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Movies / On DVD / Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

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Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story (2006)

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Reviews Counted:117

Fresh:106

Rotten:11

Average Rating:7.5/10

Consensus: Though Laurence Sterne's novel was considered more or less impossible to successfully adapt to film, director Michael Winterbottom has done it in Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story, by making movie about the making of the movie. Stars Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon add madcap, knowing performances to the mix, and the result is a fun, postmodern romp, before there was any modern romp to post.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for language and sexual content

Runtime: 1 hr 31 mins

Genre: Comedies

Theatrical Release:20-01-2006

Synopsis: Barely stopping to breathe between productions, outrageously prolific director Michael Winterbottom follows his graphically intimate 9 SONGS with the raucously entertaining TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK... Barely stopping to breathe between productions, outrageously prolific director Michael Winterbottom follows his graphically intimate 9 SONGS with the raucously entertaining TRISTRAM SHANDY: A COCK AND BULL STORY. This time around, Winterbottom is out to film the unfilmable novel: an adaptation of Laurence Sterne's sprawling 18th Century masterpiece of digression, THE LIFE AND OPINIONS OF TRISTRAM SHANDY, GENTLEMAN. What begins as a seemingly straightforward attempt to recreate the frenetic novel--starring Steve Coogan as the title figure and Rob Brydon as his Uncle Toby--quickly derails into a behind-the-scenes document of the film's actual production. Working triple time (for he also plays Tristram's father), Coogan is hilarious as the insecure "Steve Coogan," a shallow actor who is more interested in his cute assistant (Naomie Harris) than the mother of his newborn child (the always delightful Kelly Macdonald). Meanwhile, "Rob Brydon" is trying desperately to convince "Steve Coogan" that his role is a co-lead, not merely a supporting one. As the production threatens to spin out of control, the filmmakers hire Gillian Anderson (playing herself, of course) to fill a much-needed role. Coming off like a madcap collision of BARRY LYNDON and 24 HOUR PARTY PEOPLE, Winterbottom's film is a hilarious and surprisingly tender ode to fatherhood and moviemaking in general. This film screened as part of Lincoln Center's 2005 New York Film Festival. [More]

Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson

Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson, Dylan Moran, David Walliams, Kelly MacDonald, Ian Hart, Jeremy Northam, Kieran O'Brien, Gillian Anderson

Director: Michael Winterbottom

Director: Michael Winterbottom
Screenwriter: Martin Hardy
Producer: Andrew Eaton
Composer: Michael Nyman
Studio: Picturehouse

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Reviews for Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

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1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
01/20/07
Philip French
Philip French
Observer [UK]

A successful mix of literary adaptation, meta-fictional discourse and inside-showbiz comedy. Both funny and clever.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
12/30/06
Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

... one of the funniest British movies in years.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment Comment
01/24/06
Adrian Hennigan
Adrian Hennigan
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Michael Winterbottom may just be one of the greatest directors working today and, to boot, he's one of the few pure talents that remain unsullied by external pressures.

Full Review Source: FilmFocus | comment Comment
01/22/06
Joe Utichi
Joe Utichi
FilmFocus

Cheeky and flippant.

Full Review Source: Guardian [UK] | comment Comment
01/21/06
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Give this anarchic British comedy a shot and you'll be laughing from start to finish.

Full Review Source: Daily Mirror [UK] | comment Comment
01/20/06
David Edwards
David Edwards
Daily Mirror [UK]

Instead of hoping to fool us that we’re watching life itself, they constantly remind us that telling a story is a fragile, silly, impossible process, and an essential delight.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
01/19/06
Ben Walters
Ben Walters
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The cast (composed almost entirely of familiar TV faces) are simply terrific and are clearly having a huge amount of fun, although Coogan deserves special praise for sending up his own image so fearlessly.

Full Review Source: ViewLondon | comment Comment
11/03/05
Matthew Turner
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon

A completely mad film within a film, setting narrative aside for a free-wheeling examination of identity

Full Review Source: Shadows on the Wall | comment Comment
09/30/05
Rich Cline
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall

Coogan and Brydon make a beautiful squabbling couple

Full Review Source: CinePassion | comment Comment
08/30/09
Fernando F. Croce
Fernando F. Croce
CinePassion
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Boston Phoenix | comment Comment
04/23/09
Peter Keough
Peter Keough
Boston Phoenix
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: NPR.org | comment Comment
10/18/08
Bob Mondello
Bob Mondello
NPR.org

Equal parts literature and lunacy.

Full Review Source: BrandonFibbs.com | comment Comment
02/28/08
Brandon Fibbs
Brandon Fibbs
BrandonFibbs.com

For those who can appreciate the movie's ironic, self-referential nature, this is a thoroughly engaging, near-brilliant comedy.

Full Review Source: DVD Review | comment Comment
07/10/07
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
Felix Gonzalez Jr.
DVD Review

If you go into this movie expecting a traditional narrative tale, you may get discouraged. You have to throw away your expectations and sit back and wait to see what happens ... if anything.

Full Review Source: Cinematical | comment Comment
04/08/07
Jette Kernion
Jette Kernion
Cinematical

[O]ne of the cleverest deconstructions and modernizations of a work of classic literature cinema has ever achieved...

Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher | comment Comment
11/20/06
MaryAnn Johanson
MaryAnn Johanson
Flick Filosopher

...Preposterously funny, perpetually inventive, implausibly successful...

Full Review Source: Nation | comment Comment
11/11/06
Stuart Klawans
Stuart Klawans
Nation
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Sydney Morning Herald | comment Comment
06/30/06
Sydney Morning Herald

Adventurous, ambitious and downright quirky, this will appeal to those who revel in more than a little bite in their humour.

Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | comment Comment
06/21/06
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile Critics
Urban Cinefile

un film dont on se délecte autant pour la redoutable intelligence de son récit et le côté fêlé de sa structure narrative que pour son humour aussi mordant que désopilant

Full Review Source: Panorama | comment Comment
06/05/06
Jean-François Vandeuren
Jean-François Vandeuren
Panorama
 
 
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Latest News for Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

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Featuring a performance from Angelina Jolie that has already drawn praise as one of the best of her career, director Michael Winterbottom's "A Mighty Heart" is the... More...

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