IDIOTS

PREMISE

Two rock-bottom drivers transport a wealthy teen to rehab, but their simple job spirals into a chaotic journey of drugs, danger, and crime as their passenger derails their plans.

THE GOOD STUFF

JACKSON & FRANCO- Throughout multiple projects that both these actors have been in that I’ve seen, I do think the weaknesses that they have between them are readily apparent, and they’ve both been in comedies with people they have zero chemistry with, so I know what that looks like. These two are aces together. To have a movie like this where a bunch of random wild things happen, these two really roll with the punches and keep the laughs coming throughout the running time. Jackson plays an excellent straight man to Franco, who has all the wild lines and does all the physical comedy and says all the degenerate R-rated bars.

SUPPORTING CAST- This is a film that is based on random encounters, and so the idiosyncrasies of each supporting character are going to be turned up to volume 10. That’s how movies like this are, and miscasting roles like this could be a critical flaw. That’s not what this movie does. Kiernan Shipka, Nicholas Braun, Peter Dinklage, and even Killer Mike all do very well for what they’re given to do.

THE BAD STUFF

DEPTH- Though I understand that a movie called IDIOTS is not really supposed to have any depth character-wise and all, the movie does its job really well in temporarily introducing us to interesting characters. The kinds of characters that you want to spend more time with, but it’s not in the nature of the story to do so. There could be a whole comedy movie itself about the Peter Dinklage character in this movie and his family. Kiernan Shipka has an interesting dynamic with the two leads and has an interesting backstory of her own. I can’t hold it against the movie too much for not giving us more time with these interesting characters, because I know how these movies tend to go. But it’s worth noting.

THE UGLY STUFF

SHERIDAN KIMBERLY- That is the name of the character played by Mason Thames in this film. I understand this character is supposed to be insufferable. I understand this character is supposed to be annoying. I understand that this character is supposed to be the most unlikable character in the film. But the way that this character is written, it would make no sense to have him transported across state lines with anything less than an armored guard. This is the antagonist of the film, and the film never treats him that way. This character does not have lovable loser energy. He doesn’t have “grew up to be a screw-up” vibes that generate sympathy of any kind. What instead he has is “bathroom break” energy. “Turn the channel” energy even.

I always have to give credit where credit is due whenever I see an R-rated comedy like this go so balls-to-the-wall into its R-rated content. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this is a throwback movie to the 90s or early 2000s or anything like that, but it is a kind of comedy that you do not see in this particular era. Raunchy comedy, check. Bloody violence, check. F-bombs aplenty, check. There’s a place for it if it’s done extremely well. And IDIOTS is done extremely well.

IDIOTS is in theaters now