I can’t believe the best part of a John Mulaney special was Jake Gyllenhaal.
This either needed to be a loving homage to shows like Sesame Street, or an Adult Swim-style evisceration of same. Instead, Mulaney opts for an unsatisfying middle ground, with jokes that are too esoteric for kids and too soft for adults. I love Mulaney, but this one’s a miss.
By any standard, this is a very solid movie: well-shot, well-acted, funny, charming, moving. By the standard of any rom-com made in the last decade, it’s a fucking masterpiece.
A heartwarming tale of a man and his FOR THE LOVE OF PETE, SOMEONE PLEASE PLAY WITH THAT DOG
Anderson—always better when he’s turning artifice into artifice, rather than real life into artifice—scores a win here. This is the strongest of the four Anderson/Dahl short story collaborations on Netflix. All have unsatisfying endings, but in this one at least the journey makes it worthwhile.
