by Shane Conto, Staff Writer
Where to even start with this film? The best place to start is the amount of talent that went into it. With The Bubble, Netflix offers up a new satire that takes shots at the film industry and life during COVID. You have a director like Judd Apatow who has offered up some of the best comedies in the 21st century. He has plenty left in the tank too with films like The King of Staten Island coming out recently. Then there is the cast: Karen Gillan, Pedro Pascal, Leslie Mann, Iris Apatow, and plenty more. There are some top-notch comedians for that matter, including Keegan-Michael Key and Fred Armisen. They all play actors from a giant dinosaur movie franchise forced to film together in a bubble environment during COVID.
With all of this going for it, how did it go so wrong? This could have been the next Tropic Thunder (another film that really should not have worked, but is a modern comedy classic). But Apatow puts out his single worst directing performance to date. This feels so uninspired. For such a condensed film, there is no energy. There is no drive. This film wanders around for the full runtime offering up little to enjoy. Most of the comedy is low brow (people getting sick and throwing up in each other’s faces is the real low). The satire is as blunt as a hammer while offering no fresh perspective whatsoever. The filmmaking is also low quality. The editing is cheap and without finesse. Each shot feels cut together by a two-year-old. The visual effects are those out of a straight to VOD monster flick instead of a big Netflix production. Oh… and it is not funny AT ALL.
What is this film even about? The story is quite simple. They are making a movie, and everything goes wrong. Not so surprising. What is surprising is how little of consequence happens. There just seems to be a random bunch of skits that are unfunny and downright weird. Pedro Pascal and a workout app… that’s all I have to say. The film is a string of segments that are too weird and awkward to work, or so lazy that you have probably seen them 50 times in other films. The script is so uninspired that I am shocked that Apatow wrote it. In the end, not a single character is even funny or likable. There is not a single character to care about… so what is the point?
Can any of these talented actors make anything of the film? Iris Apatow (of all of them) is quite a bit of fun. Maybe the lack of expectations since she is not an A-list actor just lets her have as much fun as possible. You can tell actors like Gillan and Pascal give it their all in certain moments, but the film gives them zero good material to work with. Workout apps. That is all (I promise). Honestly, all these talented actors probably got paid handsomely and had a good time together, so it worked out for them. Just not for us.
Is The Bubble worth the time and effort to stream? No.
Score: 2/10
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