The bear looks dumb. I get it, I do. You donā€™t want to see some dumb-looking bear movie! And itā€™s got that nerd from SNL in it. Not that one. The other one. The one with glasses. And the trailer looks artsy and precious and... post-apocalyptic? It looks weird. And every fiber of your being is going, ā€œUghhhhh, do I gotta go see this dumb bear movie?ā€

I am here to tell you that yes, you do gotta go see this dumb bear movie. Brigsby Bear is great. Itā€™s beautiful and hilarious and it has something fundamentally compelling to say about how we tell stories. Even if those stories are, yes, about dumb-looking bears.

I donā€™t want to get too much into the plot, because itā€™s kind of complex and kind of meta, but suffice to say that James (Kyle Mooney) has an Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt ā€œlife in a kidnap bunkerā€ thing going on, and said bunker life involved a series of VHS tapes featuring the titular bear, Brigsby. The filmā€™s stories diverge from there, but Brigsby, like Schmidt, employs a deft touch when addressing the dark core around which its comedy is drawn. (Itā€™s no coincidence that Brigsby is voiced by Mark Hamill who, as a voice actor, is a master of manic, endearing, and sinister characters.)

A lot of Brigsby is about the increasingly porous distinction between fan and creator, and both the joys and responsibilities that come from inserting yourself into the creative process. Itā€™s also about how fun it is to grab some friends and a camera and just make shit. Throughout, itā€™s all given life by a sense of enthusiastic, unapologetic fandomĀ­ā€”the likes I havenā€™t seen since Galaxy Quest. And besides, you know what? The bear is supposed to look dumb. Stop worrying about the bear. Go see Brigsby Bear already.