10A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, April 17, 2006
ARTS
6
Courtesy of Warner Bros.
We love inanimate objects with eating disorders.
'Robot' an odd treat
By Mark Schultz
Daily Arts Writer
Courtesy of
Newmarket
"Time out
rules!"
'TRISTRAM' HOLDS STRONG AMID SLOPPY FUN
By Blake Goble
Daily Arts Writer
It might appear advantageous to walk into "Tris-
tram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story" having con-
quered the basics of Laurence Sterne's novel, upon
which the film is based. With the film's dense, non-
linear structure and heady subject matter, it might
seem comforting to have some support.
But as luck would have
it, that won't be necessary,
because no one in this film
seems to have read it either. Or
at least, no one seems to know
what the book was about. In
the film's context, that's nei-
ther here nor there.
In an effortless blend of
satire, documentary and all-
around messiness, "Tristram
Tristram
Shandy:
A Cock &
Bull Story
At the Michigan
Theater
Newmarket
assume, because Rob Brydon's (also "24 Hour Party
People") supporting role shouldn't be as important
as a title character. Right?
Paralleling the worries of Shandy with the dif-
ficulties of life on a movie set, Coogan utilizes his
fluent smarm and confidence to fine effect. In one
of the film's funnier scenes, Coogan and Brydon
sit together in makeup, discussing the appropriate
yellowness of teeth ("Custard sunset?") in a peri-
od film, all while Coogan
is threatened by Brydon's
attempts to imagine usurp- Fears of hurn
ing a lead role.
Coogan serves up a tight- connection,
rope act of a performance, inadequacy
balancing a variety of
engaging roles while still the desire to
worrying about whether or accomplishe
not he'll get the lead credit.
Brydon's happy-go-lucky just a few of
kindness acts as a great foil prime Conce
to Coogan's smart-ass. r
It's also uproarious to see of "Shandy."
Coogan and Brydon play off
each other during the latter's
hilarious displays of anger.
Tristram Shandy introduces himself and the
story with effrontery and arrogance. He calls his
life a "cock and bull" story - in every aspect of
the phrase. The film smartly allows the audience to
recognize the irony and patent disillusions involved
in the film business.
The worry of overcomplicating one's own life
resonate in the film with sincerity and irony. Fears
of human connection, sexual inadequacy and the
desire to feel accomplished are just a few of the
prime concerns of "Shandy." Somehow, some way,
these themes find a proper context within the con-
voluted core of the film.
"Shandy" succeeds because of its ability to blend
several genres together and provide some fantastic
performances with a touch of wit
and style.
1an With the controlled yet erratic direc-
tion of Michael Winterbottom ("Code
sexual 46") and a sharp, observant script by
and Frank Cottrell Boyce ("Millions"), the
film covers a lot of ground without ever
feel actually getting lost.
d are And it's only 91 minutes at that.
When Coogan looks to the screen
the early on as Tristram,he quotes Groucho
rns Marx: "When making a story about
yourself, there's no room for messing
around. Why not? People do it all the
time." He's talking about the film, and
it works on more than one level.
Any resemblance to "This is Spinal Tap," "Adap-
tation" or even "Day For Night" is expected but irrel-
evant in the end. "Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull
Story" is a unique cinematic experience all its own:
a mess of magnificent proportions. Here, sincerity
is found in uncertainty, and meaning is obtained
through meandering.
A child has just lost a tooth. As he
sleeps, he silently waits for the tooth
fairy to come
and reward him.
Unfortunately, the Robot
tooth fairy hap- Chicken
pens to visit at an Warner Bros.
inopportune time
- right in the
middle of an ugly domestic dispute
between the child's parents, which
ends with the tooth fairy's untimely
demise. This may sound like some
sort of fractured fairy tale, but it's
just a scene from Cartoon Network's
bizarre stop-animation showcase
"Robot Chicken," a show that takes
childhood nostalgia to an oddly ter-
rifying new level.
Doug Goldstein, the show's head
writer, will be the first to admit that the
show's name comes from an item off a
local Chinese restaurant menu. Creator
Seth Green ("Austin Powers") will be
the first to admit that the show "looks
like anyone could do it." The ridicu-
lously low production values involve
mostly action figures and claymation.
But not everyone could put together the
rambunctious spontaneity that makes
"Chicken" simultaneously entertaining
and annoying.
The show puts a lot of stock in
parody - parody of bad '80s movies,
corny kids' TV shows and absurd cul-
tural trends. Think of it as part "Fam-
ily Guy" and part childhood puppet
show gone horribly awry. "Chicken"
is a combination of satire and crappy
animation; the animators don't even
try to put realistic-looking mouths
on the characters. The end result is
a show that's entertaining for its cre-
ative use of figurines and for its actual
comedic content.
"Chicken" wisely creates much of
its appeal by pandering to typical TV
audiences with short attention spans.
Each episode is only 12 minutes with-
out commercials and offers lightning-
quick changes of background or subject
to comply with the channel-changing
tone of the show. The sketches range
from one second to five minutes; at
this length, even tired jokes about
Britney Spears and "American Idol"
are tolerable. Green and Goldstein
have created a format that requires
so little attention and brainpower that
they could put just about anything on
the screen and make it funny.
"Chicken" has a surprisingly large
amount of DVD extras. But the deleted
scenes are just too long for the show's
clipped format. There is also an infor-
mative behind-the-scenes look that
broaches the question, "What exactly
inspires a person to create a show
whose stars are mostly six-inch figu-
rines?"
The extras give the viewer an unusu-
al new perspective into the amount of
work that goes into a show that often
looks like something most people
could create in their garages.
"Chicken" doesn't really add any-
thing new to the paradigm of satiri-
cal shows already flooding cable. Its
choice to parody old TV shows rather
than current events leads it to terri-
tory that has already been explored
countless times. But as long as view-
ers can sit back' and forget the fact
that "Chicken" is just an end result of
decades of earlier original parody, the
show can be enjoyed.
Show: ***
Special Features: ****
6
I
al
Shandy" is a successful. look at one team's attempt
to adapt the novel for the screen. Essentially, in all
its postmodern glory, this is a movie about making
a movie.
Inconsistency is an intentional decision here: a
channeling of Sterne's wildly digressive novel in
which the main character's reflections on his life
culminate with his birth.
Steve Coogan ("24 Hour Party People") is Tris-
tram, the lead actor. Or at least that's what we
6
6
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