A Futile and Stupid Gesture

Even if the casting choices in portraying some of iconic talents in Kenney’s orbit are occasionally questionable — a detail the film gleefully acknowledges — there’s something delightful about watching actors known for comedy now try to capture the sound or energy of the performers who inspired them.

This is quite possibly the most self-referential, inside-jokey, look-at-how-clever-we-are, off-the-charts Meta Movie I’ve ever seen. Sometimes that’s pretty great. At other times, it detracts from the core story at hand.

Of all the impersonations, Thomas Lennon‘s spot-on send up of the balding, sunglassed cynic Donaghue is the one that dazzles. Matching Belushi’s fearless lunacy or Chevy Chase’s studied pratfalls is trickier on even a “generous” Netflix budget.

Perhaps fittingly given the downturn in the repetitive final act, over the long haul the joke starts getting old in every sense.

While there’s a bit of hero worship going on that deflates the piece, and Wain’s direction is surprisingly uninspired, the biggest problem is the script that tries to cover too much ground but doesn’t really have that much to say as it does so.

Maybe this is exactly the biopic that Kenney would want, silly and bittersweet and laced with regret. Unfortunately, the film is just good enough to convince us that he deserved better.

Wain made a terrible mistake when he decided to turn Kenney’s story into a goof, a sketch, a riff of threadbare mockery, instead of treating it as a relatively straight movie with laughs. If he had done that, it might have been hilarious, though in an acidly downbeat and far-reaching way.

I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did, but it was extremely entertaining and educational in filling in the blanks regarding the origins of National Lampoon. Sad ending, but still a poignant story. Definitely take the time to see it.

This film hit me straight in the heart and the funny bone. Creative retelling of Doug Kenney, whom I really didn’t know, and now understand not only a piece of who he was but so many things I have to be thankful for. The directions was inventive, the writing original and the production beautiful. I took a point away for the wigs. The wigs were terrible.

Forte and the other leads are excellent, and the directing and pacing are very good. Lampoonable/Lampooning praise: "The film is a surprisingly poignant reminder of the humanity, the dignity, and yes, the necessity of courageously irreverent humor in a world gone mad."

A fair retelling of the Doug Kenney story. You won't get encyclopedic details on his life but enough to let you know how influential this guy was. I think it nails the fact that sarcasm was just a way of life. The impersonations of the famous people that grew out of this scene were terrific frankly.

As with most founders of counter-cultures, Kenney is a largely unknown figure these days. And seemingly, the film posits, with good reason. Kenney is played unlikable, sarcastic, erratic and extremely unsympathetic... which is apparently quite true to life. If it weren't so light on legitimate laughs, it may be worthy of the original Lampoon.