The pandemic was hard on all of us, but none more so than spoiled Hollywood celebrities. No overseas holidays, gorgeous faces half-covered by those ugly masks…and countless blockbusters nobody cares about put on ice until the peasants can visit cinemas again. Won’t somebody please think of the pretty people?!
Netflix’s new comedy The Bubble takes us back to October 2020, starring an all-star cast as the fictional all-star cast of a dumb movie called Cliff Beasts 6. There’s already big egos and conflict amongst the filmmakers before they’re trapped in coronavirus hotel quarantine for the remainder of the film’s shoot. The Bubble just popped on Netflix, available to watch right now worldwide.
Your companions in this goofy COVID-safe bubble include Karen Gillan, Pedro Pascal, David Duchovny, Leslie Mann, Iris Apatow, and Keegan-Michael Key. Fred Armisen is their director, Kate McKinnon Zooms in from across the seas to check in on the UK-based production, and Borat 2 gem Maria Bakalova watches from the sidelines as an assistant.
“You will soon learn to hate these people”, Bakalova is warned in the trailer below, and we definitely see some pretty despicable behaviour from the cooped-up celebs. They’re vomiting all over the green-screen sets, snorting coke off each other’s heads, doing TikTok dances with CGI dinosaurs…stars! They’re just like us.
Unfortunately, our recent review of The Bubble made it sound like it’s not too many notches above Cliff Beasts 6 itself.
Adam Fresco writes that “at just over two hours, The Bubble feels like a brief, comedic Saturday Night Live sketch stretched until it bursts. If, as Shakespeare wrote, “brevity is the soul of wit”, then this is a painful reminder that two-minute comedy sketches are short for a reason.” Ah well: if you’re a fan of any of the funny stars in the ensemble cast, it may still be worth tuning in—especially for X Files fans who haven’t seen Duchovny in a while.
