Four Lions surprised me several times, in several ways. And in the most profound and effective way, it used the very formulas that create the desire to do so.
It unfolds as a classical self determination comedy, which sounds like a concern but serves a beautiful purpose. It wants you to fall into the comfortable pattern of such things, ensnare you with the familiar and have you root for the plucky protagonists in their endeavour. It just so happens that their particular task, rather than being to run a marathon or get a girl, is to murder a whole bunch of people.
And it's so subtle and warm and disarming that when it questions the act, and as a result your compliance, it's genuinely shocking. It attempts, and in my case at least, succeeds in building dissonance, in handing you opposing views in order that you question them both. It is in short, satire at it's finest. I find myself reaching for adjectives such as honed and meticulous.
With such a wonderfully sculpted work I could easily forget to mention that it is just outrageously funny. Which would be a huge disservice. Driven by perfectly crafted characters, it strides the gulf between deeply cutting and outright silly like a positive Adonis, and remains quotable throughout.
Rubber dinghy rapids, bro.
