"Foolish Gesture " will be released on Netflix on January 26th and should be a must-see for any self-proclaimed comedy lover. Whether you take sketch comedy very seriously or you just choose to abandon your plans to watch Saturday Night Live every week, you'll find some fun in this film that chronicles National Lampoon founder Doug Kenney life. But how accurate are the futile and silly gestures ?
Netflix's new movie is based on journalist Josh Karp's 2006 book of the same name. According to a New York Times review of the biography, Karp referenced more than 100 interviews when writing the book, so there's no doubt about the source of the Netflix film, which is filled with material about Kenny's rise to becoming a comedy legend in the 1970s. True stories of characters. Not only did Kenny create the national edition of Harvard's humor publication, The Harvard Lampoon , but he also co-wrote the comedy classics "Animal House" and "Caddyshack."
Netflix's biopic has just one inaccuracy, and it's a pretty big one. The new film depicts present-day Doug Kenny (played by Martin Mull) as the narrator looking back on his life, but in fact, Kenny died tragically in 1980 after falling off a cliff in Hawaii.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly , the film's director David Wain explained that Marr's character "tells stories in a creative and unconventional way today, just like Doug Kenney was doing back then." is an admirable way of telling one's story, albeit a controversial one indeed.
"Foolish Gestures" includes a ragtag cast of characters, many of whom may be familiar names to comedy fans. Joel McHale stars as Chevy Chase, Jackie Thorne as Gilda Radner, Jon Daly as Bill Murray, and John Kimberlin as John Belushi. As you may know, Chase, Belushi and Murray all starred in movies Kenny co-wrote, while Lardner starred on Saturday Night Live in the 1970s. The fact that these real-life comedy legends were all important figures in Kenny's life is a testament to the writer's importance in the comedy landscape of this decade.
However, futility and silly gestures don't just characterize Kenny's burgeoning comedy career. Amy Rossum plays actress Catherine Walker, Kenny's girlfriend. According to a 1981 article published in Esquire and later republished in the Daily Beast , Kenney's frequent drug use, particularly cocaine, caused a rift in his relationship with Walker. Their complicated love story is depicted on screen.
As a result, "Futile and Foolish Gesture" not only highlights an exciting moment in Kenney's life, when National Lampoon earned cutting-edge petri dish status for big-name comedy writers, but also shows the darker side of Kenney's era. Substance use and strained relationships. Although the comedian's most famous films have stood the test of time, the pressure to outdo himself has been a huge burden for Kenny, The Daily Beast reports. "When the film was severely criticized, he despaired. 'They're going to hate me now,' [Kenny] told a friend," wrote Robert Sam Anson Fromm, who knew Kenny.
You might think that adding a vision of Kenny's present day, as well as Mal's character, would detract from the accuracy of "A Futile and Foolish Gesture ," but in a way it fits Kenny's way of thinking and presents an interesting , creative ways of telling stories. In the end, whatever trials Doug Kenney's life may have taken, this new Netflix movie focuses on the comedic genius' legacy, which happens to include a lot of vulgarity.
