Better Late Than Never on the Great Movie "A Futile and Stupid Gesture"

This past weekend I sat down and watched "A Futile and Stupid Gesture". This movie has been on my list since it came out in late 2018, but I just never got around to it. Other stuff came up, other shows were on, I forgot about it and then this past weekend, I noticed it was still streaming, and I just happened to have two spare hours. So, I finally watched it.

I am bummed it took me so long to watch this great movie. This one is totally on me. I should have watched it in 2018 because I really, really enjoyed this movie. For those that may not know, "A Futile and Stupid Gesture" is about the creation of the National Lampoon magazine, and the people who helped create it. And for those that may not know what National Lampoon is or was, it was a parody magazine, and then it became a movie making studio, creating "Animal House" and "Caddyshack" along the way. The leads, Domhall Gleeson as Henry Beard, and Will Forte as Doug Kenney, were great. Gleeson was very monotone and gave one word answers and never really changed his facial expression. He also happened to be extremely funny, and knew how to run a business. Forte, who I am a big time fan of, was perfectly cast as the wild and crazy and equally hilarious Kenney. Doug Kenney was the idea man, who would go for it no matter how many people told him no. He never quit. He was also heavily into drugs, was not the greatest husband at all and went a little too nuts sometimes. But hey, he co created National Lampoon, and he wrote both "Animal House" and "Caddyshack". He gave us two of the greatest comedies of all time. It takes a little crazy to pull that off. "A Futile and Stupid Gesture" is Kenney's story too. This is a dramatized autobiography of his life, that he personally cut short. This movie gave Forte a chance to shine, and he totally nailed it. As I said, he was perfectly cast, and for someone so self centered and egotistical, I rooted for him at times, and was saddened by the end. Forte brought that to this movie.

While Gleeson, and more so, Forte really shined, the rest of the cast was awesome. Thomas Lennon as Michale O'Donoghue was almost as perfect as Forte. He was rude, crude and crazy. Natasha Lyonne as Anne Beats, especially in her intro scene, was stupendous. Matt Lucas, you all may know him as Rebel Wilson's writing partner, was great as Tony Hendra, the English comic who had to leave Ed Sullivan because it wasn't edgy enough for him. Neil Casey was excellent as the weird and crazy and odd, but also hilarious, Brian McConnachie. Ed Helms popped us as Tom Snyder in a hilarious scene. And all the people they got to play the really famous people, the people who did the radio show, and then ended up on "SNL", were great. They were cast as to not look like the people they portrayed either. Jackie Tohn was Gilda Radner, Jon Daly was Bill Murray, Seth Green was Chris Guest, John Gemberling portrayed John Belushi, Rick Glassman was Harold Ramis and Joel McHale totally knocked it out of the park as Chevy Chase. None may have looked like the people they played, but boy did they crush everything else. Gemberling did a great Belushi when Belushi did Joe Cocker. I already mentioned McHale's performance. Tohn was as funny as I imagine Radner was. Daly did some excellent imitations of Murray on the "Caddyshack" set. And Glassman as Ramis was pitch perfect. That was one of the many things I loved about this movie, was the talk of all the very famous, very important comedy people that got their start at National Lampoon. It helped that I just read a book on "SNL", and watched the "BELUSHI" doc on Showtime because all this is fresh in my mind, but I think the way they showed it would help someone new to this.

While this is a very funny movie about very funny people, there is heavy stuff. Kenney was not a good husband, and this movie shows that. He wasn't a great friend either. He also made life hard for a lot of people that counted on him. He constantly lived in his brother's shadow, even though his brother passed when he was a kid. His parents were tough on him. And, spoiler alert, although it is common knowledge among comedy fans, Kenney did die young. Some say suicide, others say to was an accident caused by too many drugs. Glassman as Ramis said it best at the funeral, and supposedly this was a true statement, when asked how he thought he died, he said, "he probably fell while looking for a place to jump". That was a pretty telling statement coming from Ramis. It kind of perfectly encapsulates his life.

I highly recommend fans of comedy definitely check out this movie, but I also think it could pull in some outside fans. I think people that like decent biopics will enjoy it. People who like Foret will love. And people who lived in that generation will most likely have a good time with it. I know I loved it, and I think you will too. Give it a shot if you haven't already, if only for Forte's performance.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Great Movie Comedies Vol 1: "Caddyshack" & "The Big Lebowski"

The greatest jokes ever live on the reels

As you all know by now, I'm a fan of comedy. I've written and talked about it a ton both on the site and podcast. I love stand up comedy, television comedy and, today's topic, comedy movies.

