Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story is an eccentric hoot of a film, a delight for lovers of nattering British comedy. Or the business of moviemaking. Or just deadpan, postmodern silliness.
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02/24/06
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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.
Theatrical Release:Jan 27, 2006 Limited
Box Office: $1,110,155
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... [More]
Starring: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon, Keeley Hawes, Shirley Henderson
Director: Michael Winterbottom
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Reviews for Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
Droll literary humor, genital violence played for laughs, references to German New Wave cinema and Al Pacino impersonations are among the elements that make this one of the year's most beguiling and entertaining surprises.
02/24/06
This stuff is strictly Ben Stiller material, but genuine sparks fly when Coogan and Brydon spar together onscreen.
02/23/06
"Tristram Shandy" is quite limited to an acquired audience that has the patience and perhaps literary knowledge to appreciate the outcome.
02/22/06
Even if you don't get all the inside jokes, and the jokes that go inside the inside jokes, I still think you'll find this film to be very, very funny.
02/21/06
Top CriticBlimey, mate, I love British humor as much as the next bloke, but I must admit, I did not find this film the least bit funny.
02/21/06
Any similarity to that quirky, hilarious, raunchy and imaginative Albert Finney vehicle from 1963 ('Tom Jones') is purely in the mind of the filmmakers.
02/21/06
A self-referential, keenly absurd comedy with several layers of humor.
02/20/06
Bawdy behind-the-scenes comedy that neatly straddles antiquated fantasy and contemporary reality.
02/20/06
For all its post-postmodern use of intersecting narratives, Tristram Shandy: A **** and Bull Story works and, in certain spots, works brilliantly.
02/19/06
This material is the most remote from the letter of Sterne's novel, but in its spirit of verbal play, digression and free-wheeling wit, it pays affectionate tribute to his bawdy jokester spirit.
02/17/06
Top CriticSometimes it's the most unfilmable novels that make the best movies.
02/17/06
A sly, delirious homage to the writers, producers, techies and thespians who assemble with the common mission of telling a tale, and then, many months and meltdowns later, move on to the next project -- and paycheck.
02/17/06
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story is the most complex movie about adaptations since, well, Adaptation.
02/17/06
For all the convolutions of the form of the film, it's actually a gentle comedy with laughs for both the brain and the funny bone.
02/17/06
Winterbottom has given plugged-in moviegoers a visceral, mind-bending meta experience, and some good laughs.
02/17/06
The giddy self-satisfaction of Tristram Shandy grows tiresome.
02/17/06
It feels made up on the spot, in the mockumentary style Winterbottom and Coogan deployed in their Manchester music-scene goof, 24 Hour Party People. But that film wasn't half as much fun as this one.
02/17/06
Top CriticBeneath the fun lurks a dry and weary sigh at life's refusal to match the tidiness of art.
02/17/06
If only literary theory could always be this fun.
02/17/06
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