Skeleton Twins portends to be the big break for writer/director Craig Johnson, whose excellent first film True Adolescents is under seen and underappreciated. He links up with stars Bill Hader and Kristen Wiig and the film was loved at Sundance, where it received the Screenwriting Award. Its current Rotten Tomatoes score is 100%. All five of my friends that I saw the film with were beaming afterwards. Unfortunately, I was the disappointed one.
Coming to Skeleton Twins as a fan of True Adolescents, I expected the same feeling of awkward reality. Not that True Adolescents is awkward, but that it conveys the awkwardness of human beings. We are too strange and unique to be most movie characters. This came through with not only newcomers Bret Loehr and Carr Thompson, but also seasoned indie-star Mark Duplass. Conversely, Skeleton Twins felt too famous with Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Ty Burrell, and Luke Wilson. By using talented comedic actors, who are certainly on their game in this film, I had trouble shifting between the comedy and drama. It’s not that there should be less or more of either, but that the gap between the two was unbridgeable. I know that all these actors have the dramatic chops, as we’ve seen from Wiig in Bridesmaids and Wilson in Enlightened. Johnson proved his talents as a writer/director on True Adolescents, but this film just doesn’t mix those sentiments well enough.
However, Hader and Wiig are still very good in this film. It has dramatic moments that had me in tears. To be clear, I’m disappointed because I hoped this would be a great movie. It’s not, but it’s very, very good and that’s something worth seeing when it comes to theaters and VOD in September.
Grade: B
Coming to Skeleton Twins as a fan of True Adolescents, I expected the same feeling of awkward reality. Not that True Adolescents is awkward, but that it conveys the awkwardness of human beings. We are too strange and unique to be most movie characters. This came through with not only newcomers Bret Loehr and Carr Thompson, but also seasoned indie-star Mark Duplass. Conversely, Skeleton Twins felt too famous with Kristen Wiig, Bill Hader, Ty Burrell, and Luke Wilson. By using talented comedic actors, who are certainly on their game in this film, I had trouble shifting between the comedy and drama. It’s not that there should be less or more of either, but that the gap between the two was unbridgeable. I know that all these actors have the dramatic chops, as we’ve seen from Wiig in Bridesmaids and Wilson in Enlightened. Johnson proved his talents as a writer/director on True Adolescents, but this film just doesn’t mix those sentiments well enough.
However, Hader and Wiig are still very good in this film. It has dramatic moments that had me in tears. To be clear, I’m disappointed because I hoped this would be a great movie. It’s not, but it’s very, very good and that’s something worth seeing when it comes to theaters and VOD in September.
Grade: B
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