A FUTILE AND STUPID GESTURE (2018) *** ½

If you saw Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead, you probably already know the story of the rise and fall of National Lampoon.  A Futile and Stupid Gesture is the biopic version that focuses on the relationship of Lampoon founders Doug Kenney (Will Forte) and Henry Beard (Domhnall Gleeson).  They work together on the Harvard Lampoon and after graduation, they decide to make a legitimate magazine out of it.  They hire the most talented people they can find, and the magazine becomes a cultural touchstone.  Together, Kenney and Beard change the face of modern comedy, but when their relationship splinters, Kenney goes on a self-destructive path of sex, drugs, and rock n’… err.. comedy.

Since A Futile and Stupid Gesture is about the Lampoon, it doesn’t take itself too seriously.  Most biopics get dragged down by Hollywoodizing certain facts.  Here, the film points out discrepancies from the movie and what happened in real life, while making fun of the very nature of attempting a biopic of the Lampoon.  I especially liked the scene that shows the crumbling of Kenney’s marriage as if it were part of a Lampoon pictorial.

Director David (Wet Hot American Summer) Wain covers all the highlights regarding the rise of the magazine, but if you want a factual history, see the documentary.  This is more of a chance for Forte to show his acting chops while simultaneously being very funny.  He and Gleeson make for a terrific team and their chemistry holds the film together, even when it starts to ramble in the late stages.

The casting of the supporting players is inspired.  Thomas Lennon does a mean Michael O’Donaghue.  He gets to reenact some of his best material and does it so well that you wish he’d star in his own O’Donaghue biopic somewhere down the line.  It’s also a blast seeing Joel McHale playing Chevy Chase, especially given their relationship on Community.  He keenly captures Chase’s vocal cadence does a dead-on version of his patented pratfalls.  I for one wouldn’t mind seeing McHale in Fletch 3 sometime in the near future.

In fact, the performances are so good that when the film reaches its poignant conclusion, we feel a tinge of sadness for what could’ve been.  The scene where (two versions of) Kenney visits his own funeral packs an unexpected wallop.  Thankfully, the film ends on an appropriate note that Kenney surely would approve of.