Film critics have voted Citizen Kane as the best film in the world for several years. I saw it for the first time when I was 13, that time I didn't understand why it was considered a masterpiece. Later, when I saw it again, I was already over twenty and I began to understand the genius of the film better. Film had changed with my own development and growth. That won't be the case for Jim Hosking's Ebony and Ivory. It will stay in history as his worst work.
The film's story was inspired by the meeting between Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder in Scotland sometime in the early 80s. They composed and performed a joint song called: "Ebony and Ivory". In the film, two men (McCartney and Wonder) meet in the Scottish countryside and hang out in a Scottish cottage eating veggie nuggets, veggie sausages, square veggie rolls and veggie pipes, and drinking whiskey and smoking weed. There is almost no plot in the film. The film consists of Hosking's typical dialogues and repetition, which when used well is a powerful tool, but when used poorly, it's just tiring gimmicks. In the film, Gil Gex, who plays Stevie Wonder, makes about a minute long vocalization, while the audience sees a close-up of his face and yellowed teeth. Naturally, there is also a naked scene in the film, where men with 30 cm "parts" run naked along the cottage road to the beach, swim in the sea and do gymnastics for a while before running back to the Scottish cottage...
The premise of the film was promising. I had imagined that I would see some kind of version of the music composition work, maybe going through prejudices, thoughts about the anti-racism contained in the song and maybe "fish out of water" experiences when two famous music legends are in a foreign environment. However, the film didn't even have supporting characters - unless you count the two sheep - that would have brought more interesting comedic moments to the film. The director relies on the familiar originalities from his previous films and the charisma of the two actors. However, an entertaining or thought-provoking film cannot be assembled with these components.
Jim Hosking previously directed two interesting comedies - The Greasy Strangler (2016) and An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn (2018). They have eccentric characters, a fair amount of potty humor and strange ideas. Among them, An Evening with Beverly Luff Linn is my favorite.
