A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Just after watching the documentary "Drunk Stoned Stupid Dead" I discovered that there was also a TV movie covering the same period, focused on co-founder Doug Kenney. So I had to watch that, even though the reviewers were middling.I don't understand those middling reviews, because I thought this was tremendously entertaining. It's basically a movie about very witty people saying funny things, held together by the protagonist's downward spiral. It is less reverential than the documentary, which tiptoed around the whole priveleged-white-male thing, and it does it's best to mock itself, as when a scroll points out all the discrepancies between the movie and the real story.The movie does at times rely too heavily on its narrative devices, sometimes falling into a gimmicky cutesiness, and the ending feels like a flailing attempt to pull things together, but overall this is funny and very well acted. My advice: ignore the critics, watch the movie.

POILER: I really enjoyed this film. I have watched several of the documentaries concerning Animal House and Caddyshack and Doug Kenney's name comes up quite often amongst the cast and crew. Chevy Chase and he were really close and Chevy still feels some guilt over leaving Hawaii right before Kenney's death. The man was apparently a comic genius who couldn't escape his childhood baggage.The format is well played with Will Forte as the young Doug and Martin Mull as kind of older, alternate universe Doug, if Kenney had lived, narrating the film. The rest of the cast is well known, playing unknown actors and writers. It took me a second to recognize Natasha Lyonne (American Pie) as Anne Beatts, Thomas Lennon (Reno 911) as Micheal O'Donoghue, and Joel McHale (Community) as Chevy Chase. All of them are covered in 70s hairstyles and McHale does a really good job of mimicking Chase's speech patterns and even his trademark pratfalls.The film excels in showing how Kenney rose from a malcontent to a Harvard grad to a fledgling magazine editor to movie writer. Forte is especially compelling and funny as Kenney. He doesn't quite have the acting range to pull off the downward spiral of the person, but he does an excellent job with the jokes and the other aspects of Kenney's life. Where the film fails is trying to shoehorn too many characters into its 100 minute run time. There is even a humorous scene of older Kenney (Mull) explaining to a bunch of supporting characters that there wasn't enough screen time for all of them so they get ignored. But the film goes to great pains to cram in other famous people such as Gilda Radner, Christopher Guess (Seth Green), Bill Murray, and John Belushi. The actors playing Murray and Belushi came off as actors lampooning (no pun intended) the famous comedians. Belushi was such a huge personality, I doubt anyone could portray him properly in such a short cameo.Another special mention goes out to Emmy Rossum. She is a stunning screen presence and even though her appearance is short, as Kenney's last girlfriend, she lights up the screen. She is a gorgeous actress as well.There is also a fun nod to Animal House with Mark Metcalf (Neidermeyer) portraying a publisher.The movie moves fast through the various periods of Kenney's life, but I think he would have enjoyed it. He comes off as funny, yet troubled, a brilliant comedian, but an emotionally stinted adult. A Futile and Stupid Gesture is anything but. The only thing I would have added, is maybe some post interviews with the actual people portrayed in the movie who knew Kenney, even if they were archival for some (Belushi and Ramis). Still, this was a well-done film.

I think this movie is wonderful. It really shines a light on one of the most unappreciated entertainers of all time. I personally think that there use of old Doug Kenny, while fun on the first watch, is odd when you re watch it. It does make the twist ending way more out of the blue when you first see it though. Especially if you have never heard of Doug Kenny.I do have a slight bit of a bone to pick with some of the reviewers though. Most of the negative reviews are perfectly fine. They point out flaws that are opinionated or debatable or just plain true. My point being that most of the reviews aren't straight up bad. The gripe I have is with the people who complain about it being historically inaccurate. A movie doesn't have to be historically accurate to be entertaining, but that is just an opinion of mine. The problem is that they on multiple occasions, alluded to the fact that they changed a lot of things to make for a better story to watch. What is the point of complaining about something that is explicitly addressed? the worst part is that most of the things they complain about are either so mundane it makes no difference, and/or were specified in the movie as something they changed. Most people didn't notice this because it was in a scrolling text wall midway through the film, but they give you enough warning to pause and read it. Sure, not everyone is going to read the text, that would be stupid to assume. But if you are going to make these criticisms you have to do the slightest bit of research and the movie did the job for you. Anyways, rant over.Overall, It is a great movie in my opinion.

This film tells the story of National Lampoon. From a magazine at Harvard to all the films. Really it mostly tells about Doug Kenney. I have seen the films such as Caddyshack, National Lampoons Vacation etc... but did not really know much about the magazine or Doug Kenney. The film has a unique way of telling the story with an old Doug Kenney narrating while you see a young Doug Kenney. The older Doug Kenney not only narrates but comments on the film as well. The ending is sad and unexpected because I really knew nothing about Doug Kenney. I thought it was clever that you have youngish actors playing older actors who were most likely their inspiration. Overall this is a very interesting film that gets your attention from the beginning. I am sure die hard National Lampoon fans will pick it to pieces. But really if you want an interesting, funny and entertaining film then I would definitely pick this. If you know a bit about National Lampoon then it will help to follow the story but to be honest you would enjoy it probably better if you know nothing about it.