Director: Ricky Gervais
Writer: Ricky Gervais
Released: August 2016
Starring: Ricky Gervais
(Unfortunately no guest appearances in this one. Not even Karl Pilkington!)
—
Looking forward to having a big belly laugh, my boyfriend was quick to remind me about his older films. Of which only one – Cemetery Junction – I enjoyed.
He was right, and my initial excitement for David Brent: Life on the Road suddenly took a dive.
Thinking about it, Ricky Gervais has a knack for TV series, but in his film career – in my opinion – he has always been a one-trick-pony.
David Brent is now working in a different office, but takes unpaid holiday to do a local ‘tour’ with his band.
After the first five-minutes of becoming reacquainted with the cocky and cringe-worthy character of David Brent, the repetitive jokes were drilled in over and over. This comedy became boring quite rapidly.
With the amount of static tripod shots used, even the documentary-style quickly slipped away. The interviews with the characters basically told the audience what we already knew about David Brent. We know he’s hopeless and harmless, funny, and ignorant rather than arrogant.
We know how to feel about the character – stop telling us.
The cringe-worthiness became tiring over the one and a half hours. In fact, I ended up giving up on the protagonist rather than being behind him.
I did enjoy some of the lyrics in his songs. A previously unexploited skill of Ricky Gervais’, with a taster of his lyrics shown in the David Bowie episode of Extras.
I missed the banter from the characters in The Office. Instead, the office David Brent works in now were simply split into bullies and heroes, which wasn’t as relatable as in the TV series.
The ‘c-word’ was thrown in for good measure – typical of Gervais films.
If it wasn’t for my boyfriend’s reminder before entering the cinema, I would have been far more disappointed than I was. Instead, this movie has simply reinforced Ricky Gervais’ strengths and weaknesses.
I hope he can team up with Stephen Merchant again to make another super successful TV show. (Like Extras, which I have always found gut-wrenchingly funny.)
David Brent: life on the Road is another typical Gervais film. Not so much aimed toward The Office fans, but more toward Gervais film fans in general. If you love Ghost Town and The Invention of Lying, then you’ll love David Brent: Life on the Road.
Jodie’s Rating: 4/10
haring a small cinema with about 50 people – some of them peculiar, some of them creepy, and only a couple of them under the age of 13 – we unabashedly cracked open a couple of ciders and the movie began. And I was pleasantly surprised.
But my boyfriend’s favourite character was Bailey (Ty Burrell (aka dad in Modern Family)) the beluga whale due to the humour of watching him figure out how to be a whale, as well as the sounds he made.
I’ve heard the book is fantastic – I’m going to read it this summer. But, the movie is exquisite. If you haven’t seen or read The Time Traveler’s Wife, the low-down is that a man is a time traveller and his wife is not. The time traveller, named Henry (Eric Bana) can’t control his travelling, so his impromptu disappearances and reappearances become a way of life for his wife Clare Abshire (Rachel McAdams).
Fiona’s songs are perfect for those times when you’re royally pissed off, or bitter about something. Sharon’s songs are perfect for those times when you’re feeling a tad melancholy or nostalgic. Fiona and Sharon’s vocals are both natural-sounding, as in, their live and recorded versions tend to sound identical. PURE TALENT.
Besides their musical style being similar, they are both grunge, messy, quirky, yet stylish at the same time. I bet they shop at the same stores… They’re both kind of shy and humble in interviews, too.
Each are relatable and lovable, each with pros and cons, strengths and weaknesses. No mood is less important than the other, or more favourable than the other. Which is a moral within itself.
I really love this track!
I reckon their music would suit movies like 
The first thing I thought was ‘Nick Cave’. I think it’s David Arn’s gravelly voice and story-telling songs.
These two suggestions are simply to reinforce the intensity of the song. So that the weight of the deep and bold vocals, guitar and lyrics can be fully supported by the rest of the instruments.
It seems I didn’t scare them off!
These may have slipped your memory because they are from the late 90s/early 2000s. But for some, they are embedded in childhood brains.
