REVIEW #164 The Bubble (2022)

The Bubble is a Netflix original film directed by Judd Apatow. Set during the pandemic, the cast and crew of a huge blockbuster franchise attempt to make a sequel whilst quarantining at a posh hotel in London. 

CAST & THE ACTING 

It’s fair to say The Bubble has an incredibly stacked cast, which helps contribute to the ironic humour that the film relies upon. Some of the stars include Leslie Mann, Iris Apatow, Karen Gillan, Pedro Pascal, David Duchovny, Keegan Michael-Key and Guz Khan. There are even more that I haven’t mentioned and a whole host of cameos from A list stars too! In a way the acting is good but incredibly awful at the same time, it’s talented actors portraying entitled and talentless actors and that’s where the movie derives most of its comedy from. Unfortunately that charade loses its charm pretty early on and some of the performances go from funny to annoying quite quickly. But others such as Michael-Key and Iris Apatow manage to maintain their humour throughout. Don’t get me wrong there are a lot of funny performances and I guess that takes good acting to pull it off effectively but I also think that it can’t be that difficult given the storyline and plot they’re working with.

THE STORYLINE

I do actually like how the plot is making fun of the whole bubble process used by film sets when they first made a return during the pandemic. It’s all incredibly ironic and full of silly humour, playing on the stereotypes of modern actors and TikTok stars. It achieved its purpose of making me laugh and I guess that’s the aim but unfortunately this film is at least 30 to 40 minutes too long, they really didn’t need a two hour run time because it meant that ironic humour lost its charm really quickly and I struggled to even finish the film. I think it could have worked a lot better as a limited series, with around 5 or 6 twenty minute episodes, at least the audience could break it up a bit and then the humour would have maintained its effectiveness throughout. I liked the characters in the film, my favourites were probably Krystal, Dieter and Sean, partly because they were played well by the actors but they also had the funniest arcs. I think a storyline such as this though, can only go so far, it’s not the greatest but it provided some laughs and it kind of had a sitcom feel about it, which emphasises my point that it would work better as a limited series. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

The cinematography and special effects were an integral part of the film, the back and forth between seeing the physical green screen and then the actual film footage helped the jokes land. One scene that stands out is when the cast come down with influenza whilst shooting a rock climbing scene, I found that hilarious. To be honest the special effects used for the ‘cliff beasts’ were meant to be taking the mick a bit but I’ve actually seen worse CGI used in some other films, which is terrible really. I want to make it clear however, that when I say the cinematography and effects were integral to the film, I’m not declaring that it was fantastic, I mean the techniques used complimented the type of film that it was. The Bubble certainly doesn’t have any beautiful visuals or excellent cinematic stills but it didn’t need any. 

OVERALL (4/10)

I always like to score my films taking into consideration the film makers intentions and what they wanted the film to be. In this case Judd Apatow wanted a silly comedy full of irony and I guess that’s what he achieved. Unfortunately I was ready to switch it off after an hour, so that restricts the final score I can give. It was really funny, I loved the premise and the cast and characters were great too but it shouldn’t have been a film. It should have been small twenty minute episodes and if it was broken up like that, the score could have been a lot higher! So if I was going to recommend that you watch it, I would say don’t be afraid to watch it in parts. Maybe do half an hour at a time, I think you’ll appreciate it a lot more like that. 

Thanks for reading.

Callan