The Beanie Bubble

This is a hell of a story. Great costume design and cinematography. Good acting. Nicely developed characters. Colors play a huge role and are on point. The way the story told is really annoying. While I don't mind the jumping back and forth through the years as long as I know when we're at, there were a few occasions they didn't put the year on and that caused a little timeline confusion. It's a story about a downfall of a vain man-child who couldn't grow up. It's also a story about investing in the dumbest of things. It's a solid 4 star piece that I'll gladly watch again only for the beautiful colors and the great makeup on Zack Galifianakis' face.

In 1983, Ty Warner (Zach Galifianakis) and his friend Robbie (Elizabeth Banks) start a plush toy business. His big idea is to under-stuffed them and make them softer. In 1993, medical student Maya (Geraldine Viswanathan) starts working as a receptionist at the company. Sheila (Sarah Snook) meets Ty as she sets up his home lighting.

This type of movies is fast becoming a genre of its own. Some call it corporate biopics. I'm calling it product-bio. First, they need a recognizable product that will generate nostalgia. Then they need some drama for the bio and they should make one up if it doesn't exist. They are good on the first part. Beanie Babies are definite 90's nostalgia-fuel. As for the drama, it exists here. The movie tries to present it in an interesting way by combining three women's stories. I do have an issue with Zach Galifianakis.

I thought he's gay at first even after dating Sheila. He needs to not put his spin on the character. At his heart, he's a slick salesman. He needs to set up his narcissism. The guy has real daddy issues with some juicy sexual aspects. Zach is playing it like an absent-minded professor. He may be the wrong guy to play this role.

The time jumping is fine, but it may be better to simplify it. After all, both Maya and Sheila come into the story at the same time. Maya is probably the most compelling story. I don't see the chemistry between Sheila and Ty. He has more chemistry with her daughters. Robbie's story is standard wronged woman. They really need to show the sexual tension a lot more and earlier. As far as this new genre goes, this entry is an average affair.

When thinking about this review and the movie, I kept getting drawn back to how flamboyant the characters were and then it struck me. I was watching characters apparently 'borrowed' from The Righteous Gemstones. I know it was the 80's but it was a little cartoonish.

The characters are also presented in such a way that shows most of them in a pretty poor light. Except for the Maya character who was presented in the film as the great underbelly of the company.

Has some entertaining moments and is often interesting but lacks any depth perhaps as its presented more as a comedy than a drama or bio film :)

I do not understand why some writers out there still choose to do the flashback back-and-forth style, even though it has proven each and every single time to be a terrible idea. There was no need for that here! This movie would've worked so much better without jumping back-and-forth in time. It was very distracting and it didn't help the story at all. There were maybe a couple of clever editing tricks that it helped with, but it wasn't worth it.

That being said, I thought it was an interesting story, even if it was all made up. Not sure however that making Ty act like a child was the right move.

Overall, this wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. Very mid.

For those living in the 90s, Beanie Babies were all the craze. As a little kid, I remember everyone wanting them and seeing them all over. So, it is no surprise that nostalgia for the 90s would make people want to relive this crazy. However, this story was already told fairly effectively in the documentary Beanie Mania with the people who actually lived it. Now that doesn't mean that there can't be an effective film about this story too. It is also worth noting that this movie is from the perspective of the people behind the Beanie Babies and not the collectors. However, this movie just felt like it was missing something. For one, the filmmakers changed some details to fit the story they wanted to tell. Director Kristin Gore and Damian Kulash explained why they needed to make some key changes to real-life events. "It went through many drafts," said Kristin. "And then we developed this idea of wanting to tell more of a fable and a universal story." Also, the cast is a mixed bag. Zach Galifianakis seems like a strange choice to play TY, as the real-life TY was somewhat of a recluse, unlike Galifianakis. Also, it feels like Galifianakis was using this movie to make a comeback which seemed strange. Similarly, Geraldine Viswanathan is a good actor but felt out of place here, and she was more of a way to move the plot along than an actual character most of the time (and mostly fictional). Lastly, Elizbeth Banks can be hit or miss in her movies. She is super cute in this movie but has a couple of cringe moments. And it seems most of her character was fictional. They even had to change her name because Ty's real sister was so different from Bank's character in the movie. That being said it wasn't a bad movie. As I said, it just felt like it was missing something. My recommendation is to watch Beanie Mania first, and if you still need some Beanie Baby nostalgia, that's not exactly true, then give watch this.