A Futile and Stupid Gesture

So I'm going to be honest, the only reason I got interested in this movie in the first place was because I'm a fan of Joel Mchale and I know a lot about the behind the scenes rivalry between him and Chevy Chase on my favorite show Community. So I was really looking forward to seeing him play Chevy in this movie. I ended up with a decent movie watching experience about a topic I really didn't know too much about, National Lampoon.

So I might be showing my age, but I didn't grow up watching The National Lampoon movies or the movies of Doug Kinney. I have seen both Animal House and Caddy Shack but any movie with the National Lampoon title on it, I have not seen. To be honest, I wasn't wild about Animal House of Caddy Shack so I don't think that many of the other Lampoon movies are going to really be my cup of tea, but this movie has made me at least a little bit interested in checking out the brand, if not taking a second look at Caddy Shack. But this review is about A Futile and Stupid Gesture.

A Futile and Stupid Gesture is a biopic about the life of Doug Kinney (played by Will Forte). I didn't know a whole lot about Kinney and if you don't either, I suggest you come into this movie with as little information as possible. The movie makes no illusions about accuracy. It even has a scene where the narrator points out how the actors used in this movie don't exactly look like who they're portraying and how certain plot points in the movie were put in to make the movie flow better, it fit for dramatic effect, or just because they felt like it. If you saw this movie with all the information, feel free to let me know what that experience was like and if the movie suffered because of it.

The story centers around Doug Kinney as he goes to Harvard and meets Henry Beard (played by Domhnall Gleason). The two write for the Harvard Lampoon, a comedy magazine and instead of going off and getting real jobs after college, they continue writing the raunchy juvenile magazine that soon became a hit throughout the 70s and eventually ballooned into a company that created radio shows, movies, and competed with the comedy of legends like Saturday Night Live.

And while I said that I didn't know a whole lot about Doug Kinney, I do know a little bit (and by a little bit I mean I recognize their names and some stuff they've been in) about the famous people mentioned in this movie like John Bellusi (played by John Gemberling), Bill Murray (played by Jon Daly), Gilda Radner (Jackie Tohn), Harold Ramis (played by Rick Glassman), Lorne Michaels (played Armen Weitzman), and Chevy Chase (played by Joel McHale). These are just the big names, there are a lot of people who I had no idea who they were and they did a pretty good job filling me in.

Together, this group of comedians who just pushed every limit and didn't care who hated them were able to create a hugely popular magazine and comedy empire.

This movie probably has the same problem that the Ashton Kutcher Steve Jobs movie had that so much was in the film that you could have made multiple films on individual parts of Kinney's life.

There's a whole scene where he gets pissed off that all his talent is being vultured by Saturday Night Live and I'm sure that could be an entire movie right there... unless that wasn't a big thing I don't know.

My point is that there was a lot going on in this movie and it spanned over the course of about 20 or 30 years in a 101 minute movie.

I think the main appeal of this movie is the cast and the great performances you get out of them. And while you have Domhnall Gleason being Academy Award winning films, and Star Wars, you have comedic actors like Will Forte and Joel McHale actually giving pretty decent performances that are also really funny.

The movie is really all over the place and it probably could have been a little bit more focused, but I don't think enough people have seen this movie. I think if they did you'd get a lot of people enjoying it a lot.

But this is kind of where there's a little bit of a problem with A Futile and Stupid Gesture and why I have a hard time recommending it (even though I ultimately will). The movie is very cavalier about facts. And that wouldn't be a huge deal if these guys weren't being portrayed as flawed visionaries who were bucking the system. I think you definitely need to keep things in perspective when watching this movie.

I will admit that National Lampoon did seem to create a vital counter culture in a time where America needed a counter culture. I don't know how wide reaching National Lampoon actually was but the movie makes it seem like it was pretty far. And unfortunately this becomes an issue with the environment that the movie even admits (in a note that you need to pause to actually read) that things were pretty racist and sexist, more than what is actually portrayed.

Now this delves into another issue about humor of the past in a politically correct world and I just don't have time to get into that, but National Lampoon is an example of that change in humor, where in the past something was funny and now it's not. I'm of the philosophy that we shouldn't get up too up in arms over something someone did in the past that was politically incorrect. I also think we should be able to discern the shitty parts from the good parts but that is difficult to do, especially if the subject is not seen as acceptable or correct anymore, and National Lampoon is a good example of that.

The movie paints Lorne Michaels as a bit of a vulture, picking off Kinney's talent, but in reality SNL was able to capitalize on that humor and make it transcend the decade. I think it comes down to legacy, and the fact that Van Wilder became the modern face of National Lampoon in the new century points towards National Lampoon just not having the same quality it (arguably) had.

I might be totally wrong on this and I intend to do more research into National Lampoon so undoubtedly you'll probably see a couple of National Lampoon movies (especially the Vacation ones) being reviewed in the near future, but while National Lampoon has an interesting history, it's kind of in a predicament like that of The Greatest Showman where the main character or his magazine were not really filled with good people, so how do you portray that in a biopic?

I don't really know the answer to that question.

All that being said, this is a pretty interesting movie with some good character performances. You just can't think too hard about it on both its historical facts and the legacy of the subject.

I really want Netflix to succeed with their original movies. This is a task that I'm not totally sure they are doing because while I think they're on the right track, there's always something pulling them back. They definitely put in the effort, but they haven't been able to knock any really great movies out of the park except for maybe Beasts of No Nation. I think you will probably enjoy A Futile and Stupid Gesture due to the cast and the wacky style this biopic takes, but I wouldn't put it at the top of your list. It's decent, not a movie you absolutely need to see right away.

But what did you think? Do you think I'm judging National Lampoon too harshly? Let me know. Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as send me your requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks, I'll see you next time.