Just in time for its debut on MAX, my belated review of Dicks: The Musical, an A24 film i rented from the Apple Store with audio description from Deluxe, narrated by Julian Smith. Right off the bat, this film is not for you.
Yes, you. I don’t even know you, but I’m pretty sure this film isn’t for you. I’m honestly not even sure who this film is for, because it seems to want to be for nobody. The duo behind the film adaptation of the off-Broadway musical ‘Fucking Identical Twins’ have concocted something Trey Parker and Matt Stone would love, or perhaps John Waters, but I’m pretty sure those people don’t read my reviews. If they do, welcome.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t like Dicks. And it has nothing to do with me being an LGBT film critic either. I’m down for absurdist humor. I’m not easily offended, and the raunchy comedy here didn’t put me off, but it does seem like they are constantly turning up the volume to get people to leave before the end. The last time I had this effect was Tom Green’s Freddy Got Fingered, a truly terrible experience. I was working in a theatre, and was the projectionist in charge of the employee screening. About twenty employees, since I think it was the only new release, and 18 of them left. My friend couldn’t leave me alone. And it was so much like people just reaching a certain point and leaving. I distinctly remember an extra in the audience near the end of the film holding up a sign that said “Why The Fuck Are You Still Here?”, clearly asking the audience why they hadn’t left. I was being paid, that’s why.
Here, this absurd humor mixed with music actually landed, and the supporting turns from Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally really did help this film a lot. I actually recently did a video on my YouTube channel, where I had to rank the Top 10 comedies of 2023, and I went based totally off of the amount I laughed in each film. Dicks won. Dicks was my pick for Best Comedy even though I recognize that says more about the state of comedy in 2023. Normally, there’s something that stands out more, but it seems like we are getting more afraid of pissing people off and getting cancelled, so comedy feels tame and muted. Dicks doesn’t care what you think, nor does it care. It’s a nod to films of years past where filmmakers like john Waters just made a film, and said “here ya go”.
The songs are absurd, the premise is more so. Nothing ever makes sense, but so much of the randomness is the charm. As two people who live next door to each other realize they are identical twins, who also work at the same company, they do a Parent Trap to try and reunite their parents. mom (Mullally) is in a state, as her vagina fell off, and lane plays the gay father who keeps these weird human hybrid sewer boys in cages as his lovers/friends/pets. NONE of this is ever meant to make sense, and the film pushes its audience further away as the brothers fall in love with each other, and later we are met with an appearance by God where I’m certain a lot of people will tune out.
Then again, people keep showing up to The Book Of Mormon, which has a song that literally translates to Fuck you God, so maybe I’m wrong. The audio description here is perfect, as it tries to describe all this batshit nonsense, even pointing out how low-budget and intentionally shitty the set is, as production elements are seen, like a light in one scene. Then, the incest begins, and the narrator has to describe that. It’s almost a badge of honor, describing this, like thank you for figuring how how to even do this. There’s no normal way to present this film, because it is intentionally, and hilariously, abnormal.
But, as much as I laughed, i told you at the beginning, this film is not for you. I’m not really sure who this film is for.
Final Grade: A-
