Rob Brydon

The Trip to Spain feasts upon its stars’ fear of obsolescence

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Once more, into the brie — or, in this case, the manchego. For the third time, now, for Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon, it’s the feast as improv proving ground, the sumptuous meal as arena of competitive discernment: Who can better parse and parody the particularities of some beloved British film actor? And, most crucially, Michael Winterbottom’s The Trip to Spain is a breezy study of aging men afraid they’ve lost their potency, their command of life, their once-certain enshrinement in the culture. It is at once a desperate echo of long-gone glories and a glory itself.

Source: The Trip to Spain feasts upon its stars’ fear of obsolescence | L.A. Weekly

The snarky improvisers continue to one-up each other in The Trip to Spain 

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In which Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon continue their joint sojourn through the eateries of Europe, this time taking Coogan’s Range Rover from London to the coast of España and further south.

Once again, this team of rivals is working on tasks relating to food and travel, with Coogan again positioning himself as the senior partner.Actually, I should say that about Coogan’s character, as well as Brydon’s, who only happen to be named after the stars. The frequent references to Philomena and other past projects are real enough. But domestic scenes and phone calls with Brydon’s wife and young children, as well as Coogan’s current (and married) girlfriend, are invented, as is a subplot about Steve losing his agent and being asked to share his new script with an up-and-coming writer. “I’ve already up-and-come,” complains the two-time Oscar nominee [ . . . ]

Read Full story: The snarky improvisers continue to one-up each other in The Trip to Spain | Georgia Straight Vancouver’s News & Entertainment Weekly