I just have to stand up for this movie, in light of some bad reviews I'm seeing on here.
There were at least three points in this film when I laughed till I cried. Believe me, that doesn't happen often. (The first time involved the talent of tap dancing.)
It can be tricky in black comedy to maintain a tone that doesn't try too hard, but the director managed this feat admirably. The actors also largely maintained just the right balance, especially Kate Micucci, whose presence and sometimes subtle changes in expression were spot on. The pace of the storytelling and the editing were quite good. Fantastic commitment to absurdism by all; I can't wait to see more from the writers.
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Pogostemon26 May 2020
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qiu_xinzhi10 April 2020This is one weird film. It is unconventional yet familiar. It was bizarre in more ways than one. Is this a comedy? Or is it horror? Is it satire? Philosophical?
I have no idea what I watched. Yet, it put a big smile on my face. And to this day, I still have no clue why. -
youngcollind20 April 2022Building off the fantastically outlandish premise of a suicide cult occupying the apartment of a normal couple, before taking things to illogical extremes. This setup invites a revolving door of beloved b-list comedians who show up for one-act performances, to varying degrees of craziness.
If the overblown title didn't already give it away, the film has no interest in being understated. The plot opts to follow a zany zig zag rather than make any attempt at coherent realism, so if you like your comedy grounded, this may not be for you. For the most part, the absurdism is amusing, taking things in some unexpected directions. Occasionally, it does come across a little awkwardly, with a couple of the non sequitur monologues overstaying their welcome.
Quirky to a fault, but still an enjoyable little black comedy if you can sustain a sense of humour about suicide. -
Gordon-1114 April 2020This comedy is really quirky and fun. It makes cult suicides actually entertaining to watch, which is quite a feat. The characters are likable, and I enjoyed watching the film.
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icocleric10 February 2022I actually really enjoy absurd dark comedy, so this film really does it for me. I can see why the reviews are polarised, because I think you'd either love, or hate just how absurd, and dark it actually is. But on the upside I think you'd know pretty quickly into the film if you are going to enjoy it or not. Since it starts from the word go.
I don't think it's as good as the directors other films, but it's still extremely enjoyable. And weird. But I really loved the weirdness to it. -
Flags don't get much redder than this title; but to the film's credit, it's a little more amusing, and less annoying, than I was expecting. It wasn't the struggle to finish many of its concept-heavy, cameo-laden indie comedy peers are. Perhaps the fact that this film was shelved for a couple years gave them the chance to do some judicious editing.
If you've seen the trailer, you can already guess that Dan Harmon has all the best lines. Apart from that, it's a lot of familiar stand-up, improv and sitcom folk packed together trying to out *Wacky* each other. It's the kind of movie where minor characters are dressed as mimes or animal costumes just to give them some kind of arbitrary distinction. Everyone screams and shouts at each other so much it becomes rote, though the cast brings enough charisma on board to at least carry you through to the end. Ultimately, if this was just a little more clever, it would all feel a lot more worth your time. This film's chosen volume over wit.
There's a scene fairly early on, for example, where two reliably funny comedians, Maria Bamford and Brian Posehn, break into an apartment, dressed in silly costumes, and face off angrily against each other. But they don't have any actual jokes; there's no improvisation or banter. They don't get to bring any of their celebrated talents to their scene, just recognizable faces. Apart from that, any two completely anonymous extras could've played these fleeting roles just as well. And that wasted potential runs its course through the entire picture.
The first half works better than the second half, where everybody just seems obligated to carry out the absurdist plot to its logical conclusion after the story had run out of steam. I think a lot of the problem lies in the fact that Kate Micucci is our lead and the audience's avatar until about mid-way through when she just goes irrationally insane, making decisions that don't even make sense for her character. At that point, there's no longer anybody for us to relate to on-screen. The secondary comic relief characters wind up being the most groundedly human.
Maybe that was an intentional inversion. I can imagine the screenwriters bragging that, by the end, the protagonists are the antagonists and the comic relief are the emotional anchors - nobody will see that coming! But unfortunately, that means we spend the the last act dribbling towards the obvious, inevitable conclusion no longer invested in what happens to any of these people. And even that would probably be fine if we were laughing along the way.
