Movie Review: Brigsby Bear · 10:00pm Feb 2nd, 2018
Earlier this month, my dad and I watched a very interesting independent drama-comedy from just last year.
Brigsby Bear.
What's it about?
"Brigsby Bear" is a educational adventure show with an audience of one: a young man named James (played by Kyle Mooney). James lives in an underground bunker with his family, Ted (Mark Hamill) and April (Jane Adams), staying safe from the radioactive wasteland. James spends his days working on math theory, but his true passion is Brigsby Bear: he has every single episode on tape, he has all sorts of Brigsby merchandise, and he records video blogs about his thoughts and theories on episodes of Brigsby, which he posts on a special Brigsby Bear forum.
Except that's all a lie.
Ted and April aren't his real parents. They kidnapped James from the hospital when he was a baby, and the bunker was just a means of keeping him hidden from the world. "Brigsby Bear" was a show created by Ted as part of this deception.
The story really begins when the police storm the bunker and arrest Ted and April, and return James to his real parents, Greg and Louise (Matt Walsh and Michaela Watkins), plus his teenage sister Aubrey (Ryan Simpkins). Adjusting to society is, naturally, a pretty difficult process for James, and one that is made even harder by the discovery that Brigsby Bear was created by Ted; no one else has ever seen the show.
Wanting to share his passion for the show with others, James decides to make a movie, to finish the story of Brigsby Bear and share it with the world.
That's the basic outline of Brigsby Bear. So, how was it?
I really rather liked it. 
It's a very methodical, kind of slow movie, but it makes up for that with good performances and some really gorgeous (and funny) cinematography: this is a movie that contains both some stunning shots of the Utah countryside, and also contains scenes from the hilariously cheesy low-budget Brigsby Bear show.
However, the real strength of Brigsby Bear lies in its performances. Kyle Mooney as James is an endearingly awkward delight; incredibly awkward due to his isolated upbringing, but also charming in his passion for Brigsby Bear, his love of the movie he's working on, and general wide-eyed innocence.
His real parents strike a good balance too, as they love their son, but understandably grapple with his love of a show created by the man who stole him as a baby. Never once did I feel unsympathetic towards Greg and Louise's attitude, and that could have been all too easy with another script or portrayal, but they did a good job.
Another strong part of the movie, for me, was Greg Kinnear as Detective Vogel. He brought a lot of heart and humor to his scenes with James.
And, as someone who's enjoyed a lot of Mark Hamill's performances as bad guys, his scenes as Ted are also very intriguing. Hamill has often played larger-than-life characters like the Joker and the Fire Lord, so his soft-spoken, and at times almost compelling, acting as Ted creates a very memorable part of the movie - especially as he only has two major scenes with James. Even knowing the horrible thing he did, Hamill's performance gives Ted an almost sympathetic quality.
Indeed, in an early conversation with James, Ted probably delivers the central theme of the movie: the value of dreams and imagination.
Because, at its heart, that's what Brigsby Bear is all about - a celebration of our ability to be creative, and make something beautiful and fun.
All in all, I quite enjoyed Brigsby Bear, and I would definitely give it a recommendation. ^_^
Interesting. I've never heard of this before. I'll have to check it out.
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Yeah, I only heard about it through dumb luck, and my dad being a huge cinema buff
If you do get to see it, I hope you enjoy it!