Bruce Robinson
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And in a nice sly twist, it's Grant—who made his name as a bounder in "Withnail & I"—playing the straight man here, and while he also gets some nice lines in, it's actually his face that gets some the biggest laughs in the picture, as he reacts to Dom's latest overreaction.
The Withnail & I star has become a symbol of comic debauchery, and he brings all that into this role along with a sly performance that underlines the implications of Dom's recklessness at every turn.
A Film with Me in It (2008)
Directed by Ian Fitzgibbon
influenced by Withnail & I (1987)
Characters Themes
The initial depiction of Mark and Pierce’s down-and-out lives resembles a watered down version of Withnail & I with Moran playing Pierce as a bit of a cross between Withnail and Bernard Black.
In recent years, Bruce Robinson’s cult classic Withnail & I, the Danny Boyle double of Shallow Grave and Trainspotting and the (slightly more hopeful) films of Shane Meadows have placed lead characters in the middle of plotlines that have provided mirth, mayhem and existential angst in equally entertaining measure.
Hulk and Thor have a “Withnail & I in space” vibe where they cannot seem to escape from their vacation together.
Ruffalo and Hemsworth make sense of Waititi’s initially baffling claim that he drew on Withnail & I when plotting the squabbles between Hulk and Thor.
And any movie is improved by the presence of Bill Nighy, who is at his dotty best here, along with such supporting lights as Withnail & I duo Richard E. Grant and Richard Griffiths , who make their last-ever screen appearance together, in a delightful cameo appearance.
Fans of the cult 1987 British comedy Withnail & I will also enjoy seeing Richard E. Grant and the late Richard Griffiths reunited for one last time in an extended cameo sequence.
The humans, in turn, are human furniture -- I was dismayed to see Paul McGann, forever cool in my book for being the "I" in the British classic Withnail & I, reduced to a Basil Exposition role as a studious type who gives the vampire-huntress much-needed tips (hell, just throw some tweed on him and call him Giles).
Meanwhile, a sexy librarian (is there ever any other kind in the movies?), played by Marguerite Moreau, discovers that she may have a Vampire Aunt (Lena Olin) and sets out to find her, much to the consternation of her kindly mentor Paul McGann (whose presence in this is perhaps the film’s biggest shock – from Withnail & I to a bit-part in Queen of the Damned with practically nothing in between).
The time frame of Withnail & I—1969—fits neatly between Robinson’s two acting gigs in 1968 and 1970 (the independent The Other People (1968) and the more mainstream The Music Lovers (1970)), and Paul McGann as the character “I” is the living image of Robinson at that time.
Also onboard: an enigmatic late-night DJ (Ralph Brown, of Withnail & I), a nutty New Zealander (Rhys Darby, from Flight of the Conchords), the thick "Thick Kevin" (Tom Brooke), a few other disc jockeys and engineers, a news reader, and Quentin's starry-eyed, still-a-virgin godson, Carl (Tom Sturridge).
Robinson knows the life of an actor (and the disconcerting advances of an older man, having been pursued by Franco Zeffirelli on the set of Romeo and Juliet); one of the funniest elements of Withnail & I is that it concerns three varieties of drama queen: the flamboyantly dark-minded Withnail; neurotic, ill-equipped Marwood, and the larger-than-life Monty.
Pineapple Express (2008)
Directed by David Gordon Green
influenced by Withnail & I (1987)
Characters
Not since the cinematic cannabis heyday of Jeff Spicoli ("Fast Times at Ridgemont High," 1982) and "Withnail & I" (1987) has a fully baked stoner come to such worthy comic life on-screen.
His nihilistic, deadpan quips hark back to Richard E Grant's marvellous turn as the caustic thespian in Withnail & I .
Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019)
Directed by Richard Linklater
influenced by Withnail & I (1987)
Characters
There’s a place in movies for characters who are grandiose spewing narcissists, like Richard E. Grant’s counterculture rotter in “Withnail & I” or Meryl Streep’s witty control freak of a druggie showbiz daughter in “Postcards from the Edge.”
From Tucker’s baroque threats of violence (“You'll find yourself in some medieval war zone in the Caucasus with your arse in the air”) to his radioactive sarcasm (“I'm sweating spinal fluid here”) to his creative cussing, beanpole Capaldi is as ferociously curdled as Richard E. Grant in Withnail & I, and just as much a legend in the making.
Depp shows again that he truly understands Thompson by delivering a nuanced performance that is remarkably different, but subliminally similar, from the wonderfully outrageous turn he provided in "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas."
This is especially true in the casting of Johnny Depp, who played Thompson in “Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas” (1998) and also became friends with the writer.
Even if Thompson’s novel — which he began in 1959 but which wasn’t published until the late ’90s — contains some obvious biographical elements, Depp doesn’t play Kemp as a rehash of Raoul Duke, the Thompson stand-in he played in Terry Gilliam’s 1998 Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Terry Gilliam managed to capture Thompson’s spirit in his adaptation of “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” (starring one Mr. Johnny Depp in the lead).
It's certainly more user-friendly than Johnny Depp's earlier foray into the world of Hunter S. Thompson, the Terry Gilliam-directed Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998).
It's neat seeing Depp, more than a decade after his balding Raoul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, as the younger Hunter S. Thompson, softening mannerisms later made brittle with cocaine, even if the performance is all surface.
Nick Frost expertly channels the weed-infused persona of druggie Danny from Withnail & I, while the young hoodlums (many of whom have soft centres) all come across as authentic rather than Blazin' Squad style stage school brats trying to act 'street'.
Or Jennifer 8. Or Kiss the Girls.
The core of Brian and Charles is a story about the importance of friendship, imbued with a real edge of genuine, dry British humor—kind of like Withnail & I if you were to replace Withnail with a robot who was built from a washing machine.
22 Jump Street is more progressive than that, and far more progressive than a film as paralysed as Withnail & I, which again uses the distraction method – “Look over there at Uncle Monty!
Gary is also the right age to have seen, memorized, and worn out the video of Withnail & I, though the film is sensibly never addressed here we look at Gary and we know he sees himself as Withnail 2.0, sneering in the rain And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?, though missing the tragic point of that famous scene.
Time Bandits was produced by George Harrison's Handmade films, which also gave us such treasures as Mona Lisa and Withnail & I .
Kemp arrives for his interview with the Star's E.J. Lotterman (Richard Jenkins, "The Visitor," "Step Brothers") masked in aviator shades, confirming the editor's suspicion that he has another drinker on his hands.