Not enough there to be at all memorable

The best word to describe Brigsby Bear would be “middling.” Directed by Dave McCary of Saturday Night Live fame, the film attempts to be comedic, emotional and weird — but ends up missing the mark on all three of its intended targets.

Co-writer Kyle Mooney, McCary’s SNL colleague, plays James, a 25-year-old who was abducted as a baby, and lives in a bunker with his kidnapper “parents” (Mark Hamill, Jane Adams). He spends his time watching and obsessing over an educational TV program entitled Brigsby Bear — a sci-fi show about a bear who saves the universe.

When James is freed and returned to his birth family, he learns that the show was actually concocted by his captor/father. Despite coming to the understanding that there will no longer be any new episodes of his favourite show, he retains his love for Brigsby. After befriending a group of teens, James sets off to make his own cinematic adaptation of the show, through which he learns to cope with his new life through creativity.

Even with its tightly constructed plot, Brigsby always feels a bit off. Mooney gives a good performance as the awkward James, but the film is imbalanced when it comes to his story. Moments of sadness, pain and fear as James attempts to come to terms with his past and present are almost always covered with comedy. Unfortunately, this doesn’t occur naturally. Instead, it feels as though Mooney and McCary are uncomfortable with emotion, and so overcompensate with laughs. As a result, emotions are stunted, never coming to fruition, while the humour is lazy and repetitive. A running joke of James parroting slang he hears, such as calling things “dope, bro,” is barely funny the first time. By the 10th, it’s grating.

So much of the comedy here is lifeless, based solely around the weirdness of the situation. But the film is never weird enough. Shockingly high quality, the Brigsby show is not actually that strange despite its blunt and abrupt educational messages (another joke which, repeated endlessly, loses its punch). The film relies on the show’s quirkiness for surreal humour, but that’s all it is: light quirk. Brigsby Bear mistakes appealing to outdated hipster esthetics for originality.

Presenting itself as an absurd comedy with depth, Brigsby Bear is painfully slight. Lacking in emotion and humour while relying too heavily on too cute weirdness, the movie ends up blandly average, not enough of a success or failure to be at all memorable.

Kyle Mooney