Catherine Tate's Nan Movie panned in early reviews
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Catherine Tate's Nan would probably describe the first reviews of her new movie as "a f**king liberty".
The Doctor Who star is hitting the big screen with her Catherine Tate Show character in a comedy film where Joanie Taylor (aka Nan) goes on a road trip with her grandson (Mathew Horne) to reunite with her sister.
The comedy was actually shot in 2019, but was shelved the following year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and has now finally been released… at least in the UK.
Related: Catherine Tate shares first look at new Netflix comedy show Hard Cell
There is a lot of curiosity around the film, but much of the buzz isn't positive. No critical screenings were offered, so reviewers had to pay for a ticket like everyone else to render their verdicts.
In a scathing review in The Guardian, The Nan Movie is called a "brutally unfunny outing" for the sketch comedy character that ends up being "depressingly terrible" for the reviewer.
The review adds: "There are some British films which are basically the convenience-store sandwich of big-screen entertainment. Cinema's equivalent of the 24-hour-garage tuna mayo pitta bread. And that, sadly, is the case with The Nan Movie, a truly horrendous and depressing film about Catherine Tate's sweary old-lady character from her sketch show, in a storyline stretched out to a brutal hour and a half."
Ouch! Very few critical reviews actually exist for the film due to producers not arranging private screenings. Bleeding Cool has seen it — and derides a scene of "Nan farting in Jamie's face" as an example of going for a crass joke instead of making a statement on Jamie's character working in the mental health field.
Over at Film Stories, it was noted that The Nan Movie feels like it "arrived from a wormhole" from 15 years ago with jokes "dealing in tired stereotypes". In the end, the site found The Nan Movie is "not an easy film to be bothered about".
(Side note: it was Catherine Tate's character Lauren who wasn't bovvered! Nan always seemed to be bothered by quite a lot, actually.)
Not all of the reviews were negative. The Craven Herald argued that Tate's performance elevates it, as well as flashback scenes from earlier in Joanie's life that break up "the crudity".
There are a lot more questions than answers with The Nan Movie. In spite of acclaimed theatre veteran Josie Rourke being announced as director of the film, she is only billed as an executive producer in the finished version.
In fact, The Nan Movie has no listed director at all – it is presented as "A Catherine Tate Film". Tate's co-writer on the movie is Ted Lasso creator and star Brett Goldstein.
The Nan Movie is playing now in the UK.
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