Do you remember the pandemic? Do you remember Tropic Thunder? Do you wish they remade Tropic Thunder, but it takes place during the pandemic? Well you’re in luck because they remade Tropic Thunder, but it’s longer, less funny and mostly about the pandemic. And we talk about it on today’s Movie Tuesday.
Today we will be reviewing The Bubble. It is a 2022 movie currently available on Netflix. It is a comedy about an ensemble cast making an action movie in a COVID pandemic bubble. This movie is directed by Judd Apatow. You may remember other movies he directed like the 40-year-old Virgin and Knocked Up. I always thought he did Superbad and Pineapple Express too, but he was just the producer and not the director. So, despite having a hand in some of the funniest movies of the century, he hasn’t directed a whole lot of bangers. I’ll get into that later when I discuss both the strengths and weaknesses of this movie.
But first, I gotta talk about the Slap heard round the world.
When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock, Judd Apatow was one of the first to weigh in on Twitter and his condemnation was swift and fierce.
He said:
They’ve heard a million jokes about them in the last three decades. They are not freshman in the world of Hollywood and comedy. He lost his mind
I have more hair on my back than on my head and I can take a joke about it.
And…
Seems like Will Smith’s plan to get comedians and the world to not make jokes about him is not going to pan out. The Williams family must be furious. Pure narcissism. Also- GI Jane was gorgeous. What exactly is insulting about being compared to a ripped, stunning, Demi?
He very quickly deleted the tweets and backtracked and equivocated and then found a comfortable fence to sit on. Which is fine, I’m sure that his gut reaction was not the most strategic career move. Bad mouthing Hollywood royalty is dangerous, even if you’re right. But I will point out another reason he may have backtracked. It’s just a theory, but it’s my theory, so I’m probably right. It’s the glass-houses theory.
You see, Leslie Mann, Judd Apatow’s wife, has appeared in just about every movie he has made. She’s in the Bubble. And so is Iris Apatow, his daughter. She is, in fact, one of the main characters. I remember her as the kid in the back seat in Knocked Up saying that she googled murder. That may have been the other daughter, I don’t know. But now she plays the TikTok teen in this film. And, I bring this up because it pertains to the movie, but also, because I believe that on some level, Apatow and Smith are kindred spirits.
Apatow, like Smith wants what’s best for his children. Will Smith conjured careers for his son and daughter out of thin air. Anyone who has seen After Earth knows that his kid isn’t that talented. But, bringing your family along on your Hollywood journey exposes you to a level of vulnerability and scrutiny that may be easy to face on your own, but becomes exponentially harder when the people you love are involved. So, while I am sure there was some Hollywood career-based strategic consideration for Apatow in taking down the tweets, there was also an element of familial preservation. By going in hard against Smith, he was allowing for a critical open season on his wife and child in his new movie. And there is a lot to criticize.
That’s not to say that Leslie Mann is bad. I always saw her as the Sherie Moon-Zombie of comedy. People criticize the acting of Sherie Moon-Zombie, but I always thought she was great in House of 1000 Corpses, The Devils Rejects and Lords of Salem. She was the right actor for the right situation and Leslie Mann fits that bill in the Apatow projects. Comedy actors for comedy movies, horror actors for horror movies. You dig?
Iris Apatow does fine too. But, the fact that she gets three professionally produced Tik Tok dance breaks in this movie is a little cringe inducing. It’s a bit like a wink and a nod to new media, but the earnestness with which the dances are choreographed and produced makes it seem like the movie is a vehicle to boost Iris Apatow’s profile in both traditional and new media. Which would be fine, if the dances didn’t stick out like a sore thumb.
Also, musical numbers are often used to pad the runtime, but this movie is already painfully long. The official runtime is 2 hours 6 minutes. That is at least 30 minutes too long. Honestly, the 90 minute comedy is a perfect length. There is a little leeway in either direction but selecting a movie based on runtime on Netflix is a real thing. This one is not just too long, it feels too long. They could have accomplished the same exact movie in 90 minutes for sure. It becomes a total slog about halfway through.
I am sure part of the reason for the padded length was the desire of everyone in the ensemble cast to have something to do. If you look at the cast on IMDB, David Duchovny and Fred Armisen are not even on the ‘Top Cast’ page. There are too many characters with too little to do. I count the named cast at 41 actors. And, this movie committed the cardinal sin of screenwriting. There was no protagonist.
Karen Gillan’s character, Carol Cobb, is set up in the opening of the movie to be the protagonist. We get a scene with her and her agent. We see that she’s in a failing relationship and her career is on the rocks because she just did a movie called Jerusalem Rising where she plays a half-Israeli half-Palestinian woman who convinces the Israelis and Palestinians unite to fight aliens. The vignette of this movie was my favorite comedy set piece in the whole film. It reminded me of the faux movies from Tropic Thunder. You may not remember Jack Black’s movie, The Fatties: Fart 2, but I bet you remember Simple Jack.
Showing the clip from Jerusalem Rising gave us context for the character of Carol Cobb. We didn’t really get that context with anyone else. So, we had at least a dozen people we didn’t know or care about going through the same motions for two full hours. There are only so many ways you can say that you didn’t find a comedy funny. So I’ll just say it. I didn’t find this comedy all that funny.
I think there was supposed to be some satire with the studio executives and people on the board all in exotic locales while everyone else was locked down. However, when this movie was filmed, I was locked down and everyone involved in this movie’s production were gallivanting with 200 or so of their best friends at a beautiful estate in England. So, the satire was lost on me a bit. But, in the end, if you want to turn off your brain for 2 hours, you could do worse. I give this movie a C+. Goodbye.