Brigsby Bear Is a Celebration of Filmmaking and Life
Brigsby Bear tells the strange story of Jake (Kyle Mooney) who, as an infant, was kidnapped by Ted (Mark Hamill) and April Mitchum (Jane Adams). For 25 years, Ted & April have isolated him in a bunker and create a “dystopian”-esque story for him to never leave the bunker. Ted creates a show called Brigsby Bear only destined for James, as he disappeared with his wife in 1987. When the police finally finds James and arrests Ted & April, they bring him back to his real parents (Matt Walsh & Michaela Watkins) who can’t seem to understand James’ obssession with the “one-viewer” TV show. He decides, after watching a movie in the theater, to make a Brigsby Bear Adventures feature film.
At its core, Brigsby Bear is incredibly strange. Jake has never experienced life in general, which has severely impaired his mental state and communication skills, as his only source of entertainment he’s known his whole life was the Brigsby Bear show which was made up by Ted. In a sense, Ted & April have mentally abused James and made sure he was never going to function properly in society. You feel a lot for Jake as he’s trying to make his way into proper society. One scene in particular radically changes Jake’s viewpoint of life, when he goes to a party after being invited by his biological sister (Ryan Simpkins). He gets drunk and high off drugs, without asking anyone what all of that is. He goes with the flow, repeats “dope as shit” from Spencer (Jorge Lenderborg Jr.) without knowing what the sentence actually means. The scene can play off as funny, awkward, cringeworthy, but, in reality, it’s quite depressing, as he has never experienced a party in his life before and doesn’t understand anything that’s happening. It’s quite sad, because the world revolved around Brigsby Bear, and now that he learns from a psychologist (Claire Danes) that the show was a complete fabrication to mentally abuse Jake and to isolate him, how can he cope with life?
The performances are of high-caliber, especially Kyle Mooney who is able to portray awkward, socially inept, mentally challenged, but also charming, sweet, funny, creative, brimming with imagination. He doesn’t know the “proper” way to make a film or to search google: “How do I make good explosions? Thank you.” However, it doesn’t matter, since his imagination fills his view on life. Which is why the movie ends up being a success. Mark Hamill is also excellent, especially when you see him doing the voice of Brigsby Bear. I had a purely emotional reaction when I saw Hamill doing the voice, because Mark Hamill doing voices is absolutely godly (especially The Joker). The biggest surprise, however, comes with Greg Kinnear’s Detective Vogel who is Jake’s guide on life, and not his new parents. He asks him to portray Feldo Mortese and Vogel perfectly bathes in the character. It makes for very funny comedy.
With great performances, a good music score and a touching and heartfelt story, the main problem that Brigsby Bear has is a predictable and formulaic story. Once everything is set in motion, you can almost predict everything that’s going to happen. 2017 has, I think, brought us too many predictable & formulaic movies. We need to move away from that. There are some sequences which I found quite useless and could’ve been cut out, such as a wild cameo from Andy Samberg as a mentally disturbed Eric. He adds nothing to the movie and actually brings it down. However, the movie should be watched if you are a future filmmaker or someone who loves being creative. It’s a celebration of creative filmmaking and living your own life your way. And for that reason only, Brigsby Bear should be sought-out.
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