Mitch Macro’s Netflix Pick-of-the-Week: The Do-Deca-Pentathalon

I return once more to a film by two of my favorite filmmakers: the Duplass brothers. And yet again, they deliver a funny, touching film that focuses on two estranged brothers. Jeremy (Mark Kelley) and Mark (Steve Zissis) haven’t talked much in 20 years since their homemade Olympics, a 25-event competition called the Do-Deca-Pentathalon, ended in controversy. With Mark’s birthday and a celebration scheduled at their mother’s house coming up, both Mark and Jeremy question how to handle the situation. Mark and his family—wife Stephanie (Jennifer Lafleur) and son Hunter (Reid Williams)—are fearful that Jeremy will arrive and bring out their old tension, so they don’t want to go. Jeremy, a single poker player, sits in a strip club wondering if he should feel bad about not being invited. Both men decide to show up. Mark, Stephanie and Hunter hope for a fun family weekend and go to run the annual 5Kroad race. Right after the race begins, Jeremy speeds up in his car, jumps out, and runs to catch up to his brother, who he then antagonizes to race him. Thus the competition begins anew.

First and foremost, watching a sibling rivalry escalate to this level of competition is hilarious. Even during the first of 25 events, the two brothers shove each other and dive across the finish line. The tension then heightens when Stephanie wants to end the event because of Mark’s health problems. Throughout the competition, the two men have to lie to their family and others to keep the competition going. When they arrive at their second event—laser tag—before it opens, they try to get in by telling the kid working there that Hunter, Mark’s son, has cancer. Watching two out of shape, middle-aged men struggle through the events is good for several laughs. The way the Duplass brothers are able to capture the tension of brotherhood is both heart warming and touching. It beautifully balances the hate and love so essential to that relationship.

This film, similar to Jeff, Who Lives at Home, is shot beautifully. Its simplicity really shines. The locations boil down to just their mother’s house, a YMCA, and a school, and there’s really only five characters in the entire film. With minimal characters and setting, the film is able to focus on the core relationships. The script is sometimes painfully real, too. There are moments when the one character is able to strikingly convey some flaw in another character, and it’s great to see how the events unfold between the two brothers. During one particularly beautiful moment, Jeremy talks to his mom about the competition and acknowledges that he and Mark don’t talk, they just “beat the shit out of each other.” They are able to use fighting and competition as a way to convey that they still care about one another. 

At one point in the film, the whole family goes to play laser tag at 9 am. When Mark and Jeremy find out the place doesn’t open until 11, they try telling the kid inside that Hunter has cancer so that they can get in to play. It’s times like these that, while hilarious, the film can seem to get a little too ridiculous. Despite that, I think it was still able to remain focused on the brotherly relationship and present it in a realistic way. It’s interesting the way brothers are able to not just fluctuate between love and hate, but to actually do both at the same time. As brothers themselves, I think Mark and Jay Duplass are able to deconstruct the relationship in an interesting way.

Grade: B+

Runtime: 76 minutes