Our Next Corona Film Club Movie Is 'Blades of Glory'

“Does anyone remember laughter?” – Robert Plant, ad-libbing during a famous live performance of “Stairway To Heaven”. Also me on week four of self-isolation, drifting around the flat like a forlorn military wife and scrolling bleary-eyed through photos of the pub on my camera roll.

So far our Corona Film Club has grappled with tortured priest flick First Reformed, porcine romp Porco Rosso, and neurotic comedy Mistress America. This week, we rewind to a simpler time. A dumber time. A time before Twitter existed and shutter shades were genuinely in fashion.

Cast your mind, if you will, back to March 2007. LCD Soundsystem have just released Sound of Silver, a cool new show called "Skins" is airing on E4, and every Odeon in the country is showing a film starring at least one former cast member of Freaks and Geeks at any given time. Pirates of the Caribbean is finally ending, Paranormal Activity has kick-started another found-footage based horror trend, and the sentimental comedy is reigning supreme, with Superbad, Juno, Bee Movie, Knocked Up and Ratatouille being released within the space of a few months.

With all that happening, it's not surprising that a slapstick comedy about a pair of men's figure skaters was somewhat buried. Starring Will Ferrell as Charles "Chazz" Michael Michaels and Jon Heder as James "Jimmy" MacElroy – two athletes from different backgrounds, whose long-standing rivalry culminates in a fight that leaves them banned from men's singles competition for life – Blades of Glory is a story of ego, friendship, and gruesome beheadings on ice. While its legacy has been overshadowed by more era-defining films of the time, it's still a fun romp that gave us one of the most iconic samples in 00s music history. A rare and precious artefact of a pre-financial crash Hollywood, in which almost no plot was too stupid.

If that's got you – the people – going, here’s how to join in:

• Download Netflix Party for Chrome and join our official Corona Film Club viewing party on Wednesday the 8st of April at 8PM to share your thoughts in the live chat. We'll be sharing the link to our party on the VICE UK socials (@viceuk on Twitter and Instagram) on Wednesday, so keep an eye out.
• If you’d rather see it in your own time, watch the movie and send us your responses to the following questions to coronafilmclub@vice.com before 12PM on Wednesday the 8th of April. Whoever submits our favourite review wins a 12 pack of Old Blue Last beer (which you can also now get delivered to your door btw). We'll let you know if that's you over email.

Read our collective review on Thursday on vice dot com. We’re also always looking for suggestions for future films, so make sure to send those to the Corona Film Club email too (the only rule is that the movie needs to be on Netflix UK).

See you on Wednesday!

@emmaggarland