Director Macon Blair is a patron saint of fringe-dwelling weirdos, crooks, dreamers, losers, and strivers. And as with his previous films, I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore and The Toxic Avenger, he crafts an ode to their ridiculous idiocy, frustration, anger, generosity, and capacity for change with The S--theads.
The tale of two doltish strangers brought together to complete a mission they immediately, and repeatedly, bungle, the writer/director’s latest Sundance Film Festival-premiering feature is a delightful film about the dim-witted and the disreputable. And though its humor ultimately wanes, it compensates with a surprising measure of tenderness.
The first of The S--theads’ title characters is Davis (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), whose job at a local Virginia church comes to an abrupt end thanks to his decision—decried by his pastor (Killer Mike)—to take a busload of children to see the movie Antichrist. That Davis assumed Lars von Trier’s sexually explicit provocation was a religious film is dumb if somewhat plausible. Yet less understandable is his decision to stay even after the first on-screen appearance of a “dong.” For his faux pas, Davis is kicked to the curb, where he sheds tears that convey that, despite a lack of good judgment, he still has a kind heart.
The post Dave Franco Is Brilliant at Playing a Massive ‘S**thead’ appeared first on The Daily Beast
