by Zoë Pollock
Alyssa Rosenberg raves about Steve Coogan's film The Trip:
It’s so rare that the relationship between friends is the most important thing in a movie. Friends are usually a facilitator to the traditional end of a comedy, a marriage (or at least permanent-seeming partnership) rather than the main event. I think that’s one of the reasons Bridesmaids has been so successful: it’s the friendship that matters, and the romantic and sexual relationships that are at the periphery. The groom in the titular wedding doesn’t even have a line.
She gets at the emotional crux of the film – that despite being more famous, Coogan isn't happier than Rob Brydon:
So even though Coogan has more material resources, he needs Brydon more than Brydon needs him, and he’s obviously deeply uncomfortable with that, and expresses that discomfort by being something of a jerk. But the malleability of friendship means that they can deal with it, that they can work through Coogan’s behavior to get to the root of his sadness…
The meta aspect also works wonders – Steve Coogan complains that he can't get a serious role while starring in his most successful serious role to date. For more, the AV Club interviews The Trip's director Michael Winterbottom and Ed Wilkinson-Latham lassos his favorite Steve Coogan clips. Christopher Orr compares the story line to Seinfeld's show about nothing, and Nerve collects other great films with little to no plot.
(Video: one of many amazing impression-offs from the film, which started out as a series on the BBC.)
The Dish 