Evie (Julie Walters) is a retired actress who is lonely and drinks a lot. She hires a young man, Ben (Rupert Grint), to help her around the house. Ben is unwittingly taken on a camping trip on the way up to Edinburgh. Ron learns to relax and indulge his writing talent, and Evie learns to move on from grief and loneliness after making piece with her acting career.
drinks a lot. He hires a young man, Charlie (Chris O’Donnel), as a caregiver over a long weekend. Charlie is unwittingly taken on a trip to New York with no expense spared. Charlie learns that a problem back at his school can be solved through loyalty and not by snitching. Frank learns there is still something to live for despite being hated, lonely and blind.
Kate (Hilary Swank) is a pianist diagnosed with ALS and hires a young woman Bec, (Emmy Rossum) as a caregiver. They decide to take a few trips together. Kate learns that she doesn’t want to be with her husband and accepts her fate, and Bec realises she can be a performer without fear.
Philippe (François Cluzet) is a quadriplegic and hires a young man Driss, (Omar Sy) as his caregiver. They go out together on numerous drives and adventures. Philippe learns that he can still enjoy life, and Driss gets out of the gang life and on the straight and narrow, supporting his family.
involve going to the races, gambling and going to the pub. Oliver learns to confront his bullies and becomes more mature. Vincent learns that not everyone hates him, and despite having a tremendous ‘absolute low’ during the film, finds friends who include him as family. He also matures thanks to Oliver.
He also tries to help with his suicidal mother’s depression. Marcus learns to be himself in a way where he doesn’t get bullied, and Will learns that being alone won’t make him happy. That family and friends can bring happiness.
Thank you 
They actually act like adults, studying law and maths! Every movie, I was watching psychologists, mathematicians, lawyers…
Okay, you’re probably thinking: “Jodie, there were huge parties, you just didn’t want to socialise.” Or, “Jodie, we had awesome parties but you weren’t invited.”
Thanks 
Empty coffee cups
In the most recent TV show Hannibal, the actors had to eat the food because it had to look legit. You can’t exactly skimp on the eating part in a show about a cannibal! But man did the crew work for it! The dietary requirements of the actors must have been an annoyance. Making it look like everyone is eating the same thing, but some being vegetarian or gluten intolerant or vegan… Phwah! For the love of art, right?
If anything, seeing a character sweat without the make-up shifting breaks my suspension of disbelief. In action scenes like in 
Directors: Andy Hamilton and Guy Jenkin
Pike plays the mum, Abi, Tennant as the dad, Doug, and Billy Connolly as the granddad, Gordie.
Nevertheless, the script was amazing. Some fantastic one-liners! For example, the youngest child has a brick and a rock as friends:
Directed: Wong Kar-Wai
Based in Hong-Kong during the 1960s, their closeness is frowned upon so, even though only friends, Su and Chow begin a more secretive relationship.
Food is a very important symbol in the film. Chan’s and Su’s first meal together parallels them coming to terms with their spouses infidelity. Where they used to get take-out from the same place and eat alone, this first meal is an important milestone.
Director: Sean Penn
It’s certainly a sad story, and it bursts your idealistic bubble of living in the wilderness. As it turns out, being in the wild is a brutal place to be. Especially all alone.
A classic ‘
Director: Jean-Marc Vallee
To be frank, the flashbacks made me feel really uncomfortable. But… I guess the world of heroin addicts shouldn’t exactly be attractive.
In fact, if you enjoyed 
I’d like to point out that the screenplay was written by Nick Hornby, who wrote 
It gets dark very quickly by this point as they outline the characters’ backstories, and how it came to this.
Concept, Script, Animation and Design: Prateek A Sethi
I love the 1960s… I feel like my huge amount of posts regarding this era may have given that away.
While we are on the topic of Sia, I love her earlier song: Chandelier.
I am so slow to the party.
(Toward the end of the video, Ziegler softly hits LaBeouf on his forehead. Each time she does so he changes his expression to show the emotions he represents: scared (he’s holding his breath – claustrophobia?), sarcastic, angry and depressed.
Personally, I didn’t realise how young the girl was until I read about it. However, it hasn’t changed my view on the video. I find it creative and expressive. But I suppose you can read into anything if you have an angle in mind.
We’ve had so many Kong movies, and now they want another!
Never Tear Us Apart was written and performed by Australian rock band INXS in 1988. However, it was originally written in a bluesy genre with a similar sound to Fats Domino.
NZ Film Freak 