My Movie Journal is Better Than Yours

Notes History

Date Viewed	Venue	Note
10.31.11	Netflix	I guess this they did a tv show of this? I had no clue when I watched it. Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon take a road trip through the northern England countryside to go to top-tier restaurants. The relationship established in Tristram Shandy seems to continue in this show, that being Brydon is jubilant and annoyingly happy and Coogan plays the lonely movie star who gets annoyed. There's a ton of impersonations in this one which are hilarious and, to me, provide a glimpse of authentic conversation between two actors. Or at least my perception of a conversation between actors. Constantly reciting poetry and soliloquies, repeating phrases to get impersonations right, riffing on ideas, etc. The same goes for the typical on-the-road conversations where it's mostly meandering but, thanks to the talent of Brydon, Coogan, and Winterbottom, completely perfect distillations of meandering on-the-road conversations that are actually funny rather than boring. The only heavy-handed bit to me was the sad piano music whenever Coogan talks to his on-a-break girlfriend in the states. I felt the sadness and lonliness enough with Coogan's performance without the music telling me to be sad. The rest of the movie is an effortless jaunt spending a few hours with these two guys. I really enjoyed it.