38 h. ago Steve Coogan isn’t earnest enough for the dire political comedy The Penguin Lessons

Finally a film that asks ‘could an adorable flightless bird convince Alan Partridge to stand up to Argentina’s military dictatorship?’

Politics

48 h. ago Steve Coogan on his very unusual new comedy: ‘The penguin takes the edge off the fascism’

In ‘The Penguin Lessons’, the man behind Alan Partridge plays a school teacher in military-occupied Argentina who forms an unlikely bond with a seabird. Such tonal extremes required a delicate hand, he and his co-star Jonathan Pryce tell Annabel Nugent

Politics

69 h. ago The Penguin Lessons review – Steve Coogan seabird comedy drama tries to sell feelgood mood

Coogan does his best, but there’s a tonal mismatch here: the animal-teaches-lonely-human narrative jars with a depiction of lives in totalitarian ArgentinaHere is a well-meaning, awkward tonal jumble of a movie, based on the bestselling memoir by former teacher Tom Michell; it is a quirky true-story heart warmer, in which an adorable penguin is apparently supposed to redeem not merely the human hero’s personal heartbreak but maybe even the agony of Argentina during the 70s junta. It stars Steve Coogan, who has often in the past shown brilliant technique as a straight actor, and in Philomena with Judi Dench proved he is perfectly capable of carrying an un-ironised emotional story. But his performance here is bafflingly underpowered and opaque, as if he is slightly perplexed by the script he’s been given.Coogan plays Tom, who takes a job in Peronist Argentina in 1976, teaching English at a stuffy private school for the sons of wealthy expatriates, and is wary of the overbearing headte...

Events

3 d. ago Steve Coogan: ‘Art is what humanises us, and it can’t be measured on a spreadsheet’

Steve Coogan and the cast and crew behind charming new movie The Penguin Lessons share what they learned from being on set with a penguin.

Politics

1 week ago The Penguin Lessons is just the latest film that teaches us how animals rescue men from loneliness

The comedy, about a curmudgeon played by Steve Coogan and his waddling new friend, joins a subgenre of movies from King Kong to John Wick – in which men are emotionally and socially rescued by animalsThe penguin at the centre of The Penguin Lessons, a new movie by Peter Cattaneo, is nothing if not hard-working. The film, adapted from the 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, uses the political turmoil of Argentina in 1976 as a backdrop for the personal transformation of an English teacher at a boys’ school. Michell (Steve Coogan) is an idle curmudgeon when he rescues an oil-drenched Magellan penguin from a beach in Uruguay in an attempt to impress an attractive woman. She leaves, but he is stuck with the bird, whom he duly names Juan Salvador, and who thaws him out sufficiently to bond with students and colleagues, process past trauma and rekindle a political idealism.Naturally, there are hurdles for Juan Salvador to clear before the interspecies friendship spreads its wings. Michell tries a ...

Events

1 week ago The Penguin Lessons is the latest film to teach us animals rescue men from loneliness

The comedy, about a curmudgeon played by Steve Coogan and his waddling new friend, joins a subgenre of movies from King Kong to John Wick – in which men are emotionally and socially rescued by animalsThe penguin at the centre of The Penguin Lessons, a new movie by Peter Cattaneo, is nothing if not hard-working. The film, adapted from the 2015 memoir by Tom Michell, uses the political turmoil of Argentina in 1976 as a backdrop for the personal transformation of an English teacher at a boys’ school. Michell (Steve Coogan) is an idle curmudgeon when he rescues an oil-drenched Magellan penguin from a beach in Uruguay in an attempt to impress an attractive woman. She leaves, but he is stuck with the bird, whom he duly names Juan Salvador, and who thaws him out sufficiently to bond with students and colleagues, process past trauma and rekindle a political idealism.Naturally, there are hurdles for Juan Salvador to clear before the interspecies friendship spreads its wings. Michell tries a ...

Events

2 w. ago Steve Coogan greeted penguins every day of filming for The Penguin Lessons

The film follows the true story of an Englishman who rescues a penguin from an oil-slicked beach in a divided Argentina.

Politics