Rich Hall - cultural commentator

Do we need a successor to Charlie Brooker now that he is happy and has lost his edge? I nominate Rich Hall as the emerging force in cultural commentary. If you get a chance to see his ‘Deep South’ documentary, it’s worth a watch. Mostly a straightforward, but good, handling of the way that literature and cinema have portrayed the Southern USA, there is one marvellous scene where, standing in a cotton field, he loudly disclaims about the evils of the movie-bipocs ‘Ray’ and ‘Walk the line’, explaining that Jamie Foxx received an academy award while Wakeeeeemmm (whatever) Phoenix was only nominated because ‘Jamie Foxx made a slightly better job of raping the corpse of Ray Charles than Wakeem Phoenix did of raping the corpse of Johnny Cash.

As I sat there open mouthed he then vented spleen about the sort of person who needs a movie to help them find great music, the implication clearly stated that if you didn’t know about Johnny Cash before you saw this film, you’re an idiot.

I can’t do the rant justice – I’d have to invent a new font called ‘bile’, and print it out on a printer loaded with vitriol rather than ink onto a sheet of flame.

The rant ends with his shouting ‘f**k you!’ into camera, addressing anyone and everyone without a Johnny Cash record in their collection.

Almost as good is his analysis of Hillbilly culture – a hillbilly is somebody who holds a grudge, resists outside interference and brews his own hooch. Another term might be ‘Scotsman’.