The Musical’ is Stupendously Silly Musical Shitposting

As a part of our protection of the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival, Meg Shields critiques the crass, campy, and categorically cocky ‘Dicks: The Musical.’ Follow together with extra protection in our Toronto International Film Festival archives.

Before we whip our pants off and get to enterprise, a disclaimer: should you can, go into Dicks: The Musical as blind as doable. No small feat with a publicity-minded studio like A24, I do know. But should you can arrive on the movie understanding subsequent to nothing, there are titillating twists and absurdist wrinkles that can depart you laughing and clapping like a cheerful child. So, if at this level you might be unspoiled, shut your eyes, scroll to the underside of this overview to trick the algorithm into considering you learn the article, and keep ignorant. For the remainder of you, persist. My pants are off.

Dicks: The Musical is a profoundly foolish, silly, and ridiculous movie that’s simply one of many comedic highlights of the yr. Our heroes are the cocky and “confidently heterosexual” Craig and Trevor, portrayed respectively by Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, reprising their roles from their two-man stage present, F***ing Identical Twins. When the 2 swinging dicks be taught that they’re similar twins separated at beginning, the pricks resolve to reunite their mother and father the one manner they know the way: by tricking them into falling in love once more, Parent Trap-style, so they could be a actual household.

Unfortunately for the twins (and fortuitously for us), their mother and pop are completely bananas. Their mother, Evelyn (Megan Mullally) is a batty, bric-a-brac-loving shut-in whose vagina actually fell off. And for his half, Harris (Nathan Lane) is a not too long ago out queer man who has pushed everybody in his life away with the “Sewer Boys,” two Ghoulie-looking lads who love kicklines and being fed chilly cuts baby-bird-style.

Dicks: The Musical is directed by Larry Charles, who even at his most absurd has tended in the direction of placing whacky personalities in aggressively mundane conditions. And contemplating Charles’ evident expertise for letting humorous individuals do their factor and be humorous (e.g. Borat, Curb Your Enthusiasm, New Girl), he’s an ideal match for the wild, moist, wacky world of Dicks.

This appears like such a low bar, nevertheless it’s genuinely pleasant to look at a film musical the place everybody can really sing. Lane and Mullally are absolute ringers who make goofy energy ballads look straightforward. For their half, Jackson and Sharp are clearly professionals who’ve turned that unmistakable theater child stank right into a grin-inducing musk. Good job, boys.

If we’re being trustworthy, the forged’s weak hyperlink is its one “professional” singer: Megan Thee Stallion, who performs the twins’ boss at an off-brand Roomba gross sales heart. Her quantity — by which she espouses how nice it’s to be a lady boss who “out-alpha’s the alpha” —is each boring and tonally misplaced. The vitality drop is punctuated with a “well, back to the real story!” lampshade that cements the track’s redundancy. SNL’s Bowen Yang can also be slightly underwhelming, which is a little bit of an issue contemplating that he’s taking part in God (our story’s narrator) as a catty homosexual man.

Moving again to the nice surprises, one in all Dicks‘ other boons is its self-contained approach to comedy. Winking postmodernism and toothless pop culture references are a virus infecting much of modern filmmaking, but Dicks happily exists within the confines of its own established silliness. It’s rather more difficult to construct a self-sustaining comedic ecosystem than it’s to coast on the goodwill of current cultural touchstones. Dicks deserves an enormous quantity of credit score for being its personal, bizarre little factor; which is, sadly, turning into increasingly of a rarity.

And whereas we’re embodying Grandpa Simpson’s old-man-yells-at-cloud, carry again the tip credit blooper reel! The gags and goofs montage on the finish of this provides a small glimpse into what was clearly a ridiculously enjoyable shoot. Lane’s giggle can energy automotive batteries, I swear to Yang.

All instructed: Dicks: The Musical is a uncommon, R-rated musical comedy that’s as silly and stupendous as its identify suggests. It’s not going to be for everybody, clearly. But if you end up within the small, sticky circle that’s the audience, it’s 86 minutes of c*cks, c*nts, and c*ld c*ts. What extra can wicked showtune lovers ask for?

Dicks the Musical is at the moment scheduled for an October 6, 2023 launch date. Watch the movie’s trailer right here:

Related Topics: A24, Comedy, Dicks: The Musical, Musicals, Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)

Meg has been writing professionally about all issues film-related since 2016. She is a Senior Contributor at Film School Rejects in addition to a Curator for One Perfect Shot. She has attended worldwide movie festivals comparable to TIFF, Hot Docs, and the Nitrate Picture Show as a member of the press. In her day job as an archivist and information supervisor, she commonly works with bodily media and is dedicated to making sure ongoing bodily media accessibility within the digital age. You can discover extra of Meg’s work at Cinema Scope, Dead Central, and Nonfics. She has additionally appeared on quite a few film-related podcasts, together with All the President’s Minutes, Zodiac: Chronicle, Cannes I Kick It?, and Junk Filter. Her work has been shared on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour, Business Insider, and CherryPicks. Meg has a B.A. from the University of King’s College and a Master of Information diploma from the University of Toronto.