Back in 2000, Christopher Guest released his very hilarious mockumentary Best in Show. The movie focused on various dog owners and their journey to the national dog show. This movie made me a fan of Guest’s humor. He does not try to dumb down jokes for the sake of the audience. So, I was very excited to hear of his latest mockumentary was released on Netflix on October 13th.
Mascots tells the story of several professional mascots as they all compete to become the World’s Best Mascot and win the coveted Golden Fluffy award. Mike (Zach Woods, Silicon Valley) and Mindy Murray (Sarah Baker, The Campaign) are a married couple that perform together at minor league baseball games. Owen Golly, Jr. (Tom Bennett, David Brent: Life on the Road) is a British mascot who has inherited the costume of Sid, the Hedgehog, from his father. Tommy ‘Zook’ Zucarello (Chris O’Dowd, The IT Crowd) is the Fist, also known as the “bad boy” of competitive mascots. Cindi Babineaux (Parker Posey, Best in Show) is Alvin, the Armadillo, who is a mascot that performs with dance moves from a school named after Amelia Earhart. Phil Mayhew (Christopher Moynihan, Veep) is Jack, the Plumber, who incorporates bathroom humor into his performances.
Guest also has familiar and returning stars from his other movies, including Jane Lynch and Ed Begley Jr., who both play competition judges with a bitter rivalry. Michael Hitchcock, Fred Willard, Jennifer Coolidge, Bob Balaban and even Guest himself all appear in this movie as side characters.
Although Guest was able to round up his friends for another movie, this one felt a little dull and flat. Some of the jokes in this movie made me laugh out loud and I thought the concept was hysterical, but he does some questionable things in this movie.
For example, furries, people who like to dress up as anthropomorphic animals for fun or pleasure, are a recurring gag throughout the entire movie. At first, I laughed because the thought of someone who likes to dress up like this for fun is amusing. However, these characters kept showing up as if Guest were saying “look at how crazy and weird these people are” to the audience. I got it the first time, but once was enough.
Christopher Guest makes another strange decision by introducing characters who have roughly about five minutes of screen time. The only thing they do is make snarky comments or witty jokes. Most of these roles are played by some of Guest’s friends and some were genuinely entertaining. Fred Willard’s and John Michael Higgins’ characters were humorous and I wanted to see more of them, but it seemed like their time was cut short. I know the main focus of the movie were the mascots, but they seemed uninteresting and boring. The only mascot I liked was O’Dowd’s character, The Fist, but he wasn’t on screen for long.
Finally, we get to the big competition which occupies the last forty minutes of the movie. While the performances of the mascots are funny at first, it gets very uninteresting, very quickly. Mike, the Plumber’s routine; for instance, is very creative and kind of funny, but then it starts to drag on and feels very stale at the end. In fact, all of the performances seemed stale and boring, except for the mascot that wins. I won’t spoil who wins, but it is very predictable if you pay attention.
If you are a fan of Christopher Guest or a fan of deadpan, quirky humor, you’ll like this one. Personally, I did not enjoy the movie. The only interesting and funny characters were those that did not have enough screen time and there were times where things slowed down and dull. However, the story and the ridiculousness were enough for me to have a good time.
Caesar Torres
Features Editor