Dicks: The Musical Review: A24's Raunchy Romp Is Absurdly Hilarious, But Can't Quite Sustain Itself
A24 has become a household name, even among general audiences, because of its penchant for finding unconventional stories that appeal to niche audiences. Many casual moviegoers have been frustrated by the patience required for the more substantial and less generic storytelling typically found within an A24 film, from recent entries like "The Green Knight" back to Jonathan Glazer's "Under the Skin." But when it comes to "Dicks: The Musical," the raunchy R-rated comedy from fresh-faced comedians and collaborators Aaron Jackson & Josh Sharp and "Borat" director/"Seinfeld" executive producer Larry Charles, you pretty much get exactly what has been advertised in the movie's zany trailer.
Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp star in "Dicks: The Musical," which they also wrote the script, lyrics, and book for, based on their own off-off-Broadway stage show that originated at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre. Right at the top of the movie, bumper cards inform the audience that this production was written by these two gay men, though they will be playing strenuously straight dudes in the movie, which they cheekily acknowledge as being very courageous. This is crucial to the comedy of "Dicks: The Musical," because many of the laughs come from the fact that Jackson and Sharp make no effort to hide some of their homosexual traits, such as their speech pattern and mannerisms, while portraying completely chauvinistic business douche-bros who can't stop singing about their titular male members and hooking up with chicks.
Sharp and Jackson play Craig Tittle and Trevor Brock, businessmen from two different companies who are at the top of their game: selling repair parts for robot vacuums like the Roomba. Each of them lives a fulfilling life of sleeping with women, doing whatever the hell they want, and just generally crushing it, but they're about to be thrown a couple curveballs. First, there's the merging of their two companies, forcing each of them to compete for the top salesman honor while working under a lady boss (rapper Megan Thee Stallion in her feature film debut). Then, the two men discover, while singing a ballad of longing for something that will fill the secret emptiness inside of them, that they're actually long-lost identical twin brothers. Gasp!
Parent trap!
Upon this revelation, Craig and Trevor decide to pull off a "Parent Trap" scheme where they pretend to be each other so they can meet the mother and father they've never known and maybe try to get them back together. And that's when the true madness of "Dicks: The Musical" begins to unfold.
Craig and Trevor receive plenty of shocking details about each of the parents they never knew. Their mother Evelyn (Megan Mullally) is losing her damn mind, and she's also somehow lost a key part of her anatomy. Meanwhile, their alcoholic father Harris (Nathan Lane) has come to the realization that he's actually gay. Mullally and Lane have never been more ludicrous, each of them providing musical prowess and preposterous performances. Mullally rolls around in a motorized wheelchair and speaks with a cartoonish old lady voice with a lisp; Lane is taking care of two horrifying little caged goblins called the Sewer Boys, who wear diapers and need to be fed like baby birds, giving us the glorious image of Lane chewing up deli ham and haphazardly spitting it into the mouths of these devilish creatures.
Sharp and Jackson work well as leads in this production, delivering over-the-top performances that fit right into their goofy artificial little world that calls back to the soundstage musicals of the 1950s. Aaron Jackson has the facial expressions of Jim Carrey with the mouth of Steven Tyler, and his enthusiastic energy is infectious. Josh Sharp has the presence of a young, mischievous Lin-Manuel Miranda with the haircut of an eight-year old boy. Both also have the perfect theatre voices for this kind of musical, which is filled with catchy tunes, not to mention an undeniable comedic chemistry that makes them an entertaining duo. Whether it's their bombastic masculinity or melodramatic, longing gazes during big ballads, these two know exactly what they're doing with this movie.
Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally elevate everything
However, if it wasn't for Lane and Mullally, "Dicks: The Musical" would've gotten tired much sooner. The presence of these two geniuses of stage and screen elevates the juvenile material and makes a comedic symphony out of one note. The film has flairs of the musical exploits of Trey Parker and Matt Stone, both "Book of Mormon" and "South Park," but it also has the inappropriate and taboo touches of filth master John Waters, though it never quite measures up to the overall greatness of those comparisons. Adapted from what was previously a 30-minute stage show called "F**king Identical Twins," the expanded script struggles to fill out a feature-length musical, and even at a brisk 86-minute runtime, you start to feel a bit of drag in the end. It's a paper-thin narrative, and while the laughs are plentiful, there's just not enough substance.
At the same time, the absurdity is truly the point, especially when it comes to the third act, where there's incest, a disembodied vagina, even more of the Sewer Boys, and Bowen Yang as a disco dominatrix-looking version of God (who has funny interludes at various points throughout the movie) in a full musical sequence set to a song called "God is a F****t." (And in case it's not clear, yes, that's the gay f-slur.) It's here that the story really goes off the rails, not necessarily in a good way but also not enough to ruin the overall experience.
Even with the film's shortcomings, you can't help but appreciate the fact that the musical is so unashamedly queer and humorously irreverent. There's just too much hilarious nonsense and amusing farcicality to be deterred by the film's missteps. Sharp and Jackson don't completely overstay their welcome, and they show great potential for something even better in the future. But for now, this is the kind of movie that is destined to become a cult classic, perhaps with repertory screenings and audience participation. Who doesn't want to be in a crowd belting out the lyrics, "My c**k is f**kin' massive, it always makes the ladies sore, it's 10 inches long, curves to the left, then it goes 10 inches more."
/Film Rating: 7 out of 10