Welcome to the last installment of Pandemic Theater. It’s not that the COVID-19 problem is over, given the millions now coming down with it in China courtesy of their dictator Xi deciding to lift the measures. Nobody really cares and there’s always a chance our novel virus has been quelled by some herd immunity or we’re in the part of the Horror movie with a false conclusion, before COVID-19 has a comeback to wipe out humanity a la so-so movies like Contagion.
On the docket is a Dark Comedy I had to watch because it involved several elements close to my heart: a stellar cast of great comedians you rarely see in key roles, manic behavior v. depression and an offbeat story which for better or for worse, goes in a dark direction. Think of it as a modern-day Sweeney Todd.
It all begins with Claire and Paul leaving their small town in Ohio to be in LA since Claire landed her dream job. Their luck hasn’t stopped there. They also rent an oddly reasonably priced apartment in a key neighborhood. Within a day they find out why. A stranger breaks into the apartment with a spiral on his forehead talking some riddles, demanding to see the tub where he kills himself. When the police show up, Detective Cartwright (a rare sighting of Dan Harom acting) explains to the couple how the apartment comes with some history he has been following. A few years ago, a cult leader named Storsh (played by the overexposed Taika Waititi, I find his schtick voice he repeats constantly from Thor to be tiresome); convinced his followers to commit suicide in the apartment’s bathtub. Through this act, they’d join him in eternal bliss; he did the same unlike many cowardly cult leaders. Pretty creepy stuff but they have little choice right now, Paul is unemployed so they can’t afford a new place in the near future.
The next evening, two competing cultists (the hilarious Maria Bamford and Brian Posehn) have a scripture battle for use of the tub in which the woman wins. Afterwards, they listen to her LEGO story and clumsily try to help her get to the other side. They also start reading the Book of Storsh the cultist left behind. Storsh’s writings are a bunch of platitudes and positive thinking crap coinciding with the song he left behind on YouTube. In short, Storsh hasn’t write anything terribly new nor very dangerous but Paul and Claire figure there’s no harm in reading the book. Then Claire attributes her recent success at work to Storsh and decides to go all in. Paul follows suit given his love for Claire but his path is to make super creative (and impractical) bird houses. The sinister turn comes when they believe its their duty to speed up the cultists’ journey with a rather poisonous concoction Cartwright either ignores or is too stupid to investigate. The former seems likely as he’s fooled into believing Claire’s advertising gig has any pull in selling the cop’s screenplay.
How matters unfurl, you will have to watch. It’s a surprise. Beyond starring Kate Miccuci, who also wrote Storch’s song, and appearances from Harmon, Bamford and Posehn, you’ll see the great Dana Gould as Claire’s weird boss, Mark McKinney, Matt Jones (Badger from Breaking Bad) and Mindy Sterling. I’m often glad to see favorite stand-ups in movies demonstrating their strengths along with watching a comedy beyond fart jokes and tired skits recycled from SNL. Sadly, Bliss left Hulu a couple months ago, you’ll have to hunt it down via other services or rent.