.
  • Jane Horrocks ("Little Voice") is back again as Bubbles. She is still an ill-treated, weirdly dressed kook whose life and fortunes you would never anticipate.
  • John Hamm ("Million-Dollar Arm") playing himself, stumbles into a fashion launch, and THEN stumbles into Patsy...AGAIN. (Check the lipstick!) You have to see it...
  • Kate Moss ("Zoolander 2") as Kate Moss, is the central figure in a murder, a scandal and Edina's self-imposed exile, in which Patsy must pose as a man. Yeah, you've gotta see it....
  • Rebel Wilson ("Bridesmaids") This flight attendant calls herself "The DNB" but I can't tell you what it means in a PG-13 review.
As you might expect from this R-rated reunion, you will see drinking, drugging, insult humor (mostly about aging), and the most astonishing array of cameos I think I have ever seen! Some of the screening audience was already planning to see it again because this is so fast-paced and packed with so many punch lines, famous faces, outrageous clothes, and laugh-out-loud situations, you can't possibly catch it all the first time. I particularly enjoyed that vehicular chase with the little three-wheeled fish van being pursued by local cops.

If you weren't a fan when this series was running on television, expect a learning curve; most of us simply boarded a moving train, we knew exactly what to expect and were completely up to speed.
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Here is a sample:
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi1100461081
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