Brigsby Bear

Odd and wonderful, Brigsby Bear is a sweet film about how a cloistered young man, raised in a cultural vacuum, comes to find his way in the wider world through the application of imagination, curiosity and creativity.

James (Saturday Night Live's Kyle Mooney, who co-wrote the script with his friend Kevin Costello) is a 25-year-old who lives underground with his parents at a strange compound in the desert. He is mainly confined to the house, although he occasionally dons a gas mask -- to protect himself from what his caretakers have told him is a poisonous atmosphere -- and sneaks out through the air lock in the middle of the night. The only media he consumes are VHS cassettes of a long-running educational children's show, Brigsby Bear Adventures, with which he has become deeply obsessed, and the only interactions he has with people other than his "mom" April (Jane Adams) and "dad" Ted (Mark Hamill) is via an internet chat room he accesses with a '80s-vintage computer. There he discusses the show with his "friends" Brigsbyboy1, Brigsbyboy2, Brigsbyboy3 and BrigsbyGirl1.

But one night while gazing across the desert, he sees police vehicles -- lights flashing -- converging on his compound. FBI agents burst in, arresting the people James believes are his parents. It turns out the newborn James was stolen from the hospital, and a dogged, kind-hearted detective (Greg Kinnear, in a rare smarm-less turn) has been working with his real parents (Veep's Matt Walsh and SNL veteran Michaela Watkins) to find and return him.

Obviously James suffers initial culture shock as he adjusts to a world crowded with other people -- he has a younger sister Aubrey (Ryan Simpkins) who has friends who are fascinated by James' story -- and breathable air. And while he understands his "old parents" did a very bad thing by kidnapping and imprisoning him, he can't help but love and miss them. In this misguided way they took care of him and went to ridiculous lengths to educate and entertain him. As it turns out, Ted was producing the weekly adventures of Brigsby -- all 25 seasons and 700 plus episodes. He had created an elaborate mythology for James alone.

While in the real world James discovers that there are other shows -- and movies projected on walls -- he can't shake his preoccupation with Brigsby. Having co-opted some of Aubrey's friends (much to her chagrin; "You're old!" she stammers), James introduces them to Brigsby. They're impressed by the show, maybe as much for the camp value of its awkward retro aesthetics (the show looks like a '70s/'80s artifact), an unholy cross between the puppet show of Sid and Marty Kroft/Barney the Dinosaur and (the most obvious influence) a Teddy Ruxpin doll.

Once James figures out that movies are made by people, he's determined to finish the story by enlisting his new friends.

There are some glitches -- Claire Danes is wasted in a minor character that's probably unnecessary, and first-time director Dave McCary stretches the film out a little too long -- but the overall effect is charming. There is a very nice moment late in the film when James finds the actress (Kate Lyn Sheil, who played a version of herself in last year's hybrid documentary Kate Plays Christine) Ted employed in his productions. She thought she was making the show for Canadian public access and was horrified to learn its real purpose. But she was a part of James' prolonged childhood -- she'll always be Arielle Smiles to him.

You can take Brigsby Bear as an allegory about the role of pop culture in the lives of sheltered children, you can see it as -- like Jeff Nichols' Midnight Special and Netflix's Stranger Things -- a sideways homage to '80s culture, or you can just take it as a fairy tale about a boy who never had to grow up. But while this review might suggest a labored, labyrinthine plot, Brigsby Bear is a very easy movie to watch, a very easy movie to love.

MovieStyle on 08/25/2017