What is funny? Most American comics have no qualms going over the top to get a laugh (Vince Vaughn). Then there are those British comedians who find endless humor in natural, awkward silences (Ricky Gervais). One team of Brits, director Michael Winterbottom and actor Steve Coogan, has succeeded at bringing the latter comedic style to the big screen with “Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story.”
No Bull: Brilliant Brit comics Rob Brydon (left) and Steve Coogan (right) both play themselves in the film-within-the-film parody “Tristam Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story.” In one scene, Coogan throws a tantrum when he must re-enact the great Tristram Shandy’s birth by passing through a giant uterus.
Winterbottom is not a household name, but he just may be the hardest-working man in show business. Amazingly, he releases a film every year — a pace rivaled only by Woody Allen. However, unlike Allen, Winterbottom’s films are wildly different from one another. From the heart-wrenching period piece (1996’s “Jude”), a sci-fi romance (2004’s “Code 46”), a punk-laden docudrama (2002’s “24 Hour Party People”), or last year’s porn-laden punk flick (“9 Songs”), Winterbottom has explored every genre and then some. This year he has tackled another convention-defying project with the terribly clever film-within-a-film comedy, “A Cock and Bull Story.”
The movie chronicles a series of hilarious mishaps that unfold when a group of independent filmmakers try to film the essentially unfilmable novel “The Life and Times of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.” Not since 1995’s “Living in Oblivion” has a movie chronicled the woes of independent filmmaking with such wit. Comedy ensues as the film’s director (played by Jeremy Northan) encounters a series of production snafus that range from filming a vast battle sequence “with literally tens of soldiers” to having to work with the film’s egotistical lead, Steve Coogan (played by Steve Coogan), who is playing Tristram Shandy … get it?
Like the novel, “The Life and Times of Tristram Shandy,” “A Cock and Bull Story” is at times chaotic, but Coogan’s amazing comedic performance holds it together. Coogan, who first worked with Winterbottom on “24 Hour Party People,” is a comic genius that has made a career out of playing smug celebrities. In “Party People” he hilariously played the conceited, shallow TV journalist Tony Wilson. Then, in 2004’s “Coffee and Cigarettes,” he parodied himself as a conceited and shallow British comedian. Now he reprises the role of himself in “A Cock and Bull Story.” It’s his shtick, but it’s one that never grows old. In this film, for example, Coogan demands to wear shoes that make him look taller than his co-stars; whispers “You’re so lucky,” to his girlfriend after a night of lovemaking; and, alas, didn’t even bother to read the book that the film is based on. But throughout, Coogan never goes overboard and never tries too hard to get a laugh. He’s funny because, like the rest of the movie, he is completely believable.
Countless realistic Hollywood-mocking moments brimming with irony make “A Cock and Bull Story” one of the most original comedies in years. In one scene where the filmmakers sit around discussing whether or not to cast Gillian Anderson in the film in order to get two stars to headline the movie, the screenwriter (Ian Hart) quips, “Two stars … I can see the reviews: ‘two stars.’” Well, this reviewer is going to disagree.
