There\u2019s a line in the new Star Wars film about something or other being at the end of a piece of string. I\u2019m not being vague because I\u2019ve already forgotten what it was, I\u2019m trying to avoid spoiling a single thing. Mind you, the string line isn\u2019t a single thing: they say it twice like it\u2019s a bit cleverer than it actually is.<\/p>\n
If I were going to review Star Wars: The Last Jedi<\/a> then I\u2019d be talking about what the characters say. For instance, it\u2019s got a lot of wisecracks that need you to be in love with the characters or to be living in the 1970s on a diet of bad US television to enjoy. But since this isn\u2019t a review, let me say that the film is a fun ride and immeasurably better than The Force Awakens<\/a>.<\/p>\n I just keep coming back to that line about string.<\/p>\n As much as I did enjoy the film, it feels a mess and I think it lacks a piece of string pulling us through. It\u2019s event after event and that isn\u2019t enough for me.<\/p>\n I am certain that I\u2019m saying something you already know because I\u2019m certain I already knew it too. Yet seeing its absence is making me think and talk about it anew.<\/p>\n I was recently asked something like \u2018what do you admire in art\u2019 and I replied about writing where the piece sets out to do something and does it. I replied talking about the end of a piece where you have been taken somewhere you didn\u2019t expect and didn\u2019t predict yet in that final moment know is where the writer was always taking you. When that\u2019s done right, the sheer perfection of it genuinely makes me cry.<\/p>\n Whether a story is explosive action or seductive calm, it should be constantly surprising but every single beat must also be taking you to where the writer intended. If you\u2019ve got a great gag and it doesn\u2019t move you in that direction, kill it. Each moment has to be the very best it can be \u2013 and it also has to be invisibly or visibly moving you to where the story is going.<\/p>\n Bugger. I\u2019m thinking about this because of that line about string and I\u2019ve now realised that it\u2019s a rubbish analogy. I thought it was about being pulled through to somewhere or maybe that the string is a guideline of some kind.<\/p>\n But actually the best analogy I can think of is one I\u2019ve thought of before so often that I may have bored you with it in a pub.<\/p>\n Stories are like pieces of wood that you rub your hand over. When you go in one direction, following the story for the first time, you\u2019re rubbing your hand against the grain. So it\u2019s bumpy, there are shards that cut into you, there are tiny slivers of wood that get into your skin.<\/p>\n And then when you rub the other way, from the end of the story backwards, you\u2019re rubbing with the grain and now the wood feels perfectly smooth.<\/p>\n Star Wars: The Last Jedi is bumpy both ways. It\u2019s got great moments and actually I think the ending works best of it all, but the film lacks something huge. I think it lacks this sense of a storyteller pulling you through.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There\u2019s a line in the new Star Wars film about something or other being at the end of a piece … Continue reading