Review: 'Nerdland' finds inspiration through introspection

Posted Tuesday, February 7, 2017 at 5:20 PM Central

by John Couture

Let's face it, with Twitter and the various means of social interactions, we have become a society of fame whores. Heck, we elected a reality TV persona as President of the United States (yes, he's also a very successful businessman).

So, it's within this framework that we meet John and Elliot, just two average Joes in Hollywood looking to make it in the film industry. Naturally, they aren't having much luck, but that doesn't stop then. Instead, they launch a ridiculous plan to become famous and by doing so, achieve everything that they have ever desired.

I'm not going to give away the ending, but the real joys of Nerdland lie in the journey and the interaction between vocal leads Paul Rudd and Patton Oswalt. Despite their characters being animated, the bromance between these two is executed to perfection thanks to these two master thespians.

If you think that John and Elliot sound familiar, then you're probably a fan of Kevin Smith. The shocking verité style is something right out of his playbook and the amount of bad words is certainly on par with the director's earlier work. Alas, his involvement is only tangential in the way of a cameo from producing bud Scott Mosier.

But, John and Elliot could conceivably be Jay and Silent Bob had the latter duo grew up on the west coast instead of Jersey. In fact, the film that I would compare Nerdland to the most would be Jay & Silent Bob's Super Groovy Cartoon Movie! While their animation styles are quite dissimilar, there is a bit of overlap in the means to which they get there.

The real star of Nerdland though is the mirror that Paul Rudd and Patton Oswalt present to their audience. It's true, we are responsible for creating this fame-obsessed culture that we live in and we are the only ones that can end it.

The question remains, will we?