David Brent: Life on the Road
Director: Ricky Gervais
Talent: Ricky Gervais, Jo Hartley, Tom Bennett, Doc Brown
Release Date: 19th August
Life on the Road resurrects everyone’s favourite (?) bozo David Brent and follows his attempts at breaking into the music industry. The film is presented in a mockumentary style, though with little attention given to the formal constraints of such an endeavor. There’s misplaced camera angles and jarring cuts a-go-go. The tone of the film is just as haphazard. Brent is thoroughly unlikable: we revel in how pathetic he is for a time, but after half an hour or so the joke is on us.
There’s no heart here, no warmth for this character who is such a buffoon that it’s impossible to see him as anything but a buffoon. The tone changes arbitrarily as we move into the final act: we are now supposed to care for Brent, characters around David care for David and say as much, but for the audience, it’s too little, too late. The Office and Brent are best left as a distant memory. You can, as the saying goes, never go home again.
Words: Luke Maxwell
