The Bubble (2022)
Directed by Judd Apatow
Sneaking out. Hooking up. Melting down. The cast and crew of a blockbuster action franchise attempt to shoot a sequel while quarantining at a posh hotel.
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4 films that influenced The Bubble
What critics say influenced The Bubble
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
Directed by Larry Charles
For every “Borat,” there seem to be a dozen like “The Bubble.”
Their fellow stars and bubble occupants include Keegan-Michael Key as an actor trying to build a lifestyle brand, Leslie Mann and David Duchovny as ex-spouses who can’t keep their hands off each other and Pedro Pascal as a drugged-out playboy with designs on a hotel employee (an underused Maria Bakalova, from the “Borat” sequel).
Pedro Pascal’s Dieter Bravo is charismatically sleazy and desperate to hook up with Oscar-nominated Borat alum Maria Bakalova’s hotel clerk, which is both a summation and a waste of their contributions.
This is particularly true of Bakalova, whose shallow role is steeped in regressive misogyny, especially offensive considering how successfully this exact trope was lampooned in the Borat sequel that served as her breakout.
Bakalova, of the last “Borat” movie, plays an Eastern European desk clerk determined to virginally seduce Dieter the Oscar winner (Pascal) as a “pure angel.”
As the undisputed producer-king (and king-maker) of the modern studio comedy, he’s had a hand in many of the most beloved, unapologetically broad, beautifully silly comedic touchstones of the 21st century: “Anchorman,” “Step Brothers,” “Bridesmaids,” etc.
Imagine releasing Meet the Spartans before 300 even hit theaters.
For writer-director Judd Apatow, it marks something of an unexpected departure: after years swimming in the comedy-drama pool — making funny films with emotional, serious stakes such as The 40-Year-Old Virgin or The King Of Staten Island — he’s gone for something straightforwardly sillier here, a tone and plot akin to Tropic Thunder .
Director Judd Apatow goes a different direction from the human-centered comedy of his most recent films This Is 40 , The King of Staten Island and Trainwreck .
And there’s a definite ire girding Apatow’s tendencies, more so than his usual commentary on immature men and their (beautiful) world weary counterparts, suggesting the experience of being one of the first major studio releases during the pandemic with his last film, 2020’s The King of Staten Island (read review), was a bitter experience.
Judd Apatow, director of “The King of Staten Island,” “Trainwreck,” “This Is 40” and “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” brings us Netflix’s “The Bubble,” a showbiz-set comedy that is noteworthy most of all for its lack of laughs.