Show notes
This was one of Todd’s brain storms. I had seen the trailer and I still had no idea what this was. I am not a huge Pete Davidson fan. His likeability quotient is not high. Everything I’ve seen him in he plays a character that is confrontational, awkward, and most of the time self-loathing. That is not the description of people I want to spend a lot of time hanging out with but I’m thinking maybe he won’t be like that in this movie. He is exactly like that in this movie and maybe worse. The movie opens with Scott, played by Pete Davidson in his car going full speed down the road. All of a sudden he shuts his eyes in the middle of traffic in what seems to be a suicide attempt. It is a very tense moment that could make you feel sorry for someone who has come to this point in their life, making you sympathetic of Scott. The fact that he is willing to kill a fair number of innocent people leaves him looking like a selfish jerk. And it only gets worse from there. Scott at 24 is happy to sit in the basement with his other loser friends smoking pot all day, every day. He has a sweet, sometimes girlfriend Kelsey, played by Bel Powley, who he treats like crap.
He has an ambitious younger sister Claire, played by Maude Apatow, who is graduating high school and starting college, which makes him look like even more of a loser. His mother Maggie, is played by Marisa Tomei and she is fantastic. Scott has no redeeming qualities, and has never made a good decision in his life. He wants to be a tattoo artist and open a restaurant where you get tattoos while you eat. He actually tattoos a 9 year old kid just for the heck of it. This does not go over well with the kids father Ray, played by Bill Burr. Bill Burr was a surprise, I love his standup, and it turns out, he’s also a really good actor.
The storyline mirrors Pete Davidson’s life in more than a few ways. In the movie Scott’s dad was a firefighter that died on a call when he was 7. Pete’s dad was a firefighter that died on 9/11 when Pete was 7. Pete’s dad was named Scott. Both movie Scott and real life Pete spent their early lives as drug addicted losers. They both suffer from depression and Crohn’s disease. You really want to give Scott a break and hope the best for him but he just won’t let you.
The movie is a long 2 hours and 12 minutes, rated R for language, drug use and sexual content. It’s also Rated R for really depressing.
Now that is the bad news. The good news is, the surrounding cast that I mentioned, along with Steve Buscemi who actually was a New York firefighter, plays a New York firefighter, are all excellent! And as depressing and long as the movie was, the last 22 minutes almost made me glad I watched it. Appatow does a great job in making this movie seem like real life. No great big moment that makes Scott’s life turn completely around. No epiphany, but an ending I was very satisfied with. I still wouldn’t want to hang out with Scott, but I wound up being glad he opened his eyes when he was driving the car.
The question is, do you spend $20 to rent this and sit through the first 115 minutes to get to the last 22? Maybe you invite 4 people over and it’s only $4 apiece. Or you just say to hell with it. Your call.
My Score: 1 Bud for the first 115 minutes, 4 Buds for the last 22 minutes.
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