The Bubble is nothing but a bloated comedy that bounces around aimlessly and struggles to stay afloat.
Overall Score: 4/10
Image: Netflix
Don’t be fooled by its big and talented cast because The Bubble, Judd Apatow’s latest film, is a disaster on not one, but a multitude of different levels.
The movie’s initial premise involves a group of actors and crew members trying to make a film during the pandemic. Unfortunately, it soon devolves into a silly story about unlikeable people trying to escape from a set of even more unlikeable people, full of long and nonsensical sequences of characters randomly breaking into dances, making TikTok videos, and doing drugs. Basically, what Apatow has done here is he has taken one of the most original, inventive, and potentially relevant plots and butchered it beyond salvation.
Despite being marketed as and belonging to the comedy genre, The Bubble is not at all a funny movie. The dialogue is mostly bland and outright stupid, and the jokes are borderline bad. Furthermore, the film seems overly confident in its ventures into satire, and on several occasions tries to make fun of the movie industry and the filmmaking process, constantly and consistently failing miserably in doing so.
Another problem, and perhaps one of the biggest ones, is that none of the characters are memorable or remotely likeable. Over the course of the film, every single one of these individuals engages in a number of dumb and often pointless — not to mention unrelated to the plot — activities that make you question whether or not the actors read the script before signing on.
However, while deeply flawed, the movie, I suppose, is not without its merits. Its cast, for example, all of whom are clearly having a blast, does the best they can with what they’re given. Furthermore, when the story calls for it, the film does a decent job of depicting how different people react and deal with having to quarantine themselves. But despite these somewhat positive aspects, it’s not enough to save the movie from itself.
To sum up, The Bubble is not a good movie. It’s poorly written, overly strange, and a big waste of plenty of on-screen talent. And although there is a case to be made about it falling into the “so bad it’s good” category, I wouldn’t actively recommend it. Nevertheless, I’m not sorry that I watched it, and if I could turn back time, I would definitely do it again. And while it’s up to you if you want to subject yourself to two hours of nonstop stupidity, I know that if I ever need a break from reality and all its wonders, I can find comfort and good company in The Bubble.
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