Movie of the Week: Nerdland

Alexa: Well, it’s official guys. “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” is no longer the worst movie I’ve seen as part of our Netflix series. I knew nothing about “Nerdland” going into it but expected it to resonate at least a little given Paul Rudd and Patton Oswalt’s involvement. But instead this movie tries to say a lot without saying much at all. At its heart are an aspiring actor and screenwriter whose dreams of Hollywood success haven’t flourished as their 30th birthday approaches, so they decide to pursue fame at any cost by trying to become viral sensations. All the while they’re surrounded by images of consumerism, gratuitous violence and preposterously proportioned shallow women. I love a good raunch comedy and a well-crafted reflection on pop culture, but “Nerdland” fails at both. It fancies itself a clever commentary on a superficial, hypocritical, fame-obsessed society, but instead it’s crassness for crassness’ sake and reeks of self importance. Ultimately, it embodies the very qualities it mocks.

Joel: If you look at the cast list for this movie, you’ll see a lot of talented names, Paul Rudd, Patton Oswalt, Hannibal Buress, etc. And this is a movie that came out last year, so it’s not like this is a situation where people needed to say yes to any job that came along. But despite all of the high profile actors associated with the script, the end result is surprisingly, almost frustratingly, bad. Nerdland is the “story” of an aspiring actor and screenwriter, who, after realizing that they’re now thirty years old with nothing to show for it, decide to get famous as soon as possible, by any means possible. The movie’s objectively short run time of eighty-five minutes still managed to drag as the movie as it ambles from one failed attempt at fame to another. It’s clear that the movie views itself as a sort of commentary on our modern obsession with fame and mindless consumerism, but the commentary never really gets any deeper than “sometimes people get famous for doing bad things.” In the end, the movie doesn’t really ever pull itself together enough to make a coherent point of any kind, it just kind of ends on a whimper, but then again, that feeling is present throughout the whole movie.

Chris: This move is now my go-to example for the idea that there is no cast good enough to overcome a garbage script. I'm tempted to list this movie as a scam because if this wasn't on our list of movies to watch, I still probably would've given it a try on my own once I looked at the cast. The movie just felt halfway done, half-ass effort, half-ass animation and it's fails at pretty much everything it set out to do. It failed at being a commentary on society and celebrity worship, it failed at being a comedy, and it failed at being satire. So what does that make this movie? Garbage. Absolute garbage and I'm mad that I'm still talking about this movie and I'm mad that I was at one point excited to watch this because of the cast it managed to put together.