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This is a movie that I feel benefits a lot from going into it blind like I did. I'm leaving the OP spoiler free so if it seems like something you would be interested watching then do yourself a favor and give it a shot, I'll request that people use spoiler tags after that out of courtesy even though it's a Netflix release that has already been out for several weeks. A Futile and Stupid Gesture is a biopic about Doug Kenney, the comedy writer who would co-found National Lampoon and write the scripts for Animal House and Caddyshack, arguably two of the most successful and influential comedies of their generation. Fitting for the subject matter, it is a biopic that rolls its eyes at the conventions of biopics and constantly lampoons them with fourth-wall breaking asides and goofs that are both funny while also working in service of the narrative; when the movie tries to open with a flashback to a defining childhood trauma Doug experienced his modern, aged self interjects that it's total bullshit to open a comedy film on a downer and tells the director to blow him when he suggests opening the movie with something meaningful like "I was the man who changed comedy forever...but I couldn't change myself" That level of savviness and lack of pretension runs through the entire movie and elevates what would be a fine biopic into something special. It's not a full-on farce like the cult classic Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story but there are definitely moments when it almost reaches that level, made all the better by the fact that the events in the film are real. Well, mostly real. The movie embraces the artifice of biopics and gleefully points out that while what you're watching is based on true events it is still a movie; "You think I looked like Will Forte when I was 27? You think Will Forte is 27?” modern Doug quips in one scene, while in another they outright pause the film to blast a huge list of past, present, and upcoming ways that the movie differentiates from real life in a way that evokes the best "VCR gags" of the classic episodes of The Simpsons.  If you're not familiar with the National Lampoon publication or you only know of his films through cultural osmosis that's not a problem, the movie seems to be outright geared to a contemporary audience who might not be totally immersed in the pop culture of half a decade ago. It serves as a sort of best-of for their work without leaning too heavily on just recycling the gags for laughs; this is where the comparison to The Disaster Artist comes to me, whereas most of the laughs in that movie were just stuff from The Room being re-enacted by the film's cast the movie uses its recreations of iconic photos and film scenes to set up new jokes or recontextualize them in new ways. It also uses its meta approach to storytelling to address the things that are problematic to a modern eye, like the lack of minority writers on their staff or the dangerously unprofessional workplace they kept.  The movie is directed by David Wain, the man behind cult comedies like Wet Hot American Summer and Childrens Hospital, and while the cinematography is firmly in the morass of both comedies and biopics his comic timing and attention to structure add a lot to the film. The performances are also great, almost all of the major players are contemporary comedians and while Will Forte carries the film as Doug smaller roles like Joel McHale as Chevy Chase and Jon Daly as Bill Murray manage to balance performing their roles without descending into impersonation. The exception is Rodney Dangerfield, who is played by professional Rodney Dangerfield impersonator Erv Dahl which works because Dangerfield was himself a standup with no active experience struggling to perform on the set of Caddyshack.  So, yeah, if you like either contemporary or classic comedy then give A Futile and Stupid Gesture a watch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33dztfqRu_k
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Feb 11, 2018 01:29
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 16:34 |
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Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead covers the same stuff and is a million times better.
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Feb 11, 2018 05:37
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I liked this when the story was moving along but there are too many scenes where it's just the 2 main dudes riffing with each other for extended periods of time and they're not funny enough to pull that off. I don't dislike them but their scenes really don't do a good enough job of carrying the movie
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Feb 11, 2018 05:47
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Yeah, this was just okay. Will Forte has a lot of good will from me, but he hasn't been funny in like the last three things I saw him in. It's an okay movie, but I never really wondered or cared where National Lampoon came from. Still, there's some good bits.
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Feb 11, 2018 21:34
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National Lampoon is like Mad but worse, right?
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Feb 11, 2018 21:39
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The documentary does a much better job. While I liked parts of this well enough, it races through everything so impossibly quick that for once I wished it was a miniseries or something instead. It doesn't have any room to breathe at all.
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Feb 12, 2018 21:40
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| # ? Apr 23, 2024 16:34 |
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I watched a pretty good documentary how they learned to parody better and how their writers got full of themselves and started doing cocaine rails during the morning meeting. This looks like it might be a good watch.
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Feb 13, 2018 04:18
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