The Bubble

The film is best in its embrace of the random, its moments when the talented and funny cast goof off with each other, responding to one another's eccentricities.

The Bubble feels like the least personal film Apatow has directed so far, a film that seems like more of an excuse to just do something during the pandemic, instead of Apatow having something to say.

Bits and pieces work—an underused Maria Bakalova, in one of her first post-Borat roles, stands out as she contends with Dieter’s advances; there are a few laughs seeing Carol dealing with a crumbling relationship at home with no way to intervene; Dustin placing more importance over this franchise than his newly adopted son––but The Bubble‘s vast majority plays as Day for Night for dummies. Comedy can certainly be extracted from the strange new world we find ourselves in, but Apatow’s project is a meta experiment in search of a purpose beyond delivering a few scant chuckles.

The Bubble’s script is credited to Apatow and Team America co-writer Pam Brady, and there are occasional flashes of barbed, satirical wit here. Generally, though, The Bubble resembles a flutter of loose ideas, to which a vast ensemble of reliably funny actors have been tasked with adding colour.

No one seems particularly good at their jobs, but that’s beside the point. They’re silly and self-absorbed — mildly obnoxious more than anything — but rarely is their desperation funny.

The film’s toothless showbiz satire mostly comes down to teasing its characters for their entitlement and self-importance.

A film that takes so many below-the-belt jabs at the idiocy of Tinseltown blockbusters must, at the very least, be a few IQ points higher than the stuff it makes fun of for being stupid.

I see a lot of hate for the movie in the other reviews but It seems to me like people entirely missed the whole point of the movie. It's not about glorifying hollywood, but exactly the opposite. It presents the movie stars in the worst light possible. They are spoiled brats who cannot handle being stuck in an ultra exclusive hotel for a 100 days to film a movie and earn millions of dollars while the rest of the world is falling apart. Honestly it's amazing that this movie ever got made. If you understand the humor and the context it's great fun and has a lot of extremely funny scenes and ranges from some pretty random and pretty fun light humor to deep critique of hollywood and it's skewed outlook on politics and it's meaning to regular folk.

Seems clear that this is not a "good" movie, but I found it to be watchable, but admittedly forgettable. I guess keep your expectations low and watch it if you want some lazy laughs.

Didn't think this was as awful as expected, some of the humor was fine in parts, most of the covid stuff was pretty bad.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

The Bubble is the classic representation of someone who keeps telling bad jokes and thinks it's hilarious when no one in the room is laughing. Worse, I find it even more stupid to see that they seem to think they were making some kind of good satirical mockery of a reality that they themselves exploit on a daily basis. Exploiting their egos? That would be commendable if at least what was proposed was nothing more than a petty collection of lousy ideas exploring once again what he has always done; stories with childish adults who have some funny situation that makes him think he can stretch it ad nauseam. Apatow rather than those involved perhaps believed that not taking himself seriously would be more believable and probably would have worked if not for the simple fact that it's not funny. None of it is. Despite the strong cast, Apatow does nothing with the characters, and gives them nothing but pitiful scenes in which you can tell they are completely disinterested themselves. Like their fictional counterparts, they are there because of their contract and because they were clearly paid well for doing the bare minimum. This wasn't meant to be taken seriously, in any way. However, that also doesn't mean you get to play dumb and think you've done something worthy of the spotlight, and The Bubble deserves total obscurity.