A Futile and Stupid Gesture review

A Futile and Stupid Gesture is a film about National Lampoon co-founder Doug Kenney, and his struggles with the success of the magazine.

As someone who knows very little about National Lampoon (I've seen parts of Christmas Vacation, and I've seen the dog magazine cover), I found this film quite interesting and enjoyable.

Part of that must be attributed to David Wain. I like his style of humour, the Wet Hot American Summer trilogy is hilarious, and Role Models is pretty good. Luckily, his style of humour is prevalent here, and there are many good jokes. There is, of course, jokes about the biopic nature, narrative structure, and narrative devices of the film. Although, I found one of the narrative devices problematic and confusing towards the end.

In between the jokes are the usual biopic parts. They are mostly fine up until towards the end; where it quickly goes from dramatic comedy to pure drama. If David Wain had done drama before, then this might have worked better. But, since he has worked almost exclusively in comedy until now, it feels a bit jarring.

Although, this part does really show off how good Will Forte is in the role of Doug Kenney. He is good throughout the whole film, but in the last 15-20 minutes he really excels as a depressed addict.

In addition to Forte, there are a lot of really good actors in the film. Domhnall Gleeson is great (as usual) as the National Lampoon's co-founder. Jon Daly does a particularly impressive impression of Bill Murray. And Joel McHale is surprisingly brutal in how dark his portrayal of Chevy Chase is.

In short: This is a solid and effective comic drama about a man whose success ultimately betrays him.