Amazon Prime Video brought a few movies to SXSW this year that left audiences kind of cold, including “The Accountant 2” and “Holland.” I only mention this because I thought about how much that BBQ and whiskey-fueled crowd would have fallen into the aisles laughing at the company’s “Deep Cover,” which the streaming giant held for Tribeca, dropping it on their service two days after its fest launch. Laughing out loud while watching it on my own, I was jealous of the Tribeca ticket holders who got to see this crowd-pleaser actually please a crowd; it’s one of the most surprisingly funny films of the year so far, a reminder of how far a comedy can overcome when it hires the right people to land the jokes.
The cast of Tom Kingsley’s feature (from a script co-written by Colin Trevorrow, returning to his indie roots after years in blockbuster purgatory) is fantastic from top to bottom, leaning into their on-screen personas in a way that holds all of this admittedly goofy movie together. Turns out you can accept a lot of silly plotting, as long as you’re laughing.
Bryce Dallas Howard gives her most likable performance in years as Kat, an improv teacher in London who is long overdue for her big break. She has a cadre of girlfriends who give her that worried look that gal pals give the member in their crew who isn’t close to either marital or professional success. Two members of her class are at the opposite end of the alpha male spectrum. On one end, there’s Marlon (Orlando Bloom), a method actor who takes everything way too seriously, even though his most successful work is in a series of commercials in which he plays the “Pizza Knight.” On the other end, there’s Hugh (Nick Mohammed of “Ted Lasso” fame), a meek cubicle dweller who takes Kat’s class more to learn the improv skills to hold a conversation with his office mates than to become a comedy star.
Kat, Marlon, and Hugh are drawn into an admittedly ridiculous plot (although it explains itself better than you might think in ways I can’t spoil) when they’re hired by a cop played by Sean Bean to infiltrate the London mob. At first, they’re just setting up a few low-level deals, but they end up getting into the inner circle of a power player named Fly (Paddy Considine, fantastically riffing on something he plays straighter on “MobLand”), which allows them access to the king of the criminal underworld in Ian McShane’s Metcalfe. Surrounding the wacky comedy center of “Deep Cover” with great character actors known for playing tough guys like Bean, Considine, and McShane was so smart, grounding just enough of the silly stuff in material that feels familiar to crime film fans.
And it definitely gets silly. Whether it’s watching Mohammed’s wallflower do a line of coke to test the product or Bloom come up with a ridiculous back story that involves him running away from home at age five, the laughs come pretty consistently in “Deep Cover.” It’s about three people “Yes, and…”-ing their way through deadly situations, staying in their undercover characters as they try and stay alive. Howard, Mohammed, and Bloom completely commit to the bit, never phoning in the punchlines or winking at the audience in a way that makes it seem like they’re above the material. They’re having fun, and sometimes that can be infectious.
The action of “Deep Cover,” especially in the final scenes, is a bit dodgy, but you won’t care by then. It’s not an especially deep script in terms of character, but there’s something inspiring about seeing a comedy production in which everyone is on the same page, harmoniously working off each other’s personalities like a choir. Howard, Bloom, Mohammed, & the straight men character actors they play off vibe in continuously unexpected ways. In the end, it’s got that energy that so many streaming comedies are missing. Definitely the ones I saw in Austin.
Now on Prime Video.
