I may be one of the few people in the universe that knew about Brigsby Bear before it came to theaters. I saw a lot of previews, but didn’t get a sense of what it was really about. I finally felt like watching it after talking with someone who works at my favorite local theater about which movies he loved in 2017, and this one was at the top of his list with the caveat, “It is weird.” When the DVD was sitting on a shelf at my local library, it felt like the universe was telling me to give it a chance.
I actually don’t want to give away the plot of Brigsby Bear because discovering it is an important part of the process. If you are familiar with Kyle Mooney’s work on Saturday Night Live, particularly his short prerecorded skits, the tone of his work is a sincere, deadpan, tragic sweetness and innocence to a slightly absurd, but not necessarily unrealistic scenario, which is treated with gravity and never breaks the fourth wall to wink at the audience even though it always feels as if it is not that far behind the actors’ eyes. The best example of his work is an ongoing plot that Mooney, a nebbish, quiet, white guy is in a passionate, romantic relationship with Leslie Jones, an older, bigger black woman. It is possible, but there are implicit unanswered questions such as how did they get attracted to each other, which is where the humor hides. Mooney never gets into logistics, but forces his audience to accept it and explore the dynamics in the scenario that you are given.
Brigsby Bear gives us a premise rife with absurd pathos and runs with it. The result is that you end up with an off kilter character who has a plausible reason to be out of step with his surroundings then creates a bridge using bricks from something that he loves, a TV show that no one knows about, to connect with new people and an ocean of possibilities by making it familiar. He is like many adults unaware of how what he thought was nourishing and caring actually victimized and stunted him then is forced to figure out what to keep from that experience and what works in the broader world. The one characteristic that he shares with the broader world is his enthusiasm for the minutiae of stories and finding people to transmit it to.
Brigsby Bear will always have a special place in my heart for its depiction of a blerd, a black nerd. He understands Mooney’s character’s situation, but never condescends or pities him. He is the only character who approaches him as a person, not a story or a set of unusual circumstances. He treats him with an emotional honesty and gentleness that is missing in Mooney’s other relationships. Game peeps game, and they speak the same language, fandom and a desire to create what they love.
The unspoken problem of Brigsby Bear is other people’s inability to grasp that they actually share Mooney’s character’s enthusiasm, they just exhibit it in different ways. There is something inherently perverse about inhabiting a world in which you can do anything, but you want to keep doing this one thing that you love so it is not unreasonable to consider him damaged, especially given its origins; however in a world where people have been watching a soap opera for as long as they have been alive, get passionate over Game of Thrones or obsessively follow endless games in a given sport, it is not so weird if we’re honest with ourselves. The only distinction between Mooney’s character and everyone else is that they did not see the show. “We have dreams and imaginations to help us escape, and no one can take that away from you.” It is actually depicted as more insane to make arbitrary distinctions about what we love just because it is not widely socially accepted or has a dubious provenance.
If Brigsby Bear has a mission, it is to preserve or reignite the passion to embrace what you love. One of the supporting characters played by Greg Kinnear explains that he used to act then Mooney’s character asks, “Why don’t you do it anymore?” It is a simple question that most adults never ask themselves. This film demands that we challenge what we deem worth our time. Do we diminish what we love by putting demands of success or approval from others instead of the joy that it ignites within our soul? It reminded me of Frank without the mental illness in the way that it demands that we devote time and resources to doing something we love not to get a reward in return, but to be fully oneself and find communion with others as our true selves on holy ground, space to create. “I love making a movie. All you have to do is get your friends and put pieces together and tell a story.”
I noticed others criticized the movie for not exploring the more sinister elements of the story, but I think that is the more instinctual, cliché route given the premise for Mooney’s character being a fish out of water. If you go down that road for too long, you will end up with a Yorgos Lanthimos film like Dogtooth. Brigsby Bear definitely has a lot of tense moments that the main character deflects because he is not interested in it. Jane Adams’ character is definitely exasperated by his choices and seems intent on him embracing her crazy, fictional fixation. His parents are horrified that in many ways he prefers a nightmare to them. His experiences with cops, dangers and consequences takes a sudden turn that could have led to a role of becoming a medicated zombie more victimized and alone than he was earlier. I think that it is harder to find a plausible happy resolution, and the film still ends with uncertainty. What will he do next? He has no concept of money or how to function in the real world. His friends are younger than him and will. These beautiful moments won’t last forever. The prophet has to come down eventually, and depression could be next.
Brigsby Bear’s biggest asset is its cast. People, Mark Hamill is in this film! Yes, Star Wars’ Mark Hamill! Matt Walsh from Veep plays the dad, and Michaela Watkins from In A World… plays his mom. A couple of SNL alum, Beck Bennett and Andy Samberg, make brief appearances. Every actor, whether an unknown or a brand name, provides a perfect mix of drama and comedy rooted in realism in their performance, which is a more demanding expectation than most conventional movie roles usually require.
I would not say that Brigsby Bear is one of the best movies of 2017, but it subverts expectations and defies classification without being aggressively artsy fartsy or pretentious. Instead this film embraces finding the honey in the carcass of a lion and tasting the sweetness in the craziness of life.