The Reel Review
When twin brothers separated at birth meet as adults, the self-obsessed duo quickly decides to swap places to force a reunion of their divorced, eccentric parents. Stand-up comedians Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson star in this subversive musical parody of The Parent Trap that they adapted from their 2014 off-Broadway comedy act, F**king Identical Twins.
Under the guidance of director Larry Charles (Borat), Dicks: The Musical is aggressively crass, sexually vulgar and intentionally offensive. Among the more outlandish highlights: a flying vagina, genetic mutants called “sewer boys” and incest between the previously straight, misogynistic brothers. The film is intended as a hilarious parody of Broadway musicals, but other than Megan Thee Stallion chewing the scenery in her film debut and Megan Mullally impressively belting out some meager showtunes, the movie is just not funny.
More often than not, Sharp and Jackson come across as tedious jerks who are trying way too hard to be funny – without success. A handful of jokes do land, but the vast majority don’t. The outtakes in the closing credits are intended to show how much fun the cast had making the film. It’s just a shame that, other than the few people who revel in any type of gross-out humor, most will find Dicks: The Musical a tedious and humorless watch.
REEL FACTS
• Dicks: The Musical is the first musical from A24.
• Megan Mullally and Nathan Lane previously co-starred in three projects – the 2004 animated musical Teacher’s Pet, the 2013 Broadway revival of It’s Only a Play and Carnegie Hall’s Guys and Dolls concert in 2014.
• Dicks: The Musical was filmed in and around Los Angeles.
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