Brigsby Bear is a children's adventure television show, produced for an audience of one - James (Played by 'Saturday Night Live's' Kyle Mooney) but when the show abruptly ends, James's life is shifted entirely as he sets out to finish the story.Thankfully I was advised by a friend to go into Brigsby Bear blind, and I followed, I avoided trailers, posters, cast lists, just about everything about the film aside from its main poster which I caught on the wall while entering to see another film.Thankfully, in avoiding any details on the film, going in blind rewarded me with a rollercoaster of reads and trying to find my feet with what the movie was about, which is to the film's credit. There is a lot of playing with audience expectations of where this story will go and how characters will and should behave. For example, some characters you'd expect to be 'evil' turn out to be quite wholesome and characters or situations you'd expect to reject James actually accept him for who he is and take him in with open arms, often revealing that people aren't so dissimilar to him. Thankfully this separation from expectations never feels forced or like a cheap trick as it matches the films tone and mood to its core.The pairing of character to tone is handled perfectly, a credit to "SNL's" Kyle Mooney's performance in pulling off a somewhat (or should be) harrowing story in a light-hearted and fun way. The writing does an incredible job of aiding his performance in making sure this comes across in a mild manner. I'd go so far as to say this is a terrific feel-good film, which I think is the way it is supposed to be. The cinematography uses standard camera work with wide shots and appealing colours to give the film a soft feel to it. Never giving us tense camera work, which reinforces this central theme of innocence, the movie itself follows a children's Television programme and in some respects, it has the same appeal, its silly, quirky and light-hearted.The coasting by direction it has does result in some lulls in the story. However, at times I didn't even think anything was happening other than us watching James be around people as he makes his movie. Some of the lulls are very comedic while a few offer nothing to aid the film or the character study which is thinly layered at best. While it may be a thinly layered character study and avoids any kind of depth digging into what is happening in the story and why characters are or are not addressing issues.I think avoiding taking itself too serious actually improves the film, it presents us with some ideas as to the mind of James but instead focuses on the coming together of people and passion for fandom. It goes into this idea of fandom, what it means, why grown men follow childhood passions, shows or movies and how it sticks with them for their lives. It does a good job of presenting facets of that discussion but again is thinly layered.Brigsby Bear is a fascinating, fun and superb feel-good movie. It's quirks and originality help it stand out taller than most films out at the moment and deserves to be championed for that. While it may not dig too deep into its themes and ideas it presents, its' thinly layered discussion is more than enough as having a big smile on your face for the film and leaving with it too, makes it an absolute treat.

I soooo wanted to like "Brigsby Bear." I saw it after coming off a string of depressing, bleak movies about people being nasty and mean to one another, and a film with a big heart full of decent characters all wanting to just do the right thing was appealing. But the screenplay for this movie is just lousy, and the film overall simply does not work because of it.I think the film is meant to strike a satirical tone, kind of a "Napoleon Dynamite" vibe, but it's not confident enough in itself to do it well. It makes a joke out of a dark premise (a child is abducted as a baby and raised by his kidnappers until he's reunited with his birth parents a good 25 years later), which could work under the right circumstances. But it so doggedly avoids dealing with any of the emotional or even just procedural collateral that would come with such a story in its interest to make everything happen easily and neatly. It's like a college student wrote a term paper about a subject he knows nothing about and didn't feel like researching.Greg Kinnear and Mark Hammill are the most recognizable faces that show up in this one. I would add Jane Adams to the list, but she's in a teensy-tiny part of the movie at the very beginning and is never seen again. I know she's not necessarily a major star, but she's a recognizable enough actress that one wonders if there are additional scenes of her that were left on the cutting room floor.Grade: C+

