What I’m watching: an interesting and sometimes funny comedy

Date: 4/12/2022

On Netflix: “The Bubble”

Writer, director, producer Judd Apatow’s new film is supposed to be a biting satire of Hollywood in the coronavirus pandemic, and while it succeeds at points, the length of the film and its unevenness keeps it as from being as sharp and funny as I’m sure the filmmaker intended.

It’s not a bad film, but it’s not as good as it should be given the cast, the concept and Apatow’s comedy smarts.

Based on the experience of housing an entire cast in a hotel for the production of “Jurassic World Domination,” Apatow creates a comic version of how movies had to be made in the coronavirus pandemic prior to the vaccine.

Some might say it’s too soon to make a pandemic comedy, but at its core the film is about spoiled and vapid actors who clearly don’t understand the magnitude of working during an event that could kill them. The film also pokes fun at the studio that feels compelled financially to make the sixth sequel in a silly action franchise.

The film stars Karen Gillan, Pedro Pascal, Fred Armisen, Leslie Mann, David Duchovny and Keegan-Michael Key as the cast of the film. It’s a fine cast who try their mightiest with the material.

Watch for a variety of cameos throughout the film.

The focus of the film should have been sharply satiric, and when the film stays on the Hollywood material, I truly enjoyed it. For instance, Armisen plays the film’s director. He formerly sold tile at Home Depot and made a film on his cell phone that became the toast of the Sundance Film Festival. In his first Hollywood film he’s stuck directing the sixth installment in a lame action series. His character devolves from being a nice guy who knows indie cinema to a guy who is determined to complete a film regardless of its terrible script.
At the end of the film, it’s revealed the director is now working on a film based on the candy Skittles. I loved that it’s the kind of thinking that exists in Hollywood. I was wondering if some producer watching the film would see that satiric jab as something that is actually plausible.

I also liked the idea of the cast including a TikTok star with no acting experience who isn’t really sure why she is there and who has no idea of the “old” people with which she’s working. It would be a typical Hollywood movie to do just that kind of casting.
It’s these moments in the film that I liked a great deal.

The problem with the film is it’s too long, at more than two hours, and it attempts to portray some of the actors as “real” people. Gillan’s character alternates between being a self-indulgent performer and a sort-of sympathetic character, and the switch-up doesn’t always work.

Sequences such as when the cast has a drug-addled party just slowed down the film and while it had a couple of laughs, it really didn’t contribute to the story.
Making fun of Hollywood and filmmaking is nothing new. One of my favorite 1970s movies, “Hollywood Boulevard,” did that very well. I’m afraid I was expecting something consistently sharper from Apatow.

I give Apatow an “A” for his effort to make a pandemic comedy, but the film is not quite up to his standards.

If you love Hollywood movies, you’ll get a laugh or two from this film, but you should be getting more.