A Futile and Stupid Gesture
Director: David Wain
Year Released: 2018
Rating: 1.0
Gushing tribute to the late Doug Kenney (Will Forte), who started the satirical magazine National Lampoon with fellow Harvard alum Henry Beard (Domhnall Gleeson), helped create several hit comedies, like Animal House and Caddyshack, got a little too into the coca with Chevy Chase (Joel McHale) and died at the alarmingly young age of 33 ... by falling off a cliff in Hawaii. Wain goes the Judd Apatow route of kissing the pimpled derrières of 'comedy writers' in what ends up being a self-congratulatory movie in which all personal sins are forgiven so long as you're "entertaining." Kenney and Beard did, in all likelihood, have an influence on everything from Saturday Night Live, modern comedies like Wedding Crashers and Anchorman, Chicago's own apex of mockery The Onion and even Wain himself ... but it didn't have to be so conceited about it. One thing is for sure: Gleeson, fils could have a nice future in (deadpan) comedy, should he so choose ... or pass off as a youthful Yves Saint-Laurent's doppelgänger.
