Stuber

Anyway, it has been literally twenty years since I saw Mira Sorvino in a movie at the theater. (Ironically, that movie was At First Sight, so I last saw her being first seen by Val Kilmer’s formerly blind protagonist.) I did see her again in 2000 in that made for TV version of The Great Gatsby also starring Paul Rudd and Toby Stephens. Oddly, my mother and I frequently talk about that Gatsby, usually when one or the other of us has just seen Toby Stephens in something and can’t think of his name.

I like Mira Sorvino. I think it’s disgusting the way her career was derailed by Harvey Weinstein. (I remember how touched my mom and grandma were to see her father crying in the audience when she won her Oscar for Mighty Aphrodite.) I’m really glad to see her in a decent role in a summer movie in wide release. I just wish I had known it was her before the end credits. So I’m starting this review by giving anyone reading it a heads up. Watch out for Mira Sorvino. She plays one of the only other police officers in the movie. She actually has several scenes.

Obviously we went to this movie excited to see Dave Bautista. I’m sure Kumail Nanjiani is a draw, too, bringing in his share of fans. He’s a genuinely witty guy. But I went to see Bautista. I would watch him in anything. His Drax is one of my favorite characters in the entire MCU, and I was impressed by how hard he worked to give a good performance. I like his desire to be the best actor he can.

For months now, the trailer for Stuber has been enticing us, and my husband and I were genuinely excited to see the movie, though we didn’t go in expecting a masterpiece. (Bautista has definitely earned the right to call himself a real actor, but he’s not Meryl Streep.) (Wouldn’t it be funny to make a buddy-cop movie with Meryl Streep? Like imagine if she played herself, and the cop needed her help to infiltrate some crime syndicate.) (I have just spent the past twenty minutes imagining various actors as her co-star (my favorites are Glenn Close or Ryan Reynolds as Pikachu), and now I’m wondering why Hollywood has never asked me to write a buddy-cop movie. They are missing out!)

The Good:
I just really like Dave Bautista for no solid, defensible reason. I love his unique charisma. He’s so charming. And Kumail Nanjiani makes a great foil for him because (obviously) the two are so dissimilar. (That’s the idea, though if you think about it, they actually have quite a bit in common. Neither is your typical leading man. They’re both very outside the box.)  If you’re not a fan of at least one of these guys, you might want to sit this movie out at home.  But if you really like either or both of them, then Stuber is worth a look.

So if you’ve seen the trailer, you know the basic premise. Nanjiani is an Uber driver named Stu. Bautista is an unconventional customer who overstays his welcome because he’s some kind of renegade cop working a dangerous case.

The one thing the trailer doesn’t explain is why in the world a police detective would need to call an Uber to track down a dangerous criminal. The trailer makes Bautista’s character look a bit crazy, in fact. You wonder if maybe he’s more of an ex-cop, wrongfully suspended (or fired) after making a huge mistake (or being set up).

So I found the actual explanation Stuber gives us for the (actual) police detective requiring the services of an Uber driver one of the funniest things in the movie.

Seriously, this one issue becomes Bautista’s entire motivation. It gives him a way to bring the character to life for us. (Imagine him asking, “Who is Vic Manning?” and then being told, “Well, he walks with a limp. Use it!” This is something almost exactly like that.) Bautista really leans in to this dominant character trait. He seems to base his entire performance on this key detail.

And honestly, some of the funniest moments in the movie (for me) arise because of this quirky reason that the cop needs to call an Uber.

Now, I won’t claim that Stuber is a masterpiece. It’s not that the comedy doesn’t always work. It usually does. I think the issue is more that the whole thing is almost ridiculously silly. And as far as comedy goes, there could be a bit more of it. This is not one of those movies with ten jokes every second.

But the humor is legitimately laugh-inducing. Admittedly, some moments are more endearingly awkward than out-and-out hilarious, but most jokes succeed in eliciting the reaction they’re going for.  (The great part is, since Nanjiana’s character is so awkward, we can believe that some of his jokes are intended to miss.)

The plot is not anything terribly clever. In fact, the police investigation part of the movie feels so generic and rehashed that most viewers could probably guess everything that happens ahead of time. The drama of the Uber driver’s dysfunctional life is somewhat more quirky and fresh, though again the basic elements are extremely familiar.

What really makes the movie work, though, is its focus on the crazy results when these two highly different worlds collide. That’s what always makes movies like this work, of course. It’s basic buddy-cop formula. What happens in Stuber is not anything new or revelatory, but it is a pretty entertaining ride.

Nanjiani’s style of comedy and some of the extraneous detail we get in his portion of story are what make it feel slightly more original than the “working a case” aspect. Also, Nanjiani’s Stu is so easy to relate to. I remember frustrating periods of my own life, moments when I’ve thought, “Well, one aspect of my life isn’t great right now, but at least this other aspect is working! Wait! It’s not?” And then I’ve kind of counted on my fingers and realized that nothing in my life was working and had a big panic attack. Stu’s problems are all oddly specific, though. Everybody has had an unsatisfying job, little money, a frustrating relationship. The framework is familiar. But we learn Stu’s problems in such exhaustive detail, and the details are all so rich and strange. I think Nanjiani’s comedy works because he brings out seemingly infinite bizarre, unique details within a highly familiar, relatable framework.

Bautista’s comedy, on the other hand, is usually big, often physical. And what really makes us laugh is his intense, total commitment to these sometimes very silly things. He does nothing halfway.