David Brent: Life on the Road
Director: Ricky Gervais
Year Released: 2016
Rating: 1.5
Gervais returns as his infamous character from The Office, David Brent: in this episode of his life, he's a lowly salesman but dreams of being a rock star, so he takes on tour with him a band that can't stand him and a rapper (Doc Brown) who has more talent than he does. I guess one can give Gervais credit for starting - and maintaining - a consistent level of awkwardness for a feature film: almost everything Brent says and does is inappropriate and offensive (he often drifts into racism when trying to over-elaborate, he tells sexist jokes in front of women) ... which can certainly become tiring, depending on one's tolerance for the character and his, ahem, disposition (Gervais has referred to his creation as a "narcissist") and child-like ignorance. The television program Brent came from had significantly more balance and nuance ... because, oh wait, Stephen Merchant was the co-writer for that, the "graceful grasshopper" to Ricky's hammy goofball.
