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CAST: Dave Franco, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Mason Thames, Kiernan Shipka, Nicholas Braun, Peter Dinklage. Written, produced, and directed by Macon Blair.
REVIEW: Despite its title, “Idiots” is a smart cultural commentary that examines the haves and the have-nots.
Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. play unemployed odd couple Mark and Davis. Mark’s poor impulse control cost him his call centre job while the earnest and awkward Davis was cut loose from his church after subjecting the Bible Studies kids to a screening of Lars von Trier’s “Antichrist,” mistakenly thinking it was an educational movie about the life of Jesus.
To make ends meet they take jobs as drivers for a shady transport service. “You know what we do here? Drive rich kids to rehab.” It’s a tricky gig with lots of loopholes. Chief among the one-sided rules were the provisos that they, and they alone, would be legally responsible for their cargo from the beginning of the trip until drop off and they won’t be paid until the job is over.
Their first assignment pairs them with Sheridan Kimberley (Mason Thames), an amoral trust fund kid who’ll do anything to avoid going to rehab. A delay caused by a flat tire sends them off on an odyssey that sees the unlikely trio up against Irina (Kiernan Shipka), an exotic dancer who makes house calls, a militia that includes Peter Dinklage and Pricka Bush Da Werewoof (Nicholas Braun), a lycan-obsessed SoundCloud rapper who is convinced the drivers have kidnapped the troublemaking teen. “That kid made a fool of me,” Mark, “and I will take his scalp for that. And that is not a metaphor.”
“Idiots” isn’t exactly a buddy comedy. It’s not consistently funny enough to earn that title.
Instead, it’s a dark, unpredictable look, with some funny, raunchy moments, at privilege, inequality and decency. Director and screenwriter Macon Blair isn’t afraid to play some scenes for sheer comedic shock value, but he’s also unafraid to weave some bleak social commentary in the story’s fabric.
Mason Thames plays Sheridan Kimberley as the poster boy for toxicity, a smirking rich kid whose consequence free behaviour has made him an internet sensation with one million followers. Sociopathic and remorseless, he forces the “idiots”—Mark and Davis—to confront their place on the food chain. Despite despicable behavior, Sheridan is insulated by money against any repercussions. Mark and Davis, however, are left to pay the price for Sheridan’s actions.
The social commentary isn’t subtle but Thames, best known for his work in “The Black Phone” and the live-action “How to Train Your Dragon,” doesn’t play Sheridan as a moustache twirling baddie. Instead, he’s even more insidious, someone who feigns vulnerability, who lies and cheats through a smile.
The secret sauce, however, is the relationship between Mark and Davis. Polar opposites, there is comedy to be mined from the differences, but it is in the unlikely bond that grows between them that the movie finds its heart.
“Idiots” feels stretched in its final third, but up until then is a sporadically funny socially aware reinvention of the buddy comedy.
SYNOPSIS: In “The Toxic Avenger,” a remake of the 1984 Troma Films gross-out classic, Peter Dinklage plays a down-on-his-luck janitor transformed by radioactive gunk into the mutated superhero, The Toxic Avenger.
CAST: Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne, Elijah Wood, and Kevin Bacon. Directed by Macon Blair.
REVIEW: A modern-day adaptation of the goofy and gory 1984 film of the same name, “The Toxic Avenger” updates the story, but maintains the original’s glorious bad taste.
At the heart of both films is an underdog janitor who uses his newfound powers to fight corruption and abuse of power, but the circumstances are different.
Originally, the main character Melvin (Mark Torgl) was a bullied outcast who, once transformed by a dip in a vat of toxic waste, meted out vigilante justice to get revenge on the baddies who terrorized him and his hometown of Tromaville.
In the new movie Peter Dinklage is Winston Gooze, janitor for corporate behemoth BTH by night, single father to a teenage son Wade (Jacob Tremblay) by day. Diagnosed with a terminal illness, he’s terrified of leaving his son without a father. In desperation he approaches BTH head honcho Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon) to beg for help. In short order he finds himself left for dead in a pool of BTH toxic goo which transforms him into The Toxic Avenger. With his trusty mop, Winston fights to create a future for Wade.
There may be a deeper emotional core to the contemporary Toxie tale, but along with the family drama comes wonderfully over-the-top juvenile humor, exploding heads and bloody mop wounds that need to be seen to be believed.
Director Macon Blair is reverential in his handling of the material. He embraces the shocking schlock of the original, with a cavalcade of practical effects and ridiculous jokes that ensure the spirit of Troma Films lives on. It’s a gory good time with a better-than-expected cast (Dinklage, Bacon and Elijah Wood are having fun here) that doesn’t cater to a mainstream audience.
Fans of midnight movies will be in on the joke, all others, approach with caution.
