How to Get Ahead in Advertising [DVD]

This film is the brainchild of Bruce Robinson, the man-genius behind Withnail And I. Now Withnail is my favourite film of all time - but this is definitely in my top 5, if you thought Richard E Grant was neurotic as Withnail, he was positively laid-back compared to Dennis Bagley.

Bagley is a high-flying advertising executive who can sell anything to anyone, until that is, he starts to have a mental breakdown over some spot cream. The breakdown manifests itself as a series of hallucinations as he believes the boil on his neck is starting to talk to him, which causes him to behave in very strange ways.

Bagley starts to rant and embarrass himself, he exposes social trends as marketing campaigns designed to control consumers and his relationships with friends, work colleagues, and his all start to break down.

This film is a fantastic piece of work - Richard E Grant is beyond fantastic and the visuals are disturbing; a boil with a face and moustache starts to grow into a second head. As a viewer you even start to wonder if the boil is in fact a figment of Bagley's fragile mind, or if it actually *is* slowly taking him over. The rambling mess of a man actually talks sense though, the film acts as a successful diatribe on the fakeness of modern society and the corporations which control us. This film will hopefully inspire the cynic in us all to try and see through the promotional material used to tempt us (or allow us to justify in our own heads) buying things.

Bagley's journey and the constant politically loaded speeches have been dismissed as some as overbearing and longwinded, but for me the energy behind the delivery gives them unlimited re-watch value and the frantic expression on his face simply adds to the humour. This is the most perfect modern satire of the recent age, it may look quite 1980s by today's standard, but the message is more relevant now than it ever was.

Without doubt an absolute classic and one which thoroughly deserves the cult status it has achieved.

Although this film isn't new - (and it gets a bit older every day!). Its cynical view on media manipulation and advertising becomes more true as every day passes.

This film really does make you think about how society gets moulded by advertising. It attacks the material world from the very heart of it - the advertising industry.

The main focus of the film is how a high flying advertising executive (Denis Dimbleby Bagley - played by Richard E Grant) starts to have a mental breakdown as he starts to question his position in the world and his contribution to the Capitalist world. This breakdown is presents itself on screen by use of an odd metaphor - a talking boil.

This film is writen and directed by Bruce Robinson, (the creator of my favourite film of all time "Withnail and I"). This film is very different but every bit as genius. Richard E Grant is still as Neurotic - but in a very different way.

This film is worth watching on the merits of Richard E Grants acting alone but, the fantastic script, the boil, and the social message make it a cult classic.

Everyone should see this film at least once ....a month!

Richard E Grant pulls viewers from the comfort of their own reality, into the dark and intensely funny depths of his own insanity. How To Get Ahead In Advertising is, in my humble opinion, one of the funniest tales ever to hit the big screen from the British film industry.

The film centers around the lead Character, Denis Dimbleby Bagley, which Grant plays to perfection as his onscreen alter-ego, struggling with a new marketing campaign for pimple cream, soon realizes the evils of the advertising world and resigns. He then develops a boil on his neck which grows and with the boils new found size comes its strange ability to speak, much to the dismay of Bagley, his wife and any other unfortunate individual who may happen to cross Bagley’s' path.

I have watched this film many times over the years and the razor sharp wit delivered from the script, via Grant, to the viewers is intense with 100% laughter guaranteed upon each and every viewing. Grants' delivery builds up the situation from a crazy little boil to a crescendo of insane spot-related hilarity with clinical accuracy. The laughs come thick and fast with some interesting (if somewhat factually incorrect) underlying analogies of precisely what’s wrong with the world today. Buy it, watch it, and struggle to dislike it. This remains a special title to add sparkle to any film collection.