Sundance Review: A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE Hilariously Tells The Story of National Lampoon
The National Lampoon magazine was a little before my time. My introduction to the National Lampoon brand was the classic Chevy Chase comedy Vacation. That was one of the funniest damn films I had ever seen! After that, I got around to seeing Animal House and Caddyshack, which were so great! To this day I still enjoy watching these films because they never fail at making me laugh.
Director David Wain’s (Wet Hot American Summer) new film A Futile and Stupid Gesture gives us a fantastically funny and meta look at the early days of National Lampoon and tells the story of how it was all started by Doug Kenny, who is fantastically played by Will Forte and Henry Beard, was wonderfully played by Domhnall Gleeson. It also highlights the insane experiences they had while building this comedy empire.
The movie is based on Josh Karp’s book of the same name and the film adaptation turned out to be extremely entertaining. Being a fan of these classic films, it was fun to watch how this whole form of counterculture came about and changed comedy forever. It was also a little depressing, though, because the pressure that was on the shoulders of these guys was intense!
Doug Kenny was a comedic genius but he was also a very flawed and troubled individual who, like most people during that time, got hooked on cocaine and other forms of drugs, which led him on a downward spiral. Henry, on the other hand, put everything he had into National Lampoon until it wasn't fun for him anymore and he left.
It’s a comedic yet sad story and I loved the way it was told. One of the cool things that I enjoyed about it was that included all the legendary comedians that we all know and love including Bill Murray, John Belushi, Harold Ramis, Christopher Guest, Chevy Chase, Ivan Reitman, Gilda Radner, and Lorne Michaels. It was so surreal watching other actors play these iconic comedians. I think my favorite of the bunch was watching Joel McHale play Chevy Chase. He played that role awesomely. It was fun watching him pull off Chevy Chases comedy style.
Even though the film does have some heavy themes, the comedic aspect of the film was hilarious! I found myself laughing through the majority of the film with all of the silliness and joking around. So when you watch this movie you can definitely expect to laugh!
The film is currently available to watch on Netflix.