The narrative of Netflix's "The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt" collides with the notion of super-fandom in "Brigsby Bear," an inventive debut film from a couple newer "Saturday Night Live" talents. In other words, what would you do if you suddenly found out the movie franchise or TV series you obsess over was actually unknown to the rest of the world?Co-written by and starring Kyle Mooney, "Brigsby Bear" imagines what a young man whose singular focus was a TV show might do when he discovers that not only the whole show is "fake," but also his entire life as he knew it was a fabrication. Creating both the playful tone of geeky sci-fi/fantasy TV show fandom with the seriousness of a real-life trauma is the balancing act assigned to Mooney's "SNL" colleague Dave McCary, who makes his feature directing debut.What you want out of this conceptually intriguing melange of a comedy after the premise makes itself clear will ultimately determine how much you enjoy "Brigsby Bear." The premise is so rich that there are lots of directions the film can go, but Mooney and co-writer Kevin Costello's script only satisfies some of them. Up for debate is whether it could have.The most immediate challenge of watching the film involves the realism of Mooney's character James' reactions regarding his unusual circumstances. One might expect that learning the truth about his life and adjusting to the world might come with a heavy dose of trauma, but the story refuses to let James get buried in a heap of psychological conflict. Instead, he kind of frolics ahead with a full head of blissful ignorance. This makes empathizing with James really difficult, but Mooney's commitment to the character helps overcome it to a degree.One of the film's strengths from a moral standpoint is that James clearly has some kind of social disorder, but what he has or doesn't have never comes up and has no bearing on the story in any overt way. Most films can't say that. Kudos aside, Mooney really does bring an authenticity as well as comedic skill to playing James. What helps the script navigate around the challenges of realism and a character with that kind of personality and worldview is the way the other characters in James' life, namely his parents (Matt Walsh and Michaela Watkins) and therapist (Claire Danes) think they know what's best. "Brigsby Bear" also has traces of an inspirational drama, as in James is that challenged, lovable main character who inspires everyone around him. From his sister (Ryan Simpkins) to a local police detective (Greg Kinnear), James is meant to be an infectious personality who helps change peoples' perspectives on life. Again, it's Mooney's performance that allows some of that tenderness to take hold. Yet tenderness is just one tone contending to be the featured mood of "Brigsby Bear," which is both a pleasure and a frustration. The film is about fandom, it's about overcoming trauma, it's about creating things and pursuing your passion - yet none of these things are explored with the care and depth they'd receive if the film were focused on any one of them exclusively. Mooney and Costello open a lot of doors to rooms they don't let us into, and if any one of those rooms appears more interesting to you then the ones you ultimately enter, "Brigsby Bear" will feel a little disappointing.Despite not entirely matching its ambition, "Brigsby" contains a lot of elements that will endear it to audiences, and in fact, some of its own creative ambition appropriately matches that of its character. ~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Review for more

I'm still teary from the last few minutes of the movie, did not think it would be this emotional. Kyle Mooney is so incredibly subtle with his acting that if you haven't seen much of his previous work, I'm positive most of the parts I was laughing out loud at, you would probably be wondering what was so funny. He is a fantastic character actor and he really pulls off a new subtle character in James, which is kind of an amalgamation of his most well known characters from his Youtube skit days, perhaps a little more naive than normal.There wasn't a weak actor in the entire film, but besides Mooney I would give special praise to Mark Hamill, although he only has a few scenes on camera, his presence is felt throughout the entire movie, through his voicing of Brigsby etc. I actually thought Hamill was better used here than in "The Last Jedi"..I'm not much of a critic, I can't summarise exactly what I loved about the movie very well. I will say though that the movie is superbly bitter sweet, mostly sweet, endearing and charming. And of course, absolutely hilarious, but as above, you may need either repeat viewings or be an already established fan of Mooneys work.Finally want to mention Dave McCary. Dave and Kyle are the perfect pairing. I absolutely loved their Youtube skits and even that amazing Instagram series they made (it's called the "D and K podcast", look it up). For his first feature length film, there is no way you would be able to tell. The movie is very well directed, I tend to pay attention to how a movie is shot, put together etc, but with this it was always characters first, which I think is a great strength. This movie is inspirational. I can't wait to see what these guys come up with next.