★★★★☆
WHO or what exactly is Brigsby Bear? We’re chucked into the quirky and endearing world of this indie comedy-drama as if we should be aware of the character that, as we soon discover, is actually the focus of a children’s TV show. For 25-year-old James, the giant bear is everything.
Played by the film’s co-writer and Saturday Night Live alumni Kyle Mooney, James is a man-child who doesn’t realise that he was kidnapped when he was an infant by a highly eccentric couple named Ted and April Mitchum (Mark Hamill and Jane Adams). They raised him entirely within the confines of an underground desert bunker and taught him their idiosyncratic view of the world via the Brigsby Bear Adventures show that they created for an audience of one.
When his captors are finally arrested he is returned to his understandably fraught biological parents, Greg and Louise (Matt Walsh and Michaela Watkins), and rebellious younger sister Aubrey (Ryan Simpkins), who do their best to welcome him back home.
As a way to cope and keep spiritually in touch with the only world he truly understands, he decides to finish the Brigsby Bear Adventures on his own by making a film version, with the assistance of understanding policeman and former actor Detective Vogel (Greg Kinnear) who helps him reacquire the show’s sets and costumes.
Dave McCary’s film is juggling many different tones, styles and messages at once here. But they’re handled with surprising deftness, striking a balance of quietly thought-provoking topicality, charming eccentricity and genuinely laugh-out-loud gags.
It mines a lot out of his fish-out-of-water experience. We’re laughing at his perceivably oddball behaviour to a certain extent; his entire world view is filtered through the simplistic life lessons of his adored TV show, with often cringe-worthy results. But the film is never mean-spirited, always keeping an eye on the idea that not everyone experiences the world the same and that a little understanding goes a long way.
It’s also a smart critique of modern-day pop culture consumerism and a heartfelt ode to wide-eyed DIY creativity.
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