As much as this film struggles to stand out as outlandish and wildly original, it's the same as most comedies that pass through without leaving a lasting impression. Not enough funny moments spread across its feature-length running time. This probably would've been a great little, two-part Funny Or Die video, or a fifteen minute Adult Swim one-off. Then we'd all be sharing it with each other, burning it to DVD and telling each other how genius it is. But as it is, by Stage Four, this Storsh had run completely out of Bliss. -
rob-745825 April 2020I've been seeing a trend towards garbage like this. Seems writers feel the only way to be noticed is to come up with silliness that even a child of seven would find beneath them. Have to give credit to the actors, however. They did their best. Why they would accept a script like this is a mystery, though. I guess good work is hard to find. Anyway, just had to give my view and a warning to stay away from this poor excuse for a movie. I would recommend, "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" over this one. Consider yourself warned.
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nashw8228 August 2020This flick is quirky and I am often a big fan of quirky. But this just didn't really wow me. The first third had me intrigued and they set up the premise well, but it seemed to go nowhere from there.
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mkjwindsong7 February 2021I loved it. But I have yet to meet a movie associated with Taika Waititi that I didn't love. If you're a fan of his sort of off-beat comedy, you'll have a blast. There's never a dull moment so be prepared to stop and rewind often to catch every hilarious dead-pan one-liner (or bathtub monologue). The only part I didn't love was the end, which, I will admit, runs dark if you're a thinking sort of person. If you're a fan of indie comedies, give this one a try for sure. But even as someone who is definitely about to watch this for a third time, I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone so don't be afraid to skip this if off-beat, satirical, absurd comedy is not your field.
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hbuch15 September 2021I love a weird dark comedy. They are my fav. But this was awful. And btw- I love Taika. He is not in it much so that kinda explains it. I don't get it. Don't think it is funny at all. Just seems like they had zero script and winged it. I almost turned it off at one point and didn't. Wish I had. It's still playing and I'm writing a review. It's not getting any better. 15mins left doubt it's gonna make a huge turn here at the end. Was going to give it a 3 but really it doesn't deserve a 1. Maybe it's a millennial thing. Maybe being in my 40's I'm just too old for this. Lol I just don't get it. Don't waste you're time. There are so many other great dark comedies out there. Find one of those.
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SarahDoubleyou16 December 2018This is a visionary comedy. Wish there were more comedies with a specific voice and absurd/deep quality? ...This movie is for you. If nothing else, look at the incredible cast. Vivieno Caldinelli's masterful direction of this weird and wonderful story is not to be missed. Buy/rent now! Can't wait to see what he does next.
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dimitreze6 April 2020Terrible premise, bad execution the script just want to be random craziness the actors do their best but no... not worth it I just want congratulate the person who was able the get the star power without having any talent
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Hey-There-Buddy18 July 2021Comedy? I don't think so. I guess they got as many "star" cameos as they could thinking millennials would enjoy the movie. I wonder if they had a script or just used their awesome improv skills to come up with those awesome jokes.
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deleondimas6 February 2021Anybody who is even associated with this b.s. film needs to do what the plot implies. Don't waste an hour of your life watching this trash. I've seen better quality out of an Adult Swim cartoon on its 10th season.
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richoffman12 May 2020I absolutely loved this movie! People who rate this movie poorly are no doubt boring and devoid of any real joy in life. They say things like, "Egh, a rainbow, I hate when water diffuses light." or "I don't like Apocalypse Now. Too many helicopters." or "Now look, I take Frisbee Golf VERY seriously!" This movie is a good time!
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rapadgettra4 February 2021I guess Taika Waititi isn't perfect, this is a stinker and not funny.
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seven-johnson12 July 2023I'm the target audience for this. I generally "like" indie movies/directors and "off-beat" comedies, but this is just unfunny, unengaging trash that is just beneath me.
