What's Missing From Adam McKay's New Movies?

when I was in Middle School my favorite movie was Step Brothers while some kids parents were taking them to see Transformers or Star Wars you damn b m Star Wars that was all accurate I was on a pure diet of movies from comedians like Mike Myers Jim Carrey and Adam Sandler my family's favorite meal in this comedy diet was any movie starring Will frell and you know what the best will Ferell 2000's comedies were the ones he wrote with Adam McKay Adam McKay and will frell first became com Partners when they met at Saturday Night Live and after some great years there they finally got to shine in their first creative baby together Anchor Man The Legend of Ron Burgundy directed by McKay they would then go on to write massively successful movies in almost every aspect like talad nightes Step Brothers and the other guys but that was kind of a while ago at this point so that begs the question what happened to them their last movie together Anchor Man 2 was over 10 years ago now and since Adam McKay was never really in front of the camera it might be hard to know exactly what he's been up to lately well he's busy directing Oscar winning political dramas now the guy who taught us if he ain't first you're last has now taught us about the housing market collapse of 2008 with the big short the life of Vice President Dick Cheney with Vice and most recently theorize what would happen if a meteor was going to kill us all a not so subtle metaphor for climate change and don't look up don't get me wrong The Big Short is pretty good and enjoyable but both Vice and don't look up left me wanting the old McKay and what his comedy has brought to my life it just feels like McKay's craftsmanship is a little more messy when he's making a movie about something of the utmost importance so in this video I want to take a look at how an Adam McKay comedy compares to an Adam McKay political drama SL satire and how the massive tone switch from Adam McKay isn't as massive as you might think and eventually I want to answer the question does Adam McCay need will frell to make his best movies what in the hell's diversity well I I could be wrong but I believe uh diversity is an old old wooden ship that was used during the Civil War era let's get this out of the way right now Adam McKay's writing has always been politically topical he started as a comedian and improv guy in Chicago which eventually scored him a writing job at Saturday Night Live and it only took him a few years to become head writer which is nothing to scoff at at SNL he really shined with new cast member will frell but he also had a huge hand in writing the cold opens if you don't watch SNL the cold opens are very frequently political satires you know how people always say oh SNL used to be better when it wasn't as political but the truth is SNL has always been political well the same exact thing can be said about Adam McKay Adam McKay made better movies when he wasn't as political well he always has been political you see we remember how funny these movies are how ridiculous the characters are in it and some of their most famous quotes but we tend to forget what exactly these movies are about Taladega Knights the ballot of Ricky Bobby the NASCAR comedy starring frell John C Riley and Amy Adams doubled as a rack of the country's political divide during the Iraq War without ever mentioning the Iraq War his body of work has underneath it an analysis of power a social commentary on inequities says his friend David S the guardian columnist and a former Sanders adviser Anchorman is one of the funniest movies ever but there's also deep social commentary in there about the media not to mention the first Anchor Man really dies into gender workplace inequality and how it affects the male psyche our co-anchor what no no where Step Brothers explores a generational divide as McKay and frell imagine themselves as 40-year-olds who just can't seem to grow up like their parents generation could you have to learn there are consequences for your action you're next Mis do you understand me yes sir and then finally the other guys apparently has an entire Parable hidden in it about the 2008 financial crisis and we were like hey can we do a big comedy that's kind of about the financial collapse and we made the other guys and the whole I spent hours and hours with Chris heni to designing the whole movie to be a parable for the financial collapse and then we put the movie out and no one noticed and it was like the only thing was in the end credits I did these end credits that were pretty nakedly about the financial collapse and I was like that's weird how did no one notice McKay has always made movies about real life topics that matter to him some of them are just hidden behind the absolute comedic Genius of will frell here's an accurate Recreation of what it is like to watch Anchor Man The Legend of Ron Burgundy you really want to know what love is this country was built on what we call American Family Valley going to find my baby going to hold her tight going to grab afterno excuse what are you doing as time went on more women wanted the opportunity to work at the same jobs this city needs its news oh and you are going to deprive them of that because I have breasts when women did show they could be as good as a man at common jobs men [Music] felt a lot of men then doubled down and exhibited what we like to call toxic masculine go [ __ ] yourself San Diego expressing my inner anguish to the Majesty of s they named it sanago which of course in German means a whales vagina Afternoon Delight this combo made for for really funny films that still felt like they had value beyond the laughs I could play funny clips from these movies all day and some of these quotes are still in my vocabulary I mean the Improv skills are just beyond masterful and frell's comedy and character acting is a huge part of the pairing that is comedy and political satire we all love Ron Burgundy he is a legend but we kind of forget he is a little misogynistic and a shitty person at times and credit to will frell there he tends to give shitty people redeeming qualities somehow I mean the same exact thing can be said about Ricky Bobby and Cal or Brennan and Dale okay while McKay is responsible for some of the political nuances in the film I don't want to give frell all the credit for the comedy in these movies I mean McKay was hired as the headwriter for Saturday Night Live for a reason as a director McKay would show up to set