‘Dicks: The Musical’ Review: Extremely Stupid and Extremely Funny
A24’s Dicks: The Musical reaffirms Larry Charles’ penchant for the ultra-absurd and ridiculously stupid that kinda works, despite its inconsistencies.
There’s no denying how stupid Dicks: The Musical is. An adaptation of Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson’s Fucking Identical Twins and billed as A24’s first musical (that it is), the film never lets up as soon as its opening song sets the tone for the rest of its 86 minutes. The two leads, Craig (Josh Sharp) and Trevor (Aaron Jackson), boast about how big their penis is and how they can climb to the top of the echelons because they’re strong, dominating alpha males.
Another scene sees them walk out of a screening of X24’s Everyone Everywhere Cums At Once as they sing about lubing their skin with semen. There’s also a scene where Craig and Trevor’s mom (Megan Mullally) – after they find out they are identical twins and devise a plan to reunite their parents – sing about how her vagina became anthropomorphized and fell off. Or how about their dad (Nathan Lane) introducing us to the Sewer Boys, weird Alien-like puppet creatures who feed off him eating ham and spitting it out in front of them? Did I forget to mention Bowen Yang plays God in this? Well, he does, and I pretty much ate everything that this film offered, no matter how stupid and lowbrow it gets.
There will be people who will violently hate this with all their might and fury and others who will defend it to no end. There’s seemingly no middle ground you can take while watching this: you either enjoy Sharp and Jackson’s sick and depraved spectacle, or you don’t. With Larry Charles at the helm, who helped bring three of the most provocative comedies of the century in Borat, Brüno, and The Dictator, there was no chance in hell that Dicks: The Musical wouldn’t push any buttons of provocation and play it safe.
Had it done that, the film would be a total bore. Sometimes, the jokes get tedious, especially regarding those damn Sewer Boys. And when the movie isn’t in musical mode, the dialogues tend to get inherently clichéd and grating. However, most of the film comprises song and dance, and they’re both terribly offensive and strangely catchy. There’s no denying that some of its songs will get stuck in your head, whether you want it or not. But it’s also the charm of Dicks: The Musical – its numbers always catch you off-guard, never knowing what the characters on screen will say or do. It always works because the actors have the time of their lives, as documented in its end-credits blooper reel.
Lane, in particular, is a total riot as Harris, Craig and Trevor’s gay and straight dad, who doesn’t quite want to label himself as bisexual but is leaning towards it as he reunites with his ex-wife. The Sewer Boys will be a hit or miss for audience members, but I found the bit fitting with the overall tone Sharp and Jackson present, even if they’re the weakest part of the movie. At times, it is funny, but more often than not, they feel like a distraction to the musical numbers on display and bring some of its funniest bits down to a halt. It’s a shame because Lane is himself excellent and shares terrific chemistry with Mullally, who also commits to the bit and seems to have the time of her life with Lane.
But the real star(s) of the picture are Sharp and Jackson, who make quite the splash as the not-so-identical twins. Their sense of comedic timing teeters on the ultra-absurd, but that’s part of the film – and their performances’ – charm. Charles does frame the movie in a rather unspectacular fashion, but more than makes up for the lack of visual style with its two leads. They’re spectacular to watch together and can write some really side-splitting songs. The supporting cast is also game, with Megan Thee Stallion and Nick Offerman appearing in memorable extended cameos, while Bowen Yang gives his blessing as the one and only God, a narrator of sorts to what occurs in this unconventional musical.
Some will accuse Sharp and Jackson of revolving around their plot on The Parent Trap. But it never inherently references the classic Disney movie as a point of reference. In any case, it only twists its original source material further and only uses the idea of The Parent Trap as a catalyst (or an excuse) for a wall-to-wall musical filled with obscenities and unapologetic political incorrectness. But it’s also unabashedly queer and is never afraid of appeasing the gays first before a mainstream audience. No wonder the most vocal critics of this film are heterosexual, while queer reviewers offer more nuanced discussions of a movie that beautifully celebrates queer culture in the stupidest ways imaginable.
Dicks: The Musical will garner one of two reactions: you’ll love or hate it. Anyone can spot the flaws in its drawn-out running gags and rudimentary aesthetic, but that still doesn’t stop the movie from being one hell of a fantastic time. It will not be for everyone, and fully knows many will write zero-star reviews of the movie, bashing the song’s lyrics and themes in an attempt to paint the film as a “deeply offensive piece of trash.” Dicks: The Musical is anything but trash and offensive. Its deep queer subtext is far richer than it has any right to be, and just like Charles’ Brüno, laughing at gay culture doesn’t equate to being homophobic, especially when Charles, Sharp, and Jackson gleefully celebrate it at every turn. If you didn’t get that, perhaps you need to loosen up.