Sundance Review: BRIGSBY BEAR Is a Touching Tribute to Imagination, Creativity, and the Art of Filmmaking
Brigsby Bear is one of my favorite films that I've seen up at Sundance. This is such a sweet and charming movie that pays tribute to creativity, imagination and the art of filmmaking.
The movie tells an offbeat, quirky story of a man named James (Kyle Mooney) who was raised in an underground bunker, off the grid, in the desert by two people who kidnapped him when he was a baby. He spent 25 years in this seclusion with extremely overprotective fake parents. Of course, he only knew them as mom and dad. The man who raised him is played by Mark Hamill.
James grew up watching only one show, called Brigsby Bear, which was a production that his captors produced just for him, and his whole world revolved around this show. He even ran a Brigsby Bear online forum on an old '80s computer that he thought was real.
One day the police come racing in to save James from these people to take him back to his real family in Cedar Hills, Utah. He obviously has absolutely no idea what is going on and what this all means ,and he's thrust into a scary modern unfamiliar world that he is forced to adjust to.
It's here that he learns that no one else in the world has seen Brigsby Bear and that he won't be getting any new episodes, which is very discouraging and hard for him to deal with. He shows the series to one of his newfound friends who starts posting the episodes online where it becomes a big hit.
After James watches his first movie on the big screen, he decides that he wants to tell the final chapter of Brigsby Bear by embarking on a journey to make his own Brigsby Bear movie. He enlists the help of his new friends and starts to learn everything he can about filmmaking techniques and special effects.
The film is wonderfully entertaining and is packed full of all kinds of great humor as we watch James adjust to this new world and new family. He's incredibly awkward at first, but he really does try hard to fit in and accept the way things are. The one thing he can't let go of is Brigsby Bear, that's his passion in the same way that many of us are passionate about things like Marvel, Star Wars and Star Trek.
Over the course of the film, he forms a relationship with his new parents and his sister, but it isn't without its hard times and trials. Through his love of Brigsby Bear and his passion to make a movie, he rises above his troubles and fears and creates something for the world to enjoy.
This is a truly touching film that is full of passion and inspiration. This movie is for anyone who has ever been passionate about something and set out to create something based on that passion.