He’s no stranger to menacing genre fare, as evidenced by the two other films he wrote and directed: 2017’s “I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore” and 2023’s “Toxic Avenger” reimagining. But despite pitch-black elements, “Idiots,” in theaters Friday via Independent Film Company, is a rollicking comedy. In it, two knuckleheads — the well-intentioned and religious Davis (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) and sleazy bro Mark (Dave Franco) — get a job chauffeuring troubled teens to rehab.
While their first ward, Sheridan Kimberley (Mason Thames), appears to be just another troubled rich kid, he turns out to be way too dangerous for his clueless caretakers. Having Sheridan actually be a cruel person was one of the key audience expectations the writer-director hoped to flip in the pursuit of laughs. He’ll get straightened out sooner or later.
I really like the idea of taking the wheel in the complete opposite direction, where at a certain point you realize, ‘No, he’s actually a monster that has to be captured before more people get hurt,’ and playing off people’s expectations.” Sheridan’s cruelty also fueled the film’s oft-shifting tone, which keeps audiences uncomfortably guessing what cringy situation comes next. Without giving away too much, the film’s grossest scatological joke happens right before Sheridan has a sinister scene with a sex worker (Kiernan Shipka). As soon as that happens, we’re back into the jokes, but in theory, that clenched feeling from that one moment remains, and that’s how you feel about Sheridan for the rest of the movie.
When they’re running around the block trying to capture him, it’s not as cartoonish as it otherwise would be.” “Idiots” takes the structure of a road trip movie, as Davis and Mark work desperately to keep Sheridan under control and bring him to rehab. But along the way they reckon with Mark’s busted car, a werewolf-obsessed rapper (Nicholas Braun, in an outrageous role), a militant kidnapper (Peter Dinklage), bad drug trips and more. Beyond the plot, Blair and his DP Guillermo Garza hoped to give the comedy a dynamic visual style.
Despite the tight indie schedule, Blair says all of this pressure helped make the movie stronger due to creative problem solving. But we would get in the day, and there wasn’t going to be enough time to get all of it,” Blair says. To really drill down on: ‘gun to my head, what can we afford to lose?’ So the scenes become as specific as possible, because it’s really just the bare bones of what you very essentially need.
I’m not saying, ‘I would go into another movie asking for fewer days.’ I wouldn’t. But I loved how that happened, because if we had the luxury of ‘you can shoot as much as you want,’ I don’t think we would have come up with the same solutions, and it would have felt different. It would have felt a little less sharp.” The one comedic element Blair didn’t want to stick his neck out for?
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