Don't Look Up, Letterkenny, Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon, and The House || Rapid Review

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Rapid Reviews  ||  Don't Look Up  ||  Letterkenny  ||  Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon  ||  The House

There are an overwhelming amount of movies released every year. With an average of over 700 movies released every year, the wealth of entertainment available is practically endless. This isn't even mentioning the plethora of series and shows released every single year, most of which are just as prestigious as the big, noteworthy Hollywood releases. With such a wide selection of content to dig into and only a finite amount of time to do so, what is one critic do?

It is from that question that Rapid Reviews was born. The idea is for this to be a semi-regular feature that will collect smaller reviews covering a wide range of movies and shows that might not be otherwise discussed due to time constraints. And make no mistake - some of these shows and movies need to be talked about!


Don't Look Up  ||  Netflix

Directed by: Adam McKay
Screenplay by: Adam McKay  ||  Story by: Adam McKay, David Sirota
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Cate Blanchett, Rob Morgan, Jonah Hill, Mark Rylance, Tyler Perry, Timothée Chalamet
Score by: Nicholas Britell  ||  Cinematography by: Linus Sandgren

Writer/director Adam McKay is most likely best known for his unofficial trilogy of Will Ferrell comedies from the early 2000s - starting with Anchorman, followed up by Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, and concluded with Step Brothers. McKay's filmography makes a bit of a shift after this point, with more of his storytelling choices seeming to be influenced more and more by McKay's political, economical, and cultural beliefs - as is natural with most artists and their art. His immediate follow-up to this trilogy was The Other Guys, another Will Ferrell led buddy-comedy which used its narrative and primary antagonist (the always delightful Steve Coogan) to comment on the underhanded (and questionably legal) practices going on within the unregulated financial sector. The movie's ending credits even play out over a series infographics breaking down Ponzi schemes - what they are, how they work, and some notable real-life cases. Even the coldly-received Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues spoke on the problematic nature inherent to the 24 hour news cycle. Most recently, McKay has shifted to a much more straight-faced and (slightly) mean-spirited style of comedy seen in The Big Short, Vice, and many episodes of HBO's Succession. The satire and commentary in these recent projects have been much more direct with McKay's overt commentary on the housing crash and former vice president Dick Cheney's career being pretty hard to miss.

It should be no surprise that Adam McKay's most recent film, Don't Look Up, is crammed (even overly) full of his satirical takes on the divisive politics of modern-day America, along with a myriad of other hot-button issues. The main allegory Don't Look Up makes (loudly and repeatedly) is paralleled with its main characters', Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence) and Dr. Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio), discovery of a planet-killing comet being met with an immediate wall of denial. Even though there is clear proof that the planet will be destroyed by this comet, the government, the media, and the general population largely refuse to buy into this "inconvenient truth" - i.e. climate change. That's a perfectly fine message to analyze and I think there are some interesting ideas scratched at in Don't Look Up. However, that message gets lost and immediately diffused when the movie also wants to speak on a handful of other issues that seem to be troubling McKay. Don't Look Up also feels the need to comment on the corruption of our political system (themes repeated from Vice), to speak on the lack of oversight on big business and corporations (themes repeated from The Big Short), to speak out on the media and Hollywood serving only to distract and placate without forcing hard truths (themes repeated from Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues) - even if most of these weren't already explored in McKay's previous works, Don't Look Up's commentary never feels particularly meaningful or revelatory due to it focusing on hitting more targets with its satire instead of really drilling down into one of these issues.

While thinking on this review, some of the adjectives that kept coming up were unfocused and scattershot. Don't Look Up is irrefutably unfocused in its satire aims. On a more fundamental movie-making level, Don't Look Up rides this awkward line between comedy and drama without ever marrying the two disparate tones together into a cohesive or satisfying whole. Even its impressively stacked ensemble of powerhouse acting talent - featuring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, Mark Rylance, Jonah Hill, Meryl Streep, Tyler Perry, Cate Blanchett, Timothée Chalamet, Ron Perlman, and Melanie Lynskey - don't always gel with one another, often giving very different performances. DiCaprio, Lawrence, and Lynskey each feel like they could have been plucked right out of an A24 style indie drama, while Jonah Hill and Meryl Streep feel more in line tonally with the heightened, ironic reality found within shows like Veep or Succession. And then there's Mark Rylance who serves as an amalgamation of Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, and Jeffrey Bezos - but shot and performed in a way befitting of a Saturday Night Live skit. These specific choices, along with Don't Look Up as a collective whole, feel unfocused, scattershot, and jarring as a movie-going experience.

