Brigsby Bear (2017)

I like the idea of Brigsy Bear – a feverish, bittersweet rumination on nostalgia – a lot more than I liked the actual movie. Written by and starring Kyle Mooney, the SNL performer/writer responsible for some of the show’s strangest sketches, Brigsby Bear is admirably unconventional. It is largely free of humor, which seems like a savage critique, but this is a very specific type of comedy which almost disdains laughs. That sort of bait-and-switch subversion of comedic tropes can be effective when used properly, but Brigsby Bear is too understated in both tone and impact.

The first 20 minutes, which depict a strange and shabby alternate universe, is the best part of Brigsby Bear. At this early stage, the film seems poised to touch on some very prescient topics – nostalgia pandering, obsessive fandom, and the increasingly blurred line between adolescence and adulthood – in a bizarre and unsettling manner. But Brigsy Bear quickly reverts to a more mundane setting, which, although still odd, more closely resembles ours. The film immediately falters.

Again, I found Brigsby Bear intentionally unfunny. For the film to work, it would need to either be narratively interesting (which it is not, largely because the plot, an absurdist rehash of ‘80s feel-good comedies, doesn’t adhere to any sort of internal logic) or thematically insightful. Unfortunately, I found Brigsby Bear to be lacking in the latter department as well. It is certainly not satirical or even critical of fanboy culture – in fact, it actually romanticizes it and justifies its practioners (it pedals an equally unsatisfying message about creativity, which equates nostalgia-obsessed tinkering with genuine artistic vision). We are supposed to like and perhaps even relate to Kyle Mooney’s James Pope.

By the logic of Brigsby Bear, an earnest and enthusiastic Star Wars listicle ranking the Ewoks by cuteness would be worthy of applause. Once I realized the movie was going to be awkward and emotionally estranged, I had at least hoped that it would be mean in a clever sort of way. A curious, disappointing experience.