Decades from now, how will film historians and cinephiles look back upon pandemic-era cinema, specifically those films centered around COVID-19 itself? There have been some true cinematic standouts set within our “new world” thus far, most notably Steven Soderbergh’s Kimi, as well as some remarkable duds. Judd Apatow’s latest, The Bubble, firmly falls into the latter category, redeemed mostly by its baffling, yet compelling, decision-making.
Baffling might not even be a strong enough word for the incessant head-scratching and WTF responses the movie elicits from the viewer. The production was announced in November 2020, which feels like five years ago, and in turn the movie feels like it adds another decade to the absolute incomprehensible nature of time’s passing that we’ve all experienced within the pandemic. Inspired by the filming of Jurassic World Dominion and its bubble-based production during the pandemic, The Bubble follows the cast and crew of Cliff Beasts 6: Battle for Everest: Memories of a Requiem, which is noted as the “23rd biggest blockbuster franchise” and follows a group of explorers amidst flying, dino-like cliff creatures. The ensemble includes Karen Gillan, David Duchovny, Leslie Mann, Keegan-Michael Key, Guz Khan, Iris Apatow and Pedro Pascal, with each character given a couple thinly conceived quirks and a flimsy arc to carry them through this 126-minute journey of comedic life support.
There’s a lot of gold to mine here, but everybody brought toothpicks instead of pickaxes. The lampooning of modern blockbuster franchise filmmaking feels half-baked and lazy, with many segments feeling like an SNL digital short as opposed to a Hollywood film. As the cast films scenes on set, The Bubble interweaves their on-set experience with what the final product will look like, and even in a satirical nature there’s no way that a movie as shitty looking as Cliff Beasts 6 would ever claim an audience amidst the superhero powerhouses and multi-million dollar productions going against it. And speaking of looking like shit, this direct-to-Netflix comedy feels equally dull in its visuals, helped in no way by the terrible compression and compromises of streaming.
And as has always been Apatow’s Achilles Heel, the length here serves nobody any favors aside from Netflix shareholders looking at app use statistics. Overlong and exhausting, The Bubble grinds its gears for far too long in its buildup of pre-production quarantining and setups for subplots that only add to the gratuitous running time, and then completely loses itself as it tries to bring everything to a satisfying conclusion. There’s a stretch in the back half where things become absolutely unhinged plot-wise. An out-of-tone violent moment, a nightmare-inducing drug trip sequence utilizing deep fakes, and a chaotic juggling of a dozen different subplots all provide a fascinating watch, but in all the wrong ways.
It comes off unlike anything Apatow has made before, and easily feels like his worst film, and the screenplay (co-written by Pam Brady) just doesn’t know when to say enough is enough. In fact, the funniest thing this movie managed to produce is the current Wikipedia disclaimer before its plot summary, which reads “This section’s plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed. Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise.”
If only Apatow had followed this advice before making the movie. Or, he could have never made it at all. A bonus scene within the credits finds film director Darren Eigen (Fred Armisen) touting the importance of art as “distraction” in these trying times, and it just feels like the movie making excuses for itself. Some may surely get a kick out of Apatow’s latest, but for many, that kick feels like a foot straight up the ass.
Photo courtesy of Netflix
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