Film-FTW Rating  ||  5 Stars out of 10  "Mediocre / Mixed Feelings"

Letterkenny  [Season 10]  ||  Hulu

Directed by: Jacob Tierney
Written by: Jared Keeso, Jacob Tierney, Jonathan Torrens
Starring: Jared Keeso, Nathan Dales, Michelle Mylett, K. Trevor Wilson, Dylan Playfair, Andrew Herr, Tyler Johnston, Jacob Tierney
Cinematography by: Jim Westenbrink

If you're not familiar with Letterkenny, here's a brief rundown: Letterkenny is a Canadian sitcom from Crave, a local Canadian television station. The show was commissioned after the quick success of the YouTube web series its based off of, Letterkenny Problems - all from the mind of Jared Keeso. The show is based within the fictional town of Letterkenny, a rural community in Ontario loosely based on Keeso's hometown. Letterkenny focuses its very unique brand of comedy around three specific demographics within this fictional town - the hicks, skids, and hockey players. What works so well with Letterkenny, outside of its rapid-fire banter and cheekily written "wordplay for dialogue", is its empathetic handling of all three of these drastically different groups. All are written with care, affection, and a healthy amount of introspection/reflection. Though Letterkenny is a sitcom through-and-through with its primary focus being on delivering the laughs, the series has always put its characters first and foremost. It is what has endeared so many to its eccentric and uniquely Canadian cast.

If you haven't given Letterkenny a chance and are interested in a very different, but still entirely bingeable comedy - you should absolutely do that! With six half-hour episodes released each season, Letterkenny makes for an ideal show to easily catch up to speed on.

For everyone else who is specifically wondering about Letterkenny's tenth season - it's solid, though a bit underwhelming. With six episodes comprising each season (released on a yearly basis), any one episode that's lacking feels especially crucial when there's a limited amount of time for the storytelling and/or character development. The first episode is saddled with resolving the "out-of-nowhere" (and arguably unearned) conflict that concluded season nine and the second half of the season begins paving the way (somewhat awkwardly) for a spin-off series based around Shoresy's character. This makes for a thematically distracted season that never really feels like it kicks into gear, lacking any cohesive narrative drive. Instead, we're treated to several episodes that explore one-off ideas. The worst of these episodes is the regrettable Dyck Meat - quite possibly the most juvenile 30 minutes of television I've witnessed since Letterkenny's season one groaner of an episode, Fart Book. Then there's Prostate, an episode that comes dangerously close to reaching after-school special levels of edutainment - even if I did find the conclusion and commentary at the end worth its prolonged setup.

Overall, Letterkenny's tenth season is far from its strongest season, but still offers enough charm in its unique ensemble and clever dialogue to keep fans invested until the next season drops.

Film-FTW Rating  ||  6 Stars out of 10  "Better Than Average / Moderately Successful"

Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon  ||  Paramount+

Directed by: Robert Ben Garant
Written by: Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney, Thomas Lennon
Starring: Robert Ben Garant, Kerri Kenney, Thomas Lennon, Niecy Nash, Cedric Yarbrough, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Carlos Alazraqui, Mary Birdsong, Ian Roberts, Patton Oswalt, Steve Agee
Score by: Leo Birenberg  ||  Cinematography by: Andy Rydzweski

Some context before we begin: Reno 911! is a show that I'm not intimately familiar with and one I'm absolutely not part of the fandom of. Throughout my teenage years I caught several episodes of the Comedy Central show, but it was never one that felt important enough to stick around for on any sort of regular basis. I always felt Reno 911!'s comedy was a bit messy - working for me about as frequently as it didn't. Surprisingly (or maybe not), my biggest "in" with the Reno 911! franchise was through its 2007 movie - Reno 911! Miami, which saw the Reno Police Department bring their brand of comedic chaos down to Miami Beach. So with all that said, it should start to become clear that I have no real nostalgia for these characters or deeper yearning for the return of Reno 911! in general.