Today I'm going to talk about 2 specific comedies that I adore, but there's so many others I could talk about. Movies like "Billy Madison", "This is Spinal Tap", "What We Do In The Shadows", "Napoleon Dynamite", the list could go on for days. Those are all great and all classics. I really love a good comedy. A movie that makes me belly laugh and doesn't take it self to seriously, it gets no better than that. A great example of that, "Anchorman", but that's not one of the two I will talk about today, but it deserves mentioning. There are also older, classic comedies that still hold up to this day. Movies like "Some Like It Hot" or "Duck Soup" or "Kentucky Fried Movie". All older, but all still absolutely great and worth checking out. But, the two I want to specifically talk about today are "Caddyshack" and "The Big Lebowski". Not only are these two of my favorite comedies, they're two of my favorite movies of all time. They're both timeless, hilarious and just flat out well made movies. Everyone involved with both movies really hit a home run. The actors, writers, producers and directors really struck gold.

Let's first talk about "Caddyshack". This has to be one of the most quotable movies ever made. Talk to anyone that's seen it and I guarantee they will quote something from "Caddyshack". There is so many famous lines and speeches in this movie. Bill Murray has multiple moments that are absolutely splendid. Take any scene, be it when he is pretending he's at the Masters and smashing flowers or when he is ogling the older women and telling them to "bark like a dog for me" or when he cleans the pool after what is believed to be feces floating around and he picks it up, smells it and takes a bite and exclaims that everything is okay and the rich lady passes out. Bill Murray is the star of this movie by far. But, we get excellent performances from Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, Michael O'Keefe, Sarah Holcomb and Rodney Dangerfield. Chevy Chase and Rodney Dangerfield are phenomenal in this movie. They too, much like Murray, have equally quotable lines and moments. Chevy Chase's scene when he is putting and talking to Danny Noonan(O'Keefe) about life and handing him lessons is very, very funny. And everything Dangerfield does in this movie is comedy gold. Rodney Dangerfield truly did not get the respect that he deserved. He is one of the greatest comedy actors of all time. "Caddyshack" is a classic.

"The Big Lebowski" is almost the exact opposite of "Caddyshack", but that doesn't make it less funny. Where "Caddyshack" had great improvisers and great comic actors, "The Big Lebowski" is one of the best written comedies of all time. The Cohen Brothers dabbled in comedy, with the excellent "Raising Arizona", but they're more known for their more dramatic stuff. What makes "The Big Lebowski" great, they blend drama, action, and most importantly, comedy to perfection. This has to be one of the weirdest, yet most hilarious movies I've ever watched. It is so good. It starts out great and continues to be great for two hours. It's also very weird, but that adds to its charm. Any scene involving Jeffrey Lebowski(Jeff Bridges) and Maude(Julianne Moore) is absurdist comedy gold. The scene when the two of them are talking about sex and her weird roommate is just sitting there listening, reading and laughing is genius. It's so bizarre, yet hilarious at the same time. John Goodman and Steve Busecmi are spectacular in this movie too. Goodman is the loud and obnoxious ex Vietnam vet and he is so good. When he pulls the gun on the guy for going over the line and forces him to mark it 0 is awesome. Also, when he talks about "the Jesus"(John Turturro), and his troubled criminal past, absolutely hysterical. Busecmi is great as their quiet bowling buddy that just wants to be involved. The arguments he and Goodman get into are great. Phillip Seymour Hoffman is also very good in his limited role and so is Tara Reid. But, Jeff Bridges is the star and he totally nails this character. He's so good, I associate Bridges as "The Dude", no matter what role he's playing. Everything he does is memorable and he is very believable as this stoner stuck in a crazy situation. And what makes is so well written as I wrote earlier is, everything that comes out of the actors mouths was all written. There's no improvising in a movie that seems it's almost exclusively improvised. That's some next level writing and the Cohen's are some of the best. "The Big Lebowski" is a terrific and bizarre comedy that everyone should see.

These are just two of my favorites, but I wanted to single these two out because they're different, yet equally hilarious. If you haven't seen either of them, stop what you're doing and watch them now. When you are done laughing, you will be thanking me.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast. Tomorrow you can hear Ty talk all about great comedy movies on The X Millennial Man Podcast. Ty is on twitter, go follow him @tykulik.