Butler's Cinema Scene

“BRIGSBY BEAR”  My rating: B+

100 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Describing a film as “sweet” is tantamount to giving it the kiss of death (when it comes to movies we’re a sweet-aversive culture), but there’s no other word to describe the oddball beauty of “Brigsby Bear.”

Balancing lightweight comedy, melancholy undercurrents and an ultimately uplifting message, Dave McCary’s feature directing debut (after several shorts and many segments of “Saturday Night Live”) in some ways resembles such innocents-on-the-loose titles as “Being There” and “Edward Scissorhands.”

Our protagonist is James (“SNL’s” Kyle Mooney), who has spent his entire life in a bomb shelter with his parents (Mark Hamill, Jane Adams) after the outside world has turned toxic. At least he thinks they’re his parents.  Shortly after the film begins he learns that he was kidnapped as a newborn and has been raised in isolated secrecy.

Now the puzzled and perplexed James has been “rescued” and returned to the suburban home of his natural parents (Matt Walsh, Michaela Watkins) and spunky younger sister Aubrey (Ryan Simpkins). They’re eager to make him welcome (well, maybe not Aubrey so much) but there are plenty of adjustment problems.

James has only known two other humans his entire life, and now he’s told they’re criminals of the worse sort. The existence he knew was a total sham. He knows nothing about contemporary society, about pop culture, about the latest trends in language or social behavior.

Kyle Moody

All this innocent really knows, in fact, is a kid’s sci-fi TV show called “Brigsby Bear,” a mashup of genres starring a time-and-dimension-traveling furry version of Dr. Who. Every week for more than 20 years his “father” would show up with a new videotaped episode of “Brigsby Bear” which James would watch repeatedly until the labyrinthine facets of Brigsby’s universe became as real to him as the stubble on his chin (apparently he’s never seen a razor).

Turns out that James’ captor/abductor has been making these episodes in a cruddy warehouse using crude sets, tacky but charming special effects and desperate actors. In a sense it was the ultimate act of love of a “father” for his child, but it has left James  bereft. He has lived his life in anticipation of the next “Brigsby” episode, and now there will be no more.

And so, after a period of clumsy adjustment, James decides that he will make his own movie wrapping up the Brigsby saga.

With the help of the police detective (Greg Kinnear) who handled his case and who yearns to be an actor, James lays his hands on the the show’s tacky props and costumes. With the avid support of Spencer (Jorge Lindeborg), one of Aubrey’s classmates, he goes to work to complete the saga that has been his life so far.

There are about a million ways in which this could go wrong, but director McCary and writers Kevin Costello and Mooney establish and maintain a tender balance between weirdness, social satire and an elating sense of childlike wonder.

With equal parts snarkiness and inspiration, “Brigsby Bear” worms its way into our hearts.

| Robert W. Butler