with a list of onliners and read them through a bullhorn for actors to try out over multiple takes in Anchor Man frell's vocal warm-ups before going out on air went from throat clearing noises to Wacky improvised news headlines Adam would yell things out off the top of his head like the Human Torch was denied a bank loan recalled Paul Rudd who played burgundy's best friend and will is good at keeping it together but I remember that one got him the Human Torch was denied a bank loan okay so they are clearly politics infused into these films and these moments in our country's history were the reason they were created but the biggest difference between these new and old old McKay eras is the tone of how these topics are presented frell's performance and presence brings a certain Ridiculousness and hilarity to the topics presented the satire in these movies is turned up to 100 characters are obviously unrealistic at times while still making us care about them as real people it's a crazy balancing act that frell manages to do with his most insane characters make us humanize and care about a person who is ultimately inhuman these types of characters don't really exist in the big shorten Vice I mean their movies based on real people but with don't look up McKay finally tried to return to these types of characters and in my opinion it was a massive Miss there was an immediate backlash that quickly became a meme oh Jesus oh that's terrible is that even allowed on the Internet or I think that's Photoshop Kate before we dive into the section I want to point out I am mainly focused on don't look up The Big Short and advice aren't perfect in my opinion but they do achieve what they set out to do without any big qualms for me there are little things that irk me like McKay's way of presenting information in The Big Short reminds me a lot of like Deadpool maybe but that's super subjective and a lot of people find that to be the movie's biggest strength so let's dive into don't look up I I wrote a [ __ ] ton of notes as I watched along so it starts to really explore how obsessed we are with celebrity culture and how we cope with bigger events happening on social media and don't get me wrong I completely agree with the point being made here I think people care way too much about celebrities and the inner workings of their lives the issue with these scenes is I cannot tell if it's supposed to be funny or sad it feels like it's definitely supposed to be funny based off of the punch lines that they're telling and the fact that we get Ariana Grande playing basically a character from Andy samberg's pop star never stop never stopping you guys discovered a comet That's So Dope I have a tattoo of a shooting star on my back that's terrific but none of it made me laugh it almost gave me the feeling of an episode of Black Mirror and then there's almost anything in this movie that relates to the internet not only the poor editing montages of people's social media posts but also the ultimate misunderstanding of memes and meme Culture by Adam McKay it makes little to no sense to me why Adam McKay a comedy writer cannot fathom why the internet responds to world events with comedy in fact I'd say that's almost word for word the job description for SNL head writer shouldn't McKay understand comedy's purpose in our society there shouldn't be a difference between an SNL sketch and a funny tweet one isn't necessarily more valuable than the other I mean I personally prefer an SNL sketch but I got to admit there have been tweets that have made me laugh or made my day a little bit better humans deal with grief in different ways and one of those ways is comedy maybe explore why we do this stuff instead of just saying oh look at humans they attach to celebrities and laugh at serious situations everyone's super [ __ ] up okay my next complaint is how Adam McKay can't really decide if he wants to do one of his newer movies a drama or one of his older movies a satire he's really stuck in the middle on this one and it is mainly the characters that are doing that for him you see he listed Doctor Strange Love as one of his Inspirations for this movie and this movie definitely has some Doctor Strange Love s characters in it you got Merill Streep's president Jonah Hill as her son and then Mark ryland's ridiculous Tim Cook parody but the issue is the two main characters are not iCal at all having non-satirical characters in a satirical World definitely gets a little bit weird at times especially when those two characters are the main characters who you're supposed to be viewing the lens of the movie through you see these will Ferell movies worked very well because the main characters were the satirical characters while the side characters would ground it a little bit with the non-satirical main characters it feels like don't look up as putting you on a rocket ship straight to Planet satire but is then pulling you back down to earth at the same exact time there's like this fake TMZ like talk show or I guess it's kind of like the view maybe a little bit and on this show Jennifer Lawrence freaks out on TV because we're all going to die which is another really interesting topic to explore that no one really believes people who are highly emotional but uh they they barely touch on it that just really happens in this scene and then we move on this movie Just touches so many topics and doesn't explore any of them in depth and that is the biggest issue here I think the one topic that it covers and Nails is the climate change topic which is what this movie is mainly about obviously I haven't mentioned that yet it's just bogged down by the rest of these things that are really annoying because at the end of the day putting up a mirror to our society can be valuable and it can be funny but by being out of touch and covering way too many topics people don't trust the mirror that Adam McKay is holding up to do it's like one of those funh house mirrors it actively complains about so many things that happen on the internet without having an understanding of why those things happen on the internet don't look up is a frustrating mess that is a mixture of McKay's old and new era which just Falls flat because of that we definitely could have used a feral satirical character here in my opinion [Music] okay I can sit here and criticize a movie all I want but at the end of the day an artist did put a lot of effort into this particular movie so let's take a look at Adam McKay's transition from those will feral comedies