Clearly Taika's great in What We Do... but he lost his person-hood around sucking the Marvel-dollar - and I genuinely mean that, I do not consider them artistically valid, nor a person at this point. Anyway - he's in it and probably the high point. Rhea Seehorn's in it too - not that it matters (much), she's probably the actual "high-point" of any comedy material alleged to be in this.
There's a couple of "leads" as the couple, there's no chemistry, memorable dialogue, nor comedic moments, so they're absolutely incidental to this attempt at a film.
...if you've seen Space Cop and enjoyed it - probably worth googling how you attached a hosepipe to your car exhaust, but you'll enjoy this. The actual production is more professional, but the "humour's" about on par. It's just kitsch-y... I think it's American's trying to do "irony" - but it's just such a mess of un-funny it's hard to tell.
There's a hipster element to it, but aging, past-it hipster that's no longer "hip".
Took two attempts to watch this, fell asleep the 1st time and I'm thinking of suing a) over the time I wasted and b) over the electricity it cost to watch.
Anecdotally: my stepdad died of vascular dementia about a decade ago. He was a great guy and I love(d) him. Vascular dementia's a horrible way to go and horrible to witness. It was funnier than this film - genuinely. Even in his final months my stepdad had his funny personality in there, it was just painful to watch, but he did pull-off a couple of comedy moments.
This has no comedy moments, it's just a film, a series of events that happen and - indifference, the leads are a pair of personality vacuums. I fault the "writers", none of 1 of whom's participated in writing another film that has even worse reviews - since 2018 and the other hasn't done anything, so that's an upside. Hey guys, guess "comedy" just isn't your thing - and you're getting worse at it not better. This feels like it was written by an A. I. - except I've seen a couple of youtube A. I. comedies and the anachronism of bad scripting was funny (in a way), this is trying to be funny. Like that "friend" that's always TRYING to be funny, just chill and stop TRYING to be funny.
Absolute cancer of a film. For fans of Space Cop, people that think they're hipsters and really aren't. This is to comedy what Coldplay are to heavy metal. -
Really enjoyed this. Watched this on a rainy, lonely day, and it gave me more laughs than I expected, and I'd say it made me feel better despite its dark, morbid undertones. Kate Micucci gave an incredible performance as the adorable and energetic heroine/anti-heroine Clare. The other actors also did a great job. I'd imagine from the look of this movie that it was very low budget, but the clever plot and good acting made it shine.
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Amazingly hilarious plot, how the hell did we miss this gem is whats bothering me. watched it with my wife and 12 yr old son ,we were in splits have not seen such an intelligent piece of madness.
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slogfrag24 February 2021I was really impressed with the fact that this just goes where it wants to and explores a hilarious type of absurdity. Maybe a comparable type of humor might be Eric Andre. Right up my alley! Kate micucci was fantastic, Dan Harmon as the detective was just cracking me up. it's nice to see something so different and interesting!
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vpelss14 February 2022There is nothing funny about suicide cults but this.
Somehow they pulled it off.
Well done imo.
All star cast.
Many laughs for me.
Kate Micucci did a lot of good work here as well as all the other cast.
If you are sensitive to the subject matter, leave this movie alone.
But if you can handle it I is well worth it. -
Great acting and storytelling. Not for the type of people who like their movies to have a tied-up-with-a-bow ending, or who scoff at unrealistic films. It is a well-made flick that entertains thoroughly and takes advantage of the fact that writing for film is not constricted by the bounds of reality.
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This movie is absolutely brilliant. Seven Stages To Achieve Eternal Bliss By Passing Through The Gateway Chosen By The Holy Storsh is Citizen Kane for the legal stoner generation. You can quote me on that.
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theknownames23 February 2021Basically we just kept on watching. We are typically swift after a good 20 minutes we know what we don't like . So this was something we just kept watching , kind of funny, kind of cute , weird , different but not overtly in any area. the characters were likable too. I can't recommend but I like to think there was a craft to putting this together . I also can't give it a 6 because it is more than that right now I give an 8 original , watchable , well produced and ya that's it
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ashdsteele23 March 2022Watched for Dan Harmon. He's the best and his dry humor hits perfect here. Pop ups from other great comedians like Maria Bamford. Other than that kinda boring and slow.