Director: Dan Eckman
Cast: Donald Glover, DC Pierson, Dominic Dierkes, Aubrey Plaza
Have I Seen it Before: Oh yeah. Although I can’t quite remember if I saw it before or after Glover hit it big on Community*.
Did I Like It: The biggest mystery of Mystery Team is why the team of Derrick Comedy doesn’t exist anymore. I can see them becoming less active in posting videos to Youtube after Glover became not only a network TV star but one of the most interesting rap acts in recent years, but they could have done so much more. This film is pretty good. It’s filled with gags, most of which work. The supporting cast is rounded out by enough future sitcom starts that I spent most of the film quietly marveling, “Oh, he/she is in this.” It’s concept also offers a heartfelt attempt at a meditation on the often excruciating need to trade in the last vestiges of childhood for the promised freedom of adulthood.
But the film doesn’t quite hang together like one might have hoped. I’m willing to chalk that up to experience. The film doesn’t quite know how how to get out of a scene before it wears out its welcome, and thus while most of the laughs land, it always feels like they could have been maximized just a little bit more.
One can’t help but wonder if Glover had instead gotten on Saturday Night Live instead of Community, would he and Derrick Comedy might have become the new Lonely Island on the show, producing shorts and then, when the time came, producing features as well. Samberg and company keep getting better at what they do. Derrick never got a chance to come into their own. I wish they might have, while still giving Glover to do all the other work that he would come to produce.
*Dear Hollywood: Community movie. When? Your Pal, Mac.