But what about the movie we're talking about? What about Reno 911! The Hunt for QAnon? Well...it's mostly fine. Frankly, I'm just about over "modern-day" comedic commentaries on the tumultuous times brought on by 2020 and 2021 respectively. Obviously, there's room for fresh insights on current happenings - but Reno 911! is not where I expect that level of satire to come from. Credit where credit's due - Reno 911!: The Hunt for QAnon does a pretty admirable job of navigating some tricky waters with its place within the modern-day political and cultural climate without pandering or talking cheap shots. Though the satire isn't particularly fresh, the movie does take a few opportunities to subvert expectations in amusing ways - notably with the perfectly silly reveal of QAnon's real leader.

The broader, less satirical humor Reno 911! is typically known for feels more hit and miss. For all of the truly brilliant and inspired bits, such as Deputy Wiegel's (Kerri Kenney) romantic fling with a wealthy target while aboard their undercover cruise, there are also many prolonged bits that don't work or feel as if they've been done before. Some of these bits have even been done by the Reno 911! team themselves, specifically a bit with the officers puzzling over how to get a gigantic anchor off the deck of their ship - something a little too similar to the bit with the team trying to move a beached whale in Reno 911! Miami. Still, even with its hit-and-miss comedy and reliance on a handful of overly-familiar gags, Reno 911! The Hunt for QAnon ends up being a perfectly enjoyable ninety-minute getaway with a cast of lovable (and entirely watchable) weirdos.  

Film-FTW Rating  ||  6 Stars out of 10  "Better Than Average / Moderately Successful"

The House  ||  Netflix
Directed by: Emma de Swaef & Marc James Roels, Niki Lindroth von Bahr, and Paloma Baeza
Screenplay by: Enda Walsh
Starring: Claudie Blakley, Mia Goth, Matthew Goode, Helena Bonham Carter, Susan Wokoma, Jarvis Cocker, Will Sharpe, Paul Kaye
Score by: Gustavo Santaolalla  ||  Cinematography by: James Lewis, Malcolm Hadley

Netflix's The House is an alluringly creepy anthology featuring three lovingly crafted, stop-motion animated stories. That sentence just so happens to perfectly describe a movie that I should love unapologetically - and yet there was something holding me back from falling head over heels for The House. After some careful consideration, I think the main issue lies with The House's storytelling, intentionally creating a slow-pace for these relatively straight-forward and simple tales. This ends up working out quite well for the first chapter, I - And heard within, a lie is spun, which ends up being the most successful of the three. The slow-burn pacing works perfectly to create an anxious and uneasy atmosphere that permeates this initial segment, leading to the gut punch of a conclusion in its finale. It's a tense, unnerving, and perfect short story to serve as an entry point for this collection.

Each subsequent story, however, feels significantly less substantial and successful than what came before it. The final chapter, III - Listen again and seek the sun, is an outright misstep - not providing enough of a stylistic shift from the previous chapter, focusing on an abrasive and borderline repellent protagonist in the disgruntled landlady Rosa, and its overreliance on saccharine sentimentality. It's an odd closer that not only feels out of place, but leaves a bad aftertaste for what was a mostly pleasant movie-going experience up until that point.

I don't really want to belabor the point because even though I had some sizable gripes with the pacing and storytelling, especially in its final chapter - I also found a good bit to enjoy here. It's also hard to deny the sheer artistry and craft on display throughout The House. For the brilliance of its stop-motion visuals and its utterly macabre opening chapter, The House is absolutely worth a watch if any of this piqued your curiosity.

Film-FTW Rating  ||  6 Stars out of 10  "Better Than Average / Moderately Successful"

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