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Ayoade on Top

  • Richard Ayoade (2019)

Overview

A book-length critical study of View from the Top (2003), a Gwyneth Paltrow comedy about a woman who wants to become a flight attendant, which Ayoade treats with the seriousness normally reserved for Citizen Kane. He goes through the film scene by scene, finds depths it does not have, and never breaks character. It is a parody of film criticism, of the auteur theory, and of the way that enough earnest attention can make anything look like art.

Notes

Funnier than it has any right to be, and a better piece of criticism than its subject deserves. It is also an unintended demonstration of a real problem: an intelligent reader can construct a satisfying interpretation of almost anything, and the satisfaction is no evidence that the interpretation was there to be found. I think of this book whenever someone explains the hidden meaning of a scripture.

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