If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then writer/actor Doug Kenney must have been one hell of a flattered dude. After founding National Lampoon in the 70’s, and writing films like “Animal House” and “Caddyshack,” Doug’s style of humor took off across the world, inspiring countless copycat films and publications.
But what director David Wain and a host of comedic stars want to tell us in this Netflix biopic about Kenney is that for someone who took comedy so seriously, his life wasn’t a laughing matter.
Doug created National Lampoon in 1970 with his best friend Henry Beard, who he'd run the Harvard Lampoon with in college. The pair did their best to keep the problematic magazine afloat until the both left. Henry went on to pursue other avenues and Doug left to write "Animal House." He would struggle with drugs and writing throughout his life, through writing "Caddyshack," and his eventual death in 1980, in Hawaii at a rehab resort. At the funeral Harold Ramis, a friend of Doug's has been quoted as saying, "Knowing him, he probably fell while looking for a place to jump."
David Wain, fresh off his previous Netflix collaborations “Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp” and “Ten Years Later,” directs this biopic, and Will Forte stars as Doug. His trademark wide grin and oddball demeanor really works as Doug, and he manages to mostly balance the film’s more dramatic sequences with the absurdist humor.
The ensemble cast is a who’s who of modern comedy stars, from Joel McHale to Jackie Tohn to Matt Lucas. The best moments of the film involve all of these talented people doing impressions of other prominent comedians and clearly enjoying their work. It’s a stark contrast to how grim the film gets by the end with different points in Doug’s life and career.
So many great comedic moments and amusing situations are packed into the film. From seeing a montage of all the people that National Lampoon offended during its print run to directly acknowledging its darker scenes and the fact that the film only focused on a select few of the magazine's writers.
These moments, as funny as they are, contrast the film’s main tone though. For a movie that wants to show just how serious Doug took comedy, it doesn’t take itself seriously enough for its more dramatic moments to work. Sure, the change in tone works to portray the different states of his life, but it doesn’t give any insight into who he is, which is the purpose of a biopic.
The humor also contradicts the very nature of a biopic because when it's filled with funny scenes it becomes difficult to tell which events actually happened and which were embellished for the sake of comedy. A bomb being sent to the National Lampoon offices? Plausible, but the film never makes it clear how accurate it's being until after the fact, making it hard to take things seriously in the moment.
By the time the credits roll, doing so in a very cheesy and sweet way, the film does manage to wrap itself up nicely. But it feels less like audiences have learned about a legitimately interesting person and more like a series of boxes have been checked off about them. It’s a funny biopic parody, but not an especially successful biopic. At the very least, it manages to make people want to read the book it’s based on to learn more about Doug’s actual life.
As a tribute to the kind of comedy Doug loved and as a biopic parody, “A Futile and Stupid Gesture” works wonders. It's consistently funny, but in its focus on comedy, it seems to lose sight of telling a legitimately compelling story about the man it so clearly admires. “Futile” is not a bad film. It’s just not a great biopic. Which sucks, because that’s what it’s supposed to be. 3/5
