This is Brand’s film, and every aspect of his persona is played to the max.
Even before Sachsgate, Russell Brand was beginning to lose Britain. He could do sex and drugs and Freud but, when he was forced to look past himself, he was clueless.
So he got out, and now here he is on the big screen, all snake-hips and tousled hair and cheeky smirk, in a big, crass Judd Apatow comedy. Hello America. The film rests on a simple premise; straight-laced Californian nice guy (Jonah Hill) must get disgraced, unpredictable UK pop-star Aldous Snow (Brand) to the most important gig of his life.
This is Brand’s film, and every aspect of his persona is played to the max – the sexual magnetism, the multiple addictions, the doting but distant mum, the hangers-on and women who want to control him. He’s irreverent and knowing, managing to retain the sense that, if all this went away tomorrow, he wouldn’t care. But for now, he’s got a new audience and a new vehicle. We won’t see him for a long time.
