By George & Josh Bate
Buddy road trip movies are one of the more reliable sub-genres of comedy. Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Dumb and Dumber, Tommy Boy, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, and Due Date are just a handful of comedies that have successfully paired two companions on a cross-country journey filled with misadventures, bonding, and unexpected detours. The latest entry of this subgenre – Idiots – adds a delinquent teen to the mix for a witty, chaotic, subversive, and darker than you might expect road trip comedy bolstering a superb cast and a sharp message about the class divide.
Idiots stars Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. as Mark and Davis respectively, two down-on-their-luck screwups who agree to deliver a troubled rich teen named Sheridan (Mason Thames) to rehab for a shady transport service. Mark and Davis soon realize they are in over their heads as Sheridan proves to be a conniving, formidable force determined to derail the journey to rehab by any means necessary.
Originally titled The Shitheads when it premiered at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, Idiots overcomes familiarity of its narrative structure with a trio of compelling leads and consistently funny jokes. Dave Franco’s unbothered, drug-abusing fuck-up brilliantly counters Jackson Jr.’s uptight, easy-to-cry God-lover. Their clashing personalities, worldviews, and perspectives on how to approach Thames’ Sheridan foster tons of witty back-and-forth, most of which excels in delivering a light chuckle at worst and a hearty laugh at best
A film centered around two actors with the precise comedic timing of Franco and Jackson Jr. would probably be sufficient for an entertaining 90+ minute watching, but writer/director Macon Blair (The Toxic Avenger, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore) amplifies the conflict by burdening the duo with a third wheel, one with a Joker-esque propensity for anarchy.
Mason Thames has quickly emerged as one of the most sought-after young actors working today, having led the likes of How to Train Your Dragon, Black Phone 2, Regretting You, and Nimrods in just the past year. At first, Thames is a fairly peripheral presence in Idiots as his character Sheridan lurks in the background and Mark and Davis battle it out. Over time, however, Thames becomes more prominent as Sheridan subtly pulls the strings to bring chaos to the lives of his two transporters.
Interestingly, Idiots may follow the likes of Role Models and Short Term 12 in following adult figures taking care of troubled teens, but, unlike the films from David Wain and Destin Daniel Cretton, Blair’s movie conceptualizes its young lead rather differently. A sudden act of violence midway through the film gives way to a number of disturbing reveals about Sheridan that put in doubt the extent to which the audience will ultimately come to love the character. The basic set-up for the film harkens back to the aforementioned movies and suggests that a redemptive arc for its troubled teen is in story, but Blair’s winding screenplay and Thames’ unexpected portrayal of Sheridan as a rather detestable figure allows Idiots to subvert all kinds of expectations.
As recognizable names like Peter Dinklage, Nicholas Braun, and Kiernan Shipka are forced to cross paths with Thames’ psychotic adolescent, the film descends into further chaos and makes it abundantly clear that it is trying to redeem a rebellious youth. Instead, Idiots is more concerned with the callousness with which wealthy people are privileged enough to flaunt without any worry of ramifications. Amidst all the uproarious humor, Blair packs a message about how the everyman forced to work for a living and pay attention to every dollar spent is the one made to reckon with the consequences of the wealthy class’ immorality. It’s subtle, yet effective commentary that sneaks up on you and leaves one contemplating the stark realities of the class divide.
Without a redemptive arc necessarily in store for Thames’ character, Idiots leaves much of its emotional pull to the bond between Franco’s Mark and Jackson Jr.’s Davis, although this remains disappointingly underdeveloped. Most of the aforementioned road trip comedies feature incessant bickering between the two leads but ultimately culminate in a more touching note that affirms the duo’s relationship has evolved from bothersome to brotherly. Blair’s movie somewhat reaches for this note but falls short in tugging at the heartstrings the way one might expect from such a film. Even the end of the film can’t quite sell the heart underlying the bond between Mark and Davis, despite all they’ve gone through together up until that point.
VERDICT: 7/10
Idiots follows in the footsteps of Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Dumb and Dumber, Tommy Boy, Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle, and Due Date as a sharp and consistently funny road trip buddy comedy. Although overly familiar in the initial genre structure it adheres to, Macon Blair’s film amuses with the incessant clashing between Dave Franco’s unbothered, drug-abusing fuck-up and O’Shea Jackson Jr.’s uptight, easy-to-cry God-lover. Their clashing personalities, worldviews, and perspectives on how to approach Thames’ Sheridan foster tons of witty back-and-forth, most of which excels in delivering a light chuckle at worst and a hearty laugh at best.
Where Idiots diverges from its influences and forges an identity of its own is through its subversive approach to the troubled teen at the heart of its story, played by a Mason Thames who has never been so detestable. Rather than go for the easily forecast redemption arc, Blair’s film subverts expectations by commenting on the callousness with which wealthy people are privileged enough to flaunt without any worry of ramifications. But without relying on Thames’ character for emotional pull, Idiots leaves its beating heart to Franco and Jackson Jr., who, despite their best efforts, are unable to sell their relationship’s evolution from bothersome to brotherly. In turn, the film doesn’t pull at the heartstrings in the way movies like Role Models did as there is neither a redemptive arc nor burgeoning brotherly bond to be touched by.
Nonetheless, Idiots excels as an ever-escalating buddy road trip movie, bolstering a stellar trio of lead performances and a surprisingly poignant message about the class divide.