MQFF Presents: Midsumma Movies - Dicks: The Musical
“The following film was bravely written by two homosexuals, the first time gay men have ever written anything” – or so we are advised at the outset of A24’s completely ludicrous first foray into musicals. But not for them a tentative dipping of their toes in the waters – au contraire! Instead, director Larry Charles (Borat, Brüno, Curb Your Enthusiasm) and the writer-star pairing of Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp have adapted Jackson and Sharp’s unhinged off-Broadway musical Fucking Identical Twins to deliver “the strangest, most demented film of the year” (The Guardian) – which is, if anything, to grossly understate matters.
Jackson and Sharp play performatively, aggressively heterosexual, unconvincingly identical twin salesman separated at birth but united in the offices of a retail company bossed – and how! – by Megan Thee Stallion’s Gloria. Their pissing-contest rivalry there falls away when they realise their fraternal bond and become hellbent, à la The Parent Trap, on reuniting their mother (Megan Mullally) and father (Nathan Lane). This will be no easy task, however, as the former has become a completely batty shut-in and the latter a fabulously gay recluse who keeps a couple of puppet “Sewer Boys” as beloved pets.
But with Bowen Yang on hand as God to check in at intervals upon the ridiculous song-and-dance proceedings, how could they possibly fail... ?
“FROM A GAY GOD TO TWINCEST, A24’S ABSURDIST SATIRE MUST BE SEEN TO BE BELIEVED” – PETER DEBRUGE, VARIETY
2023, USA, 86 mins, CTC
Dir: Larry Charles
Courtesy: VVS Films
