Review: Brigsby Bear

Kyle Mooney is a young man raised in a bunker in Utah by a failed kids TV show creator (Mark Hamill) and his wife (Jane Adams). One night, authorities raid the bunker, arrest Mooney’s ‘parents’ and inform him that his life has been a lie. The world isn’t toxic to human beings as he has been told, and his favourite TV show “Brigsby Bear Adventures” (an amusingly bad mixture of “The Care Bears”, “Barney” and “H.R. Pufnstuf”) is really a failed TV series Hamill couldn’t get anyone interested in. No one in the outside world has ever heard of nor seen the show, and Hamill basically kidnapped Mooney as a kid so he could brainwash someone into liking the damn show. Mooney finds life in the real world difficult, and can’t quite relate to his real family (and vice versa). So what is a stunted man-child to do? Why, create his own “Brigsby Bear” movie of course, to express himself and share the “Brigsby Bear” love with everyone. Did I mention that Brigsby looks like a Satanic giant Teddy Ruxpin? Well there’s that, too. Greg Kinnear plays a well-meaning police detective, whilst Claire Danes cameos as a shrink.

Some of you are gonna love this ‘Lonely Island Classics’ film from 2017. Directed by Dave McCary (an “SNL” writer and director), and scripted by debutant Kevin Costello and star Kyle Mooney, I never got on side with it, I’m afraid. It’s got originality and Mark Hamill so it’s not a total wash, but it’s a one-joke premise and that one-joke premise is a little too disturbing and off-putting. It wouldn’t bother me so much if the premise had some genuine point or value to it (and indeed it did have me intrigued at first), but as is it feels like a film using a pretty disturbing hook just for the sake of being weird and different. Basically, it’s meant to be funny and I found myself rejecting the idea that this should be funny. I know Mel Brooks was proof that anything can technically be funny (‘Springtime for Hitler’ in “The Producers”, ‘Hitler on Ice’ in “History of the World Part 1”, the whole premise of “Blazing Saddles”, etc.), but if that’s true, McCary and co haven’t found the way to make this funny.

For starters, it’s a fish-out-of-water story, and that’s not anywhere near one of my favourite premises for a movie. Get rid of the kidnapping thing and just make it about a TV show that was a flop, and the film, whilst still too thin, would at least be more palatable. As is, it’s kinda clever that Hamill’s character is such a creative failure that he has to kidnap someone and force them to watch his product, but…it’s also sick, not particularly funny, and not enough material for feature-length.

“SNL” guy (and Andy Samberg buddy) Kyle Mooney is good in the lead, he’s just not playing a character I naturally warm to, nor is he in a film I warmed to. Mark Hamill is the best thing here, and although he’s barely featured on camera in the film, the veteran voice artist is at least a presence throughout in some form or another. He’s good and genuinely creepy, the film is off-putting and thin. Hamill’s top performance demands a more honest, realistic, and non-comedic film to house it.

This film has no idea what reality even is. I hope this doesn’t sound crude but the best way I can describe this unsatisfying oddity is as “Encino Man” or “Earth Girls Are Easy” with Asperger’s (Or perhaps a collaboration between Terry Gilliam and Adam Sandler). Add a premise that involves kidnapping a child and manipulating them, and it all just feels a bit wrong to me. Your mileage may differ.

Rating: C