to these political dramas and why exactly he decided to do that so I pieced together McKay's story from multiple sources but it was mainly from this piece on Vanity Fair by Joe hagon in the piece McKay recalls a moment a therapy where he really started to realize maybe comedy movies aren't enough that's when he began seeing Hollywood super therapist Barry Michaels in his first session McKay told Michaels he was having a recurring dream in which a bear was chasing him it got to the point where the bear was trying to write me script notes McKay says I was getting these crudely written notes from the bear like are you kidding me Michaels laughed at mck he goes are you [ __ ] for real he's like your Shadow is screaming at you that was it K says he felt a great weight lift off his shoulders but what was the bear there might have been a little part of me that's like what the [ __ ] are you doing mck recalls are you really doing what you should be doing are those little political elements and Tega kns really enough McKay goes on to write the other guys puts a whole political Parable in it no one notices and then McKay decides yeah maybe these comedy movies aren't for me anymore he then decides to make the big short and never look back to satisfy his need to make more politically direct films this is when a creative breakup Begins for frell McKay as they simply have different interests and what kind of movies they want to make eventually in 2019 they decide to also dissolve their production company together Gary Sanchez Productions in 2019 frell McKay finally released a joint statement announcing their split saying the two of us will always work together creatively and always be friends and we recognize we are lucky as hell to end this Venture as such but it wasn't exactly true the last time they talked was a Curt phone conversation agreeing to break up I said well I mean we're splitting up the company recounts McKay and he basically was like yeah we are and basically was like have a good life and I'm like [ __ ] frell's never going to talk to me again so it ended not well it did in fact end even worse after their company breakup in 2019 McKay began producing and casting for the show winning time on HBO a show about the Lakers in the 1980s and if you know frell you know he is a huge LA Sports Fan and he wanted so badly to play the role of Lakers owner Jerry bus in this show but everyone did not feel like he was a good fit so McKay ended up casting John C Riley in the lead role instead Riley is still really good friends with phell so he told frell about it and frell was very upset McKay expresses extreme regret about how he handled the situation he knows that frell deserved to hear it straight from him instead of John C Riley and he doesn't blame frell for not wanting to be friends anymore but McKay still holds out hope that one day they can mend their friendship so the why here may seem very complicated and messy but at the end of the day it's actually very simple if frell and McKay were on good terms would we see a Step Brothers 2 the answer is no McKay moved on even before him and will frell were fighting he made the big short and vice before will frell and him broke up their production company if he made stepb Brothers 2 or another General comedy movie McKay would not be satisfying what he wants to make creatively and we know the best creative projects come when the director would rather be making something else I used a Adobe Premiere I like to do a little weekend editing just cut 3 minutes out of uh Good Fellas okay so now that I've explored all of McKay's career what is the answer to that thesis question does McKay need will frell to make his best movies and the answer is yes and no yes I do think McKay is a better writer of just pure comedy movies and that is the type of movie he primarily made in the willf faral era I prefer Step Brothers to something like the big short but there's a a whole other Factor here that makes it so the answer just isn't that simple the why section of this video is extremely important to answering this question and people may not like to hear this but I think a McKay feral comedy would suck in 2024 in fact their last movie together a movie we have been ignoring this entire video Anchor Man 2 did unfortunately kind of suck art is at its best when it's made with love vision and full passion both McKay and frell have moved on so while I was disappointed in don't look up I am still a huge fan of someone creating something they love and McKay is also making original movies which goes a long way nowadays I will definitely take a 2 and 1 half star original movie over a three star IP based movie almost any day despite my criticisms of his film making I truly respect McKay as a director he knows what he wants to make and goes for it I didn't make this for critics I didn't make this for my career I didn't make this to look cool I didn't make this to be hot shot Joe director so even though I wish his next movie would give me the same feeling I got when I first saw Anchor Man or Step Brothers I will still be in the theater waiting for whatever Adam McKay has to say next and another one in the books thank you guys all for subscribing I got over 100 subscribers from my last video which is insane I did not expect it to do that well and a lot of you in the comments are asking for a sequel or a followup there are a lot of good directors that I left off of that list that I definitely want to talk about in a sequel eventually for now I want to get through a couple of these video essay ideas and then I can get to a sequel or an intermediate guide um or even I want to do a beginner guide to foreign filmmakers 2 I think that'd be a really good idea so please subscribe because I expect that type of video to be out sometime this year and comment below what was your favorite Adam McKay film or comedy film from the 2000s era I really love 2000s comedies and I want to make more videos about it so comment below what movie or director from the 2000s I should cover next thank you guys for watching and have a great day

Channel: John George

Views: 6,115

Keywords: willferrell, adammckay, movie, comedy, film, filmreview, stepbrothers, anchorman, ronburgandy, talladeganights, rickybobby, funny, paulrudd, John C. Reilly, Step Brothers, The Other Guys, Saturday Night Live, SNL, Sketch Comedy, Don't Look Up, Leonardo DiCaprio, Vice, The Big Short

Id: 94LUlbZdkKg

Length: 20min 29sec (1229 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 12 2024