Delayed Reaction: Brigsby Bear

Premise: A grown man finds out that he was kidnapped as a baby and his favorite TV program is a show that his fake parents made.

This is a weird movie that anyone who watches SNL will immediately identify as coming from the brain of Kyle Mooney (and his collaborators). He reminds me a lot of Will Forte. Both of those guys have a peculiar sense of humor. They like when things fall apart more than when they come together. Mooney in particular loves to find humor in amateurishness. So, Brigsby Bear makes a lot of sense. It's like Room meets Son of Rambow.

I don't like to do plot summaries for Delayed Reactions, since I assume people have either already seen the movie or don't mind getting spoiled, but I feel like it needs to be done for this one. Just so I can sit on how weird the idea is.

Kyle Mooney lives in a bunker in isolation with his parents. The set looks cheap. It's hard to say whether that's intentional or the filmmakers just didn't have a great budget. He's obsessed with a show called Brigsby Bear which is a daily children's show that's the only thing he watches. One day, the FBI raids his family's bunker. He finds out that he was kidnapped as a child and raised by these people who hid him for 3 decades. Also, it turns out that Bridgsby Bear is a show that his fake father made just for him. So, Mooney moves back in with his real family. In addition to having to interact with the real world for the first time, Mooney finds himself in a unique situation. His biggest pop culture obsession is something that literally no one has ever heard of. Brigsby Bear has decades of mythology and he can't discuss it with anyone. Worst of all, thanks to the FBI, the show never got an ending. So, Mooney and some newly acquired friends [he got through his teenage sister] make their own Brigsby Bear movie to wrap things up.

It's a weird movie, and it works very hard to construct a very specific scenario. The number of scripted TV shows a decade ago was well under 200. In 2019, it was significantly over 500. The number of movies has ballooned similarly more. The rise of streaming has put everyone on a different schedule for when they digest their pop culture. It's increasingly common that I'll watch something amazing and have no one to talk to about it. Brigsby Bear literalizes that soloing of pop culture, and it's an intriguing idea. It works very, very hard to set that up though, and it ends up rushing to an end once it finally establishes that premise.

I love the idea that this movie exists. The humor isn't quite on my wavelength, but I see the potential for greatness in this creative team's future. I wish more Sundance movies were this crazy and inventive.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend