| On Friday night, my friend Sam and I had planned a cinema date. Going through the listings, I texted him tentatively: ‘Don’t laugh, but I really want to see Top Gun. It’s had really good reviews!!!!’ So, we did. Top Gun: Maverick – the long-awaited sequel to the 1986 film about naval fighter pilots – sees Tom Cruise back in the cockpit, reprising his role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell. In it, people say things like ‘It isn't possible!’ only for Cruise to show – would you believe it! – it is possible. You also get Miles Teller’s moustache, Jennifer Connelly bathed in golden light, leaning against a vintage Porsche, and best of all JON HAMM. Those aren’t spoilers, they’re exactly what you want, and expect, from the film. Top Gun: Maverick is cheesy. Really cheesy. But it is a high quality fromage, an organic Comté if you please, rather than one of those floppy slices of orange plastic. And, yes, I loved it. I cheered, and laughed, I did a little air punch at one point, and I left thinking ‘I wonder if I could make it as a fighter pilot?’ despite the fact that the last thing I drove was a Vauxhall Corsa at 40mph. It was fun, it was camp, it was the immersive movie experience I wanted. Apparently streaming services tried to buy the distribution rights at one point but producer Jerry Bruckheimer said nope. Great call, because it’s made for big screens and not your laptop. Clearly I am not the only Top Gun stan. In the US, it has already taken more in ticket sales than Titanic . But it got me wondering about why I had to caveat wanting to see it with ‘Don’t laugh’ and ‘It’s had really good reviews!!!!’ If I had suggested some obscure subtitled film or lo-fi indie movie, would I have still felt the need to justify it? When it comes to cultural talking points, one of the least nuanced, most unsophisticated things we can do is distinguish between the right and the wrong kind of work. We talk about ‘guilty pleasures’, but where’s the guilt in going to see a film on a Friday night where you’re not surreptitiously checking your watch throughout? Where’s the shame in looking forward to Love Island? Is there a problem with liking music you can dance to? Good art can be about introspection, a commentary on the human condition or the current political climate, it can often be hard work but worth the effort. But cultural snobs who dismiss the popular run the risk of missing out on something equally valuable: escapism. So, let this be my non-cinephile critical takeaway: sometimes we all have the need for cheese. That, and, everyone looks good in aviators. |
