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Movie Tagline: Good food. Fine ales. Total annihilation.
Unibroue is iconic. There is no other way to say it. They have been making stellar beer since the early 1990s. No other Canadian brewery has won more awards than Unibroue, and with good reason. Using a brewing method inspired by Trappist monks, Unibroue has taken great care to stay faithful to its origins even as it expands and changes. It is a brand that wears its roots proudly on its sleeve, from its Quebec heritage to its Belgian inspiration. When you see a bottle of Unibroue beer, there is no mistaking it for something else. You know it when you see it.
In a lot of ways, that is also how I feel about an Edgar Wright movie, especially one starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. There’s just something inimitable about this trio of British nerds. They have made three features and one television series together to date, and all three are collectively the best work any of them have ever done. Sure, Pegg is a lot of fun in the Star Trek movies, and Edgar Wright directed the hell out of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, but when you get them together and throw in some Nick Frost, that’s when the magic really happens.
Much like a Unibroue beer, an Edgar Wright movie wears its roots on its sleeve. You can see so much film history in his choices, but his movies never seem derivative or hacky. He never seems to be ripping anyone off. He is paying homage, as he does so by taking something he loves from another movie – a camera move, a line of dialogue – and recreating it organically in his own work. This is his way of paying tribute to what came before. But he is not content to just copy other people’s work. He always puts his own spin on things. And his own sensibilities are so unique and he is so full of enormous creativity that nothing he does seems half-assed. He fully commits to everything he does, and that is what makes him such a special director.
The World’s End is full of life. It is hilarious, but there is a very real undercurrent of melancholy that adds so much depth to the movie. The characters feel real, the world feels lived in, and none of the things that happen take you out of the movie no matter how far-fetched they are because everything stays true to the reality of the movie. It is a movie that knows how to follow its own rules.
La Fin du Monde goes so well with The World’s End not just because of the symmetry of their titles (although that helps), but because both are examples of two masters of their craft performing on the world stage. If you want the best beer Quebec has to offer, you drink a Unibroue. If you want some of the best contemporary movies England has to offer, you watch anything from Edgar Wright. It’s what you do.
