Idiots is a comedy that has a decent premise—The Last Detail, except the guy being escorted is a teenage psychopath instead of a young sailor—and a half-dozen hilarious set pieces, most of which involve raunch and/or comedic violence. In between, is a lot of filler, with too many tonal shifts.
Directed by actor Macon Blair, who directed 2017’s I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore, Idiots debuted at Sundance in January, under the title The Shitheads, although that’s not something that can go on a movie theater marquee. The titular idiots/shitheads are Mark (Dave Franco) and Davis (O’Shea Jackson, Jr.), a couple of ne’er-do-wells who, as the movie opens, have been fired for very funny reasons.
While Mark is drinking and goofing off at work, Davis, formerly employed by a church group, took a group of kids to see Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist, thinking it was an earnest faith-based film. Since the film has been in the works for a number of years, with Tracy Morgan and Luke Wilson at one point attached, Antichrist was probably a much more recent movie when the script was first written. Adding to the metajoke, Von Trier also directed a film called The Idiots.
Forced into unemployed desperation, Mark and Davis sign up to work for a transport service, where they’re assigned to escort wealthy troubled teenager Sheridan Kimberley (Mason Thames) off to rehab. It turns out Sheridan’s a violent sociopath and commands a massive, cult-like social media following.
The Sheridan character seems based on the modern social media figure Clavicular, although since the movie was likely conceived years before the filmmakers even knew who Clavicular was, this is a happy coincidence.
Most of the plot consists of a series of chases and adventures, at different times pulling in a Russian stripper (Mad Men’s Kiernan Shipka) and a crew of kidnappers, led by Peter Dinklage and a white rapper played by Succession’s Nicholas Braun. Braun’s character’s name, “Pricka Bush Da Werewoof,” is funnier than anything he says or does. In fact, nothing involving the team of kidnappers led by Dinklage is as funny as that idea sounds.
I liked the main performances, especially Thames as the psycho; Shipka has graduated into a successful second career as a surprising sexpot, although her role on the most recent season of Industry was a more multi-faceted than this.
What’s the problem? The movie drags in its second half, especially when it tries to get serious and give the characters interiority. One of my favorite comedies, Role Models, is structured somewhat similarly, except that it handled the tonal shifts better and made me care, amid all the gags, about the fates of its characters.