86 min | R | October 6, 2023 | A24
Two arrogant salesmen discover they are identical twins separated at birth. They decide to Parent Trap their estranged parents back into love. The film treats good taste as the one thing worth blowing up.
Craig and Trevor are rival salesmen who push the same product at competing desks. They are vain, aggressive, and certain of their own perfection. They discover they are identical twins separated at birth. They hatch a plan to swap places and impersonate each other so they can reunite their divorced parents. The film borrows the skeleton of The Parent Trap and dares you to recognize it under the filth. What it is really about is the gap between the wholesome musical it pretends to be and the obscene one it actually is.
Josh Sharp plays Craig and Aaron Jackson plays Trevor with matching delusion and zero self-awareness. They sell the conceit that two grown men sincerely believe they are interchangeable. Nathan Lane plays Harris, the shut-in father, with prim diction and a houseful of caged creatures he dotes on and calls his Sewer Boys. Megan Mullally plays Evelyn, the mother, as a woman whose body parts detach and float off on command. Bowen Yang plays God in a glittering robe and treats omnipotence like a customer service job. Megan Thee Stallion plays Gloria, the boss, and stops the film cold for a number about domination.
Larry Charles directs from a script by Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, who adapt their own stage show. Charles shoots the whole thing on undisguised soundstages with painted backdrops and visible artifice. The choice matters. The fakeness of the sets keeps reminding you this is theater filmed, not a world built. The musical numbers arrive on schedule and commit to full Broadway staging even as the lyrics describe acts no Broadway stage would mount. The production design stays bright and primary-colored so the contrast with the content does the comedy.
The film runs one joke and runs it hard. The joke is that a sincere family musical and the filthiest possible content can share the same frame. That collision lands often and tires sometimes. The movie knows exactly what it is and refuses to apologize or expand. It is a provocation built to find its people, and the people who want it will know by the end of the first number.