A Futile and Stupid Gesture (2018)

As (Medicare) card carrying boomers, Jack and I liked this bio-pic, now streaming on Netflix, about Doug Kenney and his co-founding of the National Lampoon magazine and radio show and its connection with Saturday Night Live. Smart and irreverent folks act up in a smart and irreverent movie that pokes fun at itself as well. Will Forte (still starring in Last Man on Earth--66 episodes and counting--after his mention in Keanu) stars as Kenney in some awful wigs (although the hairstyles of the time were indeed often fashion crimes) and Domhnall Gleeson (last blogged for Goodbye Christopher Robin) is his best friend Henry Beard with his naturally red hair dyed dark brown, and their chemistry is spot on. Martin Mull (some of his best work includes 151 episodes of Mary Hartman and its two sequels (1976-78), Serial (1980--one of my personal favorites), Mr. Mom (1983), 46 episodes of the original Roseanne (1991-97), 73 of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch (1997-2000), 18 of The Ellen Show (2001-02), four of Life in Pieces (2015-17), and an Emmy-winning four episode series arc on Veep) narrates as "Modern Doug."

The huge cast also features Natasha Lyonne (I have enjoyed her work immensely in Krippendorf's Tribe (1998), Slums of Beverly Hills (1998), But I'm a Cheerleader (1999), one segment of If These Walls Could Talk 2 (2000), a couple of 2012 episodes of Weeds, Sleeping with Other People, Hello, My Name Is Doris, and, of course, 59 episodes of Orange is the New Black) as writer Anne Beatts and Joel McHale (last blogged for Ted) is a terrific Chevy Chase impersonator--even down to the voice. It didn't hurt that McHale and Chase worked together on 85 episodes of Community. The character of Michael O'Donoghue, the one whom I remember for several sick SNL sketches on one topic (here's an example), is well done by Thomas Lennon (after Mr. Peabody & Sherman he starred as Felix Unger in 38 episodes of The Odd Couple remake (2015-17), and more projects). There are just too many actors to go into them all.

Many SNL moments and other projects (e.g. Animal House (1978)) are recreated for the purposes of this movie. Director David Wain (last blogged for They Came Together) has a cameo as an interviewer, and screenwriters Michael Colton and John Aboud, who adapted the script from the carefully researched 2008 book of the same name by Josh Karp, appear briefly as art directors for the magazine.

We saw this three weeks ago and I don't remember the original music by Craig Wedren (covered in Wanderlust). I can't find any tracks from it anyway--his soundcloud page devotes lots of data to Wet Hot American Summer (2001) but none to this movie. As to be expected, though, there are lots of songs from the 60s and beyond, many listed on imdb and some streamable from this playlist.

Rotten Tomatoes' audiences, averaging 75%, liked it better than its critics at 61.

Don't turn off the TV right away after the movie, because, at the end of the credits, Martin Mull sings with/for the cast, some of whom look downright uncomfortable.