A Futile And Stupid Gesture

The Bio Graphical film is a sad genre especially when focussed on celebrities. they often lie and embellish a real life story to such an extent that it is often insulting to there fans. Thankfully that is not the case with the Netflix original “A Futile and Stupid Gesture” starring will forte as Doug Kenney, the writer and co creator famed National Lampoon Magazine.

The movie is almost a dock drama as it includes interview footage with the modern day Doug Kenney as he narrates his life story. Starting from his days at at the Harvard lampoon magazine to his take over of Hollywood as the creator of Animal House and Caddyshack.

The movie is filled with in-jokes and references to make lampoon fans chuckle, we see scenes of the fictionalised versions of the magazines staff discussing some of there more famous pieces of satire such as the Vietnamese baby book and famous “If you don't buy this magazine, we'll shoot the dog” cover. As a man who has never read national lampoon I was still able to find it enjoyable. The two aspects of the film I wish to praise the most are its performances and its humour. As this movie is a comedy its only fitting to start with the latter. This movie was a breath of fresh air as this is not a Judd Apatow movie, thats right it has a script. Although not a laugh out loud funny movie I found almost all the humour pleasant and enjoyable and none of it went on for an overly long stretch of time and left me over all satisfied. This includes a sequence of the magazines editor reading out a collection of hate mail they have gotten form every group imaginable from the catholic church, feminists, gay right and black panthers before revealing one from the Neo nazi’s only to be relived that for once they have gotten a fan letter. much of the humour derives from the inclusion of the modern day Doug Kenney as he points out the issues with a bio graphical movie such as showing a list of everything they changed to make the movie a better narrative and pointing out cliches of the bio graphical and documentary movie, before then telling them all to fuck off.

The films performances however are what push it into being one of the better original comedy movies on Netflix. Will forte (that actor who you saw in that one thing) and Domhnall Gleeson(that actor you keep seeing in everything) as the magazines cofounders Henry Beard. They share a fantastic dynamic as they are a perfect odd couple, one middle class, one upper class, one a child in a mans body and the other a man who has never allowed himself to be a child the best scenes of the movies are the ones where they intellectualy and comedically attempt to best the other. Over the course of the film we see there relationship turn form one of the best friendships they’ll ever have to barley on speaking on terms. Forte shines the most as the films lead and turns in career best since his days on Saturday night live. He plays a man loosing his mind as he deals with the struggles of running a magazine, stage show, radio show, and eventually films whilst seemingly consuming Charlie Sheen levels of drugs as he attempts turn dick jokes into comedy genius, before then doing it again for the next 100 pages of meterial.

There are as with any movies issues and this movie has far to many to count. Don't get me wrong I enjoyed this movie and regardless of comparisons to movies that try this same self awareness on true stories and do it far better, such as "24 hour Party People" and "American Splendour". I still don't see this movie as anything special. my favourite elements of the film are the scenes in which the modern day Doug Kenney talks makes fun of the elements that define a biopic, scenes showing the creation of the films "Animal House" and "Caddy Shack" as well as the scenes detailing the creation of the Lampoon but I found the rest of the movie, even the funny scenes, to have been played too straight. the movie merely skirts with the idea of mocking a biopic and all the elements I enjoyed outside of the lead performances barley make up 15 minutes worth of material. Comedy fans and movie fans will also sadly have to stomach witnessing comedy legend chevy chase portrayed with almost no enthusiasm by Joel McHale. The rest of the real life characters are also portrayed by recognisable actors (who actually resemble the people there playing) I was able to see past that and forget they weren’t there characters. I was able to enjoy the initial laughter that comes with seeing Joel male playing chevy chase based on there history together but unlike the other major movie stars portrayed here he is in a large portion of the film and once the initial humour of the stunt casting we are stuck with Joel male doing the same thing he always does. Playing Joel McHale. If you’ve seen community you’ve seen this performance. I Had another major issue with this film and its one that doesn’t really exist but I must address it. Im not a complete newcomer to this world having seen a documentary about the making of animal house a few years ago and was thus aware and distracted by a aspect of this film up until the end. I don’t know how the ending will play toward some audiences but I do know that if you know the ending you will be distracted and on the edge of your seat waiting for them to get to it where as if you are unaware of the true story you will be surprised but wether it will be a good surprise or bad one you’ll have to see for yourself

3/5