Fool’s Paradise, 2023.
Written and Directed by Charlie Day.
Starring Charlie Day, Ken Jeong, Kate Beckinsale, Adrien Brody, Jason Sudeikis, Ray Liotta, Steve Coulter, Jason Bateman, Edie Falco, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Drew Droege, Artemis Pebdani, Jimmi Simpson, Dean Norris, Glenn Howerton, Common, Jillian Bell, Katherine McNamara, George Lopez, Travis Fimmel, Robert Belushi, Austin Zajur, and John Malkovich.
SYNOPSIS:
A fool for love becomes an accidental celebrity only to lose it all.
Writer/director Charlie Day’s directorial debut Fool’s Paradise is less of a traditional movie and more a series of skits poking fun at the entire arc of a modern actor’s career and Hollywood’s exploitation of them with unabashed absurdity. It’s an admirably silly idea that starts amusing and full of potential but unfortunately stops being funny and becomes exhausting as it hits every piece of low-hanging fruit. There is no real story to speak of here, so once it becomes evident what ride Charlie Day is taking the character on, it becomes apparent that the journey has no direction.
Charlie Day also stars in the film as The Fool, a mental patient kicked to the curb and back in society because the facility doesn’t deem it worth paying for his treatments. Some unknown and unexplained event has rendered The Fool unable to speak, although he can still hear, so he technically isn’t deaf or mute. He also has childlike behavior, suggesting some form of age regression brought on by whatever he has experienced.
While wandering the streets, a producer (played by the legendary Ray Liotta, here in full-on temperamental mode) fed up with the uncooperative method actor star on his Billy the Kid treatment notices that The Fool looks identical to his A-lister (also played by a belligerent, over-the-top Charlie Day making for a stark contrast that one might think the film will do something with before that characterizes the narrative entirely), promptly swerving the car and doing a doughnut, causing numerous accidents, to pick up this drifter. Strangely enough, the producer also doesn’t care that the man doesn’t speak.
The Fool is inserted into the movie and inexplicably becomes a star, partnered up with a publicist played by Ken Jeong, desperate for talent. Once he becomes further ingratiated into the Hollywood system (working with a plethora of fictional co-stars and filmmakers colorfully played by an ensemble ranging from Adrien Brody to Jason Sudeikis to his It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia collaborators, with some roles playing a larger part than others), he is irreverently given the fake name Latte Pronto, which is admittedly funny for its randomness and goofiness to say.
The critical problem here is that most of these comedic skits bomb. There’s never any question of who or what the movie is attacking, and there’s no substance or emotional weight behind any of it, which is a bigger issue considering there’s also not much laughter. Every notable actor is playing a larger-than-life loudmouth, which assuredly fits with the Hollywood workplace environment, but it all feels forced and lacks jokes and punchlines.
Except for Common as a homeless, forgotten former superstar who makes the most of his character’s eccentricities and Ray Liotta (who is sadly no longer with us, so it’s a treasure to see him on the screen once again in anything), practically every performance (aside from Charlie Day, who deserves a degree of praise for his commitment to the nonspeaking role and project) will be forgotten regardless of how major the cameo feels. And this movie can’t help itself from introducing new actors, presumably as a distraction from how unfunny it is.
However, there is something admirable to appreciate in Charlie Day taking away his voice as an actor, completely relying on his gift for facial expressions and physical comedy. Some of that skill shines through, but again, it’s overwhelming, and Fool’s Paradise becomes a grind to sit through, eventually reaching some baffling places, such as a brief entanglement in politics.
However, one storytelling element remains constant throughout Latte Pronto’s hijinks: the dynamic between him and his publicist. By the end of Fool’s Paradise, one feels that Charlie Day hates everything about Hollywood and the trajectory it forces every actor into but has nothing but love for publicists, perceiving them as the only true friends in Tinseltown. That is a solid idea for a parody of Hollywood, but Fool’s Paradise settles for something almost resembling an anthology that stops being funny roughly 20 minutes in. Comedy doesn’t require subtlety, but this is aggressively irritating without much to invest in.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
