Tribeca Film Festival Review: Written & Directed by Ricky Gervais, the Netflix ‘Special Correspondents’ tries very hard to be an 80s comedy

Special Correspondents – Netflix April 29th

American politics and media are aptly satirized in this feature by firebrand comedian Ricky Gervais. A pretentious radio journalist and his ineffectual technician botch an assignment in South America, and decide to fabricate an on-the-scene story while hiding out in a New York City apartment. This scheme spirals out of their control when their escalating story becomes a national headline.

If you can accept that this is a silly comedy and go along for the ride, then you’ll enjoy Special Correspondents. I had to keep telling that to myself over and over as each scene was presented as drama, but was obviously farce. From the very beginning, I compared it to the brilliantly funny, Spies Like Us with Chevy Chase and Dan Aykroyd. What made that film so funny was that both lead characters were ridiculous and there weren’t major conflicts. It tried to follow a modern formula from a silly 80s-type story.