What We Talk About When We Talk About Genre-Mashing Buddy-Cop Films

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It’s a new semester, and we’re kicking things off with a bang, or at the very least, a screenwriting class.

In Julianna Baggott’s Stage & Screen course, we analyzed Hot Fuzz, the 2007 British action-comedy film with Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and a lot of guns and explosions. Any movie, no matter how brilliantly genre-defying it is (91% on Rotten Tomatoes!) can be divided into acts, tropes, and story elements. (Alexandra Sokoloff talks about this, clearly and concisely.)

Analyzing Hot Fuzz and its two hours of edge-of-your-seat action wasn’t easy. We illustrated its story elements in groups and on the blackboard, pointing out just where the Inciting Incident occurs, when All Is Lost, and just how the Bad Guys Close In. (Hence, the time-lapse above).

This is the sort of thing that happens in a class here: intense discussions, new ways of looking at movies/storytelling/the world, and some cute drawings.jordan Sneakers | Releases Nike Shoes