Before my screening of Dicks: The Musical, creators and stars Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson showed up to thank everyone for coming (having been given permission to appear by their striking union, thanks to A24 agreeing to the demands). They expressed amazement that their off-Broadway musical has now been turned into a feature film — which was screening in IMAX, no less.
I can see why they're surprised. Dicks, which was initially known on stage as Fucking Identical Twins, pushes absurdity to the absolute limit. Every choice Sharp and Jackson make is as outrageous and inane as possible, gleefully breaking every taboo imaginable. And I do mean every taboo. Even that one. You know the one I mean.
Sharp and Jackson star as Craig and Trevor, two identical twins who were separated at birth (never mind the fact that Sharp and Jackson aren't actually related and don't particularly look alike). They're competing accessories salesmen at a vacuum company called Vroomba, and the running joke is that, even though Sharp and Jackson are gay, their characters constantly brag about being heterosexual alphas who do lots of fuckin' with their big ol' cocks. Megan Thee Stallion shows up as their boss, but the famously lewd rapper seems tame compared to the raunchiness of the creators.
The silliness gets downright debauched when they try to pull a Parent Trap on their repulsive father (Nathan Lane) and mother (Megan Mullally), who provide some of the most hysterical and disgusting moments of the film. Bowen Yang narrates as a very queer version of God, seemingly for the express purpose of being as blasphemous as possible.
Dicks has peppy show tunes and tongue-in-cheek piano ballads, which are bawdy and fun, although I didn't walk out of the theatre of any of the songs stuck in my head (there's no big "Gee, Officer Krupke" moment). I don't feel compelled to look up the soundtrack and revisit any of the songs.
But, with the sheer randomness and joyful offensiveness of many of its jokes, Dicks is a memorably weird gross-out comedy. It's part of TIFF's Midnight Madness programming, and it more than lives up to the promise of its repulsive depravity. I give it two dicks way up.
(A24)I can see why they're surprised. Dicks, which was initially known on stage as Fucking Identical Twins, pushes absurdity to the absolute limit. Every choice Sharp and Jackson make is as outrageous and inane as possible, gleefully breaking every taboo imaginable. And I do mean every taboo. Even that one. You know the one I mean.
Sharp and Jackson star as Craig and Trevor, two identical twins who were separated at birth (never mind the fact that Sharp and Jackson aren't actually related and don't particularly look alike). They're competing accessories salesmen at a vacuum company called Vroomba, and the running joke is that, even though Sharp and Jackson are gay, their characters constantly brag about being heterosexual alphas who do lots of fuckin' with their big ol' cocks. Megan Thee Stallion shows up as their boss, but the famously lewd rapper seems tame compared to the raunchiness of the creators.
The silliness gets downright debauched when they try to pull a Parent Trap on their repulsive father (Nathan Lane) and mother (Megan Mullally), who provide some of the most hysterical and disgusting moments of the film. Bowen Yang narrates as a very queer version of God, seemingly for the express purpose of being as blasphemous as possible.
Dicks has peppy show tunes and tongue-in-cheek piano ballads, which are bawdy and fun, although I didn't walk out of the theatre of any of the songs stuck in my head (there's no big "Gee, Officer Krupke" moment). I don't feel compelled to look up the soundtrack and revisit any of the songs.
But, with the sheer randomness and joyful offensiveness of many of its jokes, Dicks is a memorably weird gross-out comedy. It's part of TIFF's Midnight Madness programming, and it more than lives up to the promise of its repulsive depravity. I give it two dicks way up.
