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STUBER
Director: Michael Dowse Cast: Kumail Nanjiani, Dave Bautista, Natalie Morales, Betty Gilpin, Jimmy Tatro, Mira Sorvino, Iko Uwais, Karen Gillan MPAA
Rating: Running Time: 1:33 Release Date: 7/12/19 |
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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 11, 2019 Stuber tests the limits of how far a movie can get on good casting alone. There's nothing special about the story, in which circumstances force together two characters of opposite temperaments and distinct professions as an unlikely pair. The two bicker and joke their way through a series of misadventures, obstacles, and action sequences, eventually learning that each one has something to teach the other. We've seen this story so many times with so many variations of pairings that it's almost pointless to mention that Tripper Clancy's screenplay is treading familiar ground. It is, though, and if we can accept that there's really nothing new under the sun, maybe we can find a reason to ignore how everything about this movie comes from a well-established, often-explored formula. When you get right down to it, the only things that matter in such mismatched-buddy action-comedies are the dynamic between the characters and, more importantly, the chemistry between the actors who find themselves teamed up by the coincidences of the plot. In this particular case, the movie doesn't stand out in the slightest in terms of its characters. Clancy falls back on one of the most common types of pairings by making one of the characters a cop, while the other isn't. The other character isn't criminal, so at least some points fall in the movie's favor, simply because it doesn't make the most obvious choice in that regard. It certainly makes many other obvious choices, both in terms of plotting and what the characters need to learn along the way—not to mention how they actually learn those things. Here, we get the story of Vic (Dave Bautista), a cop with a personal vendetta, and Stu (Kumail Nanjiani), who works at a sporting goods store and moonlights as a driver for a big ridesharing company (Given the title, does said company really need the additional advertising here?). Vic is the archetypical tough guy, who's good in a fight and with a gun but has trouble expressing his emotions or even admitting he has any. In a prologue, his partner (played by Karen Gillan, in what unfortunately amounts to a glorified cameo) is killed by Tedjo (Iko Uwais, the martial artist and stunt master whose role is also, unfortunately, nothing more than an extended guest appearance). The criminal escapes, and a still grief-stricken Vic has one last chance to capture his nemesis before the feds take over the case. That chance arises with bad timing: Vic has just had laser eye surgery, leaving him temporarily blind by any practical measure, and his daughter Nicole (Natalie Morales), who's ready to give up on her old man, has an art show opening that evening. Enter Stu, who becomes Vic's app-assigned chaperone during the hunt for Teijo. He's an archetypical doormat, who takes insults with little pushback, pines for a woman (played by Betty Gilpin) who doesn't think of him as anything other than a friend, and spends a lot of money he doesn't have to help that woman open a gym without any care if he thinks it's a good idea. Vic convinces Stu to continue driving him around Los Angeles, looking for revenge throughout several dangerous situations, with the promise of doing the right thing—and maybe with the implicit threat of what he'd do to the hapless driver if he were to refuse. The plot-related conflicts (Vic's investigation and Stu's hesitation to keep putting his life in jeopardy to help a temperamental stranger) are straightforward, and then again, so, too, is the central character-based one. Vic is hardened and angry and looks to resolve any difficulty with threats or violence. Stu tries to avoid conflict and is adverse to violence. Obviously, the two men are going to influence each other over the course of the story, and there's a strange arithmetic being done on Clancy's part. The primary concern here is one of a concept of masculinity, with Vic at one extreme and Stu at the other. One has to wonder, though, how these conflicting views of manhood supposedly even out, when Vic learns that it's fine to cry under extreme stress and Stu discovers that he's fine with the idea of resorting to violence under extreme circumstances. It doesn't particularly help that a lot of the violence here is played for comedy, with director Michael Dowse using some grisly and tonally incongruent close-ups to serve as punch lines to the action. What's surprising—given how routine the story is and how awkward the movie's broad debate about masculinity is—is how these issues fade whenever the movie just focuses on Bautista and Nanjiani playing against each other. That's often, of course, because the plot is just a hollow excuse to put these characters in difficult situations and its thematic concerns simply consist of putting the character dynamic into dialogue. The two actors naturally embody their respective archetypes and play those personalities to the hilt, and their rapport showcases the generous kind of give-and-take that's required for any good comedic duo. Because of them and them alone, Stuber is much funnier than it has any right to be. It almost feels unfair to Bautista and Nanjiani to say the movie doesn't work. Then again, it's far more unfair for the movie to put them in a position in which the material can only succeed because of them. Copyright © 2019 by Mark Dujsik. All rights reserved. |
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(for violence and language throughout, some sexual references and brief
graphic nudity)
