Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story
Picture flips back and forth between the 18th Century of the Tristram story & the hapless efforts of the 21st Century cast & crew making the film. Coogan (playing himself, Tristram and Tristram's dad) fights with his co-star Rob Brydon (playing himself and Tristram's uncle) about what the novel means and how much screen hogging the other is doing. After the day's filming things get worse: Coogan's annoying wife arrives with baby, a journalist harasses him about a scandalous story, & financiers threaten to pull the plug.
- Director:
- Michael Winterbottom (24 Hour Party People, 9 Songs)
- Writer:
- Frank Cottrell Boyce
- Cast:
- Steve CooganRob BrydonRaymond WaringDylan MoranKeeley HawesGillian AndersonNaomie Harris
Reviews & comments
A joy for Steve Coogan if nothing else
This is funny, though odd in parts and I'm not sure how satisfying it is. Nor I do I think it's as smart as it thinks it is. But Steve Coogan is as brilliant as always. I'm so glad Flicks review points this out! - Steve Coogan IS underrated in NZ. His tv shows (sometimes on UK TV) are constantly laugh out loud funny.
Total Film
pressIngenious, hilarious and often intellectually rigorous... there are times when it approaches the level of the sublime... According to Steve Coogan, Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy was "a post-modern classic written before there was any modern to be post about." Wrap your brain around that and you'll be prepared for Michael Winterbottom's deliriously entertaining film-within-a-film, which reflects the novel's playful, self-referential structure by twinning dramatised episodes from the book with the trials and tribulations of a cash-strapped crew trying to make sense of it...
Roger Ebert
pressBecause their work is so varied, the director Winterbottom and Boyce, his frequent writer, are only now coming into focus as perhaps the most creative team in British film...
New Zealand Herald
pressIf you ever enjoyed an English comedy show on the telly and you're ready for a laugh, you're going to love this. Don't worry if you haven't the faintest idea what it's about. No one else does either...
Hollywood Reporter
pressLong deemed unfilmable, the 18th century novel finds the perfect interpreters in director Michael Winterbottom and actor Steve Coogan...
Empire Magazine
pressA successful mix of literary adaptation, meta-fictional discourse and inside-showbiz comedy. Both funny and clever... this reteaming (after 24 Hour Party People) with Steve Coogan is one of Winterbottom's most entertaining pictures, even though it's still an ambitious and intelligent effort to cope with a novel that's one of the cornerstones of English literature...
Total Film
pressIngenious, hilarious and often intellectually rigorous... there are times when it approaches the level of the sublime... According to Steve Coogan, Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy was "a post-modern classic written before there was any modern to be post about." Wrap your brain around that and you'll be prepared for Michael Winterbottom's deliriously entertaining film-within-a-film, which reflects the novel's playful, self-referential structure by twinning dramatised episodes from the book with the trials and tribulations of a cash-strapped crew trying to make sense of it...
Roger Ebert
pressBecause their work is so varied, the director Winterbottom and Boyce, his frequent writer, are only now coming into focus as perhaps the most creative team in British film...
New Zealand Herald
pressIf you ever enjoyed an English comedy show on the telly and you're ready for a laugh, you're going to love this. Don't worry if you haven't the faintest idea what it's about. No one else does either...
Hollywood Reporter
pressLong deemed unfilmable, the 18th century novel finds the perfect interpreters in director Michael Winterbottom and actor Steve Coogan...
Empire Magazine
pressA successful mix of literary adaptation, meta-fictional discourse and inside-showbiz comedy. Both funny and clever... this reteaming (after 24 Hour Party People) with Steve Coogan is one of Winterbottom's most entertaining pictures, even though it's still an ambitious and intelligent effort to cope with a novel that's one of the cornerstones of English literature...
A joy for Steve Coogan if nothing else
This is funny, though odd in parts and I'm not sure how satisfying it is. Nor I do I think it's as smart as it thinks it is. But Steve Coogan is as brilliant as always. I'm so glad Flicks review points this out! - Steve Coogan IS underrated in NZ. His tv shows (sometimes on UK TV) are constantly laugh out loud funny.
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