Brigsby Bear
DVD
Review by Kam Williams
SNL's
Kyle Mooney Stars as Clueless Kidnap Victim in Poignant Character
Portrait
Brigsby
Bear revolves around an age-old premise that's tough to establish and
maintain convincingly, namely, the plight of a sheltered protagonist
blissfully unaware of reality. Four films come quickly to mind which
succeeded at plausibly presenting just such a plotline.
In
Room (2015), we witnessed a little boy being imprisoned with his
mother in a shed by the rapist who'd fathered him. In Life Is
Beautiful (1997), we found a concentration camp internee doing his
best to shield his young son from the horrors of the Holocaust.
In
Being There (!979), Peter Sellers played a gullible gardener
who learned everything he knew about the outside world from TV. And
in The Truman Show (1998), Jim Carrey was an orphan who had no idea
that he'd been adopted by a corporation that turned his life into a
reality show.
Now we
have Brigsby Bear, a worthy addition to the challenging genre. The
movie marks the impressive directorial debut of Dave McCary, who's
been writing for Saturday Night Live since 2014. The picture stars
SNL's Kyle Mooney, who co-wrote the script with Kevin Costello.
As the
film unfolds, we're introduced to James (Mooney), a 25 year-old very
content to be still living at "home." The overgrown kid
religiously tunes in to Brigsby Bear, a sci-fi series revolving
around a crime-fighting superhero full of energy and optimism.
James
has a good excuse for his stunted growth. Truth be told, his supposed
parents, Ted (Mark Hamill) and April (Jane Adams), are actually
kidnappers who abducted him in infancy. And they secretly produce
Brigsby, the only program that ever comes on their TV.
They've
managed to discourage James from venturing outside the house by
filling his head with lies about the air being so toxic that he'd
perish without a gas mask. So, he's freely frittered away his future
not only watching all 736 Brigsby Bear episodes, but visiting a fake
chatroom devoted to the show.
Everything
changes the day James is rescued by the police and returned to his
birth parents (Matt Walsh and Michaela Watkins) in Cedar Hills, Utah.
Understandably, the adjustment to real-life proves problematic, since
he remains obsessed with Brigsby to the point that he talks about it
incessantly to anyone who'll listen.
He's
lucky to find a couple of sympathetic souls in an
actor-turned-detective (Greg Kinnear) and Spencer (Jorge Lendeborg,
Jr.), one of his teenage sister's (Ryan Simpkins) friends. They agree
to help make a Brigsby Bear movie which just might enable James to
find some closure on the sordid opening chapter of his life.
A
poignant character portrait capable of catapulting Kyle Mooney from
SNL support player to bona fide matinee idol!
Rated PG-13 for drug use, teen partying, mature themes and brief sexuality
Running time: 97 minutes
Production Studio: 3311 Productions / YL Pictures / The Lonely Island / Lord Miller
Distributor: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Extras: Gag reel, commentary with Kyle Mooney & Dave McCary; Twin Speak: Kyle & Dave; An Evening with Brigsby Bear Cast Q&A; and The Wisdom of Brigsby Bear.
To see a trailer for Brigsby Bear, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEohOb38hhs
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