Brigsby Bear

Dir: Dave McCary

2017

****

Brigsby Bear is a lovely little film that is pretty hard to categorize – which is very much to it’s credit. It is a mix of ideas that play out really well, even though it doesn’t work on paper. It’s an old idea from friends Kyle Mooney, Kevin Costello and Dave McCary who spent several years tweaking the script and turning a bunch of ideas into one solid story. Their success on Saturday Night Live has certainly given the group some weight but I think it is fair to say that there aren’t many people apart from The Lonely Island group who would have invested in such an idea. The Lonely Island crew are friends and colleagues of Mooney and McCary’s Good Neighbor group and Andy Samberg does make a small (and rather pointless) cameo in the film but the humour is much different than one might expect. This really is a pleasant drama rather than an all-out comedy. Unlike other films about captivity such as Room or Misery, our protagonist in Brigsby Bear has a rather innocent and positive experience living with his captors. His time in captivity is also a very short part of the story. Our protagonist in question is James, played by Kyle Mooney. James lives in an underground bunker with his parents Ted and April Mitchum (Mark Hamill and Jane Adams) for reasons that are next explained, although the audience knows something is up by the fake animals planted outside – James’s only view of the world outside. Even though James is a young adult there is something childlike about him, such is the effect of captivity on his development, although he is clearly very intelligent. His only connection with the outside world is an educational children's show called Brigsby Bear of which he is obsessed with. James spends most of his days doing his chores, watching recorded episodes of Brigsby, blogging about Brigsby (or at least he thinks he is) until a brand new Brigsby Bear episode is released each evening. Life is routine and Brigsby is everything. One night, James life is disrupted when police and FBI officers raid the home and arrest Ted and April. James is told that he was abducted as a child and is introduced to his real parents and sister who have been looking for him for decades. James is helped by Detective Vogel (played by Greg Kinnear – who looks remarkably like Mark Hamill), who has been working on his case. It is his job to inform James of what is happening in the real world but the only thing that concerns James is that Brigsby Bear is not real, and was entirely made up by the Mitchums to help him with his education. He then explains that they tracked Ted from the studio where the show is made and that is how they found him. There is a sense that James always knew something wasn’t right and he learns about life outside fairly quickly and with enthusiasm but he just can’t get Brigsby out of his mind until he meets some people at a party and learns about movies and movie making. James decides that to progress and for his own sanity, he needs to make a Brigsby movie. He has little support from family and his assigned psychiatrist (Claire Danes) who don’t seem to realise that this is his therapy and James fights to make his dream a reality, with wonderful effect. It’s a strange and somewhat dream-like what-if scenario but it is full of wonder and charm, I found it to be utterly irresistible. Later in the film James visits Ted – the man who he thought was his father his whole life – and tells him of the movie and its such a touching scene, downplayed but absolutely full of the right kinds of sentimentality. It has one of the sweetest endings to a film ever, with some beautifully tender moments along the way that really stand-out. It’s the most unique film about Stockholm syndrome I can think of and is the most optimistic I've seen for a while. Much of the character of James comes from Mooney's personal life, which he considered obsessive, sometimes awkward, and always nostalgic. He was fascinated by children's television shows from the 1980s, which he felt combined "happy-go-lucky and positive meets the creepy, weird, and psychedelic." He and McCary both singled out Prayer Bear as a primary inspiration and Mooney collects VHS tapes from garage sales, which also fueled the movie's aesthetic. McCary likened Ted's character to a depraved Jim Henson, "teaching weird lessons about the world in a loving way." He noted he and Mooney both grew up in strict, Christian households, which colored the way they depicted the character. They hoped to have viewers intrigued by the retro nature of the bunker, which they infused with a "low-rent Splash Mountain" feel. McCary was largely responsible for the film's earnest and sometimes melancholy tone, which he felt serviced James's emotional journey in the film. They all have commented that, when making the film, they discovered that in many ways, they were documenting their friendship of creating videos together. It is why the film works so well, it’s from the heart, best friends making a movie together and staying true to their original idea that is optimistic, nostalgic and feel-good – three things the world needs a bit of these days.