The Bubble

Judd Apatow's satire on Hollywood, COVID, and celebrity culture falters from lack of laughs or heart and an unwelcome runtime

The comedy director is a dying breed in the business. Many of the most celebrated comedy-centric directors of even just 10 years ago have seemingly shifted over to more prestige fare or studio blockbusters. Adam McKay, Peter Farrelly, Todd Phillips, and Jay Roach have veered in the more dramatic direction while Paul Feig has started to experiment beyond the folds of R-rated comedy. Judd Apatow, who is one of the main filmmakers responsible for bringing back the R-rated studio comedy in the 2000s has stayed firm, his films like “The 40-Year-Old Virgin,” “Knocked Up,” “Trainwreck,” and most recently “The King Of Staten Island” made names out of its stars Steve Carrell, Seth Rogen, Amy Schumer, and Pete Davidson. He’s also produced hit comedy after hit comedy from “Bridesmaids,” “Superbad,” “The Big Sick,” and “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” which made A-listers out of Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Jonah Hill, Michael Cera, Kumail Nanjiani, and Jason Segel. His next prospect is making Billy Eichner into an A-list comedy star, producing the LGBTQ+ comedy “Bros.”

Apatow’s latest directorial is notable as his first film away from Universal (though just a few weeks back, he signed a deal with the Comcast owned studio) and is also notable for being more a straight-forward comedy compared to many of his other outings which balance laughs with drama and honesty.

“The Bubble” begins in October 2020 in a fancy hotel in England. The cast and crew of “Cliff Beasts 6” has recently gathered to quarantine before they film the next installment in the blockbuster franchise. Right off the bat, there’s tension between the cast-members particularly with Carol (Karen Gillan) who was absent for the previous entry to film the critical and box office failure “Jerusalem Rising.” There’s also Lauren Van Chance (Leslie Mann) and Dustin Mulray (David Duchovny) two staples of the franchise who’s rocky on-and-off relationship has put out a strain on not just them, but everyone else on set. Sean Knox (Keegan Michael-Key) is an action star known for his commitment to doing his own stunts and has recently created his own cult. Howie Frangopolous (Guz Khan) is a fairly successful standup comedian who plays the fan-favorite comedic relief character in the Cliff Beasts franchise, but doesn’t get along with his other cast-mates.

For the sixth entry, the studio has also brought in several franchise newcomers include Krystal Kris (Iris Apatow) a TikTok superstar who hails from Indiana, and Dieter Bravo (Pedro Pascal) an Oscar winning method actor with addictions to sex and drugs. The studio has also brought in director Darren Eigan (Fred Armisen), a former indie director who got his big break when his film “Tiles of Love” swept the Sundance Film Festival and was able to allow him to quit his mind-numbing job at Home Depot.

With the emotional stakes already high on the set, the cast and crew constantly are finding themselves in trickier and trickier situations having to constantly shut down and start back up filming, causing the cast and crew’s stay at the British hotel to become longer and bleaker.

Much like the characters’ predicament in the film, “The Bubble” surely overstays its welcome. Apatow is no stranger to making his comedies stretch way past the two-hour mark, but while his other films had drama and deeply human characters, “The Bubble” is a straight-forward comedy with nobody even remotely likable. While the large ensemble fit the roles that they’re playing and do a decent enough job, it’s a damn shame that the characters they are playing are so despicable. While other recent satires such as “Don’t Look Up” and “Knives Out” still had characters who were pure of heart and easy to emphasize with, nobody in “The Bubble” fits that quota. The film’s 126 runtime just feels like you’re stuck hanging out with all the kids you hated in High School.

We’ve seen films in the past like “Tropic Thunder” that excel at skewering the Hollywood elite in memorable and outrageous ways that even over 10 years later don’t feel dated. "The Bubble,” on the other hand, already feels dated, many of the jokes about COVID tests being uncomfortable or going insane in quarantine or quips about DaBaby feel dated and tiresome. Apatow and co-writer Pam Brady may have thought that they were onto something last year in the midst of production, but unfortunately the final product feels dead on arrival.

The commentary just feels toothless with nothing much to say other than to serve as an indirect clap-back at Gal Gadot’s maligned “Imagine” video (which is ironic considering one of the film’s stars was in said video). If Apatow truly felt that stating that “Hollywood stars didn’t understand the struggles of the middle and lower class during COVID” would be some breakthrough statement, maybe he himself needs to step out of the Hollywood bubble.

It’s a damn shame, as Apatow has previously proven to have a real knack at direction, writing, and producing some of the most celebrated modern comedies, but his efforts here not only fall flat but even misguided.

Hopefully the comedy auteur will learn from his mistakes here for his next film. While a poor film, this isn’t and shouldn’t be a career-ender for Apatow, it just proves that he’s better than stooping this low.