Les Claypool's laid-back mockumentary about a fictional jam band generates enough mild humor to keep the spoof rolling, but lacks the commitment and scope, not to mention the originality, of a "This Is Spinal Tap."
Les Claypool’s laid-back mockumentary about a fictional jam band generates enough mild humor to keep the spoof rolling, but lacks the commitment and scope, not to mention the originality, of a “This Is Spinal Tap.” Directed and thesped by musicians who know whereof they mock, pic coasts on the hit-and-miss spontaneity that reps a typical jam band’s bread and butter. Satisfied with small satiric flashes of recognition, “Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo” avoids forced, aggressive humor but rarely scales any great comedic heights. National Lampoon laffer, which opened Nov. 9 in scattered cities, seems unlikely to draw the uninitiated.
Related Stories
VIP+What Film Fund From AI Startup Runway Means for Content’s Future
Jeremy Strong Says Criticizing Straight Actors for Playing Gay Roles Is 'Absolutely Valid'
The pseudonym-draped musicians, not having to establish their bonafides (unlike the actorly cast of “Spinal Tap”), delight in playing Electric Apricot’s derivative, extremely limited repertoire with varying degrees of awfulness. They are given to occasional spurts of competence and — after one of them is visited by the ghost of Jerry Garcia while passed out naked in the woods — even rise to unlikely improvisatory brilliance.
Popular on Variety
Helmer Claypool, lead singer and bass player with Primus (when not slumming with his Flying Frog Brigade jam band), reserves the most thoroughly obnoxious role for himself as pretentious, opinionated egotist Lapland “Lapdog” Miclovich, Electric Apricot’s talentless drummer.
Filling out the band are Claypool’s longtime fellow musicians: Adam Gates as bassist Steve “Aiwass” Trouzdale; Bryan Kehoe as guitarist Steve “Gordo” Gordan, and Jonathan Korty as keyboardist Herschel Tambor Brillstein.
Guest appearances by the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir, Phish’s Mike Gordon and Government Mule’s Warren Hynes and cameos by comedy mavens Seth Green and Matt Stone round out the celeb cast.
Pic follows the band-bio blueprint with nonchalant faithfulness and a positively serene disinterest in structural innovation. Thus, viewers are treated to the band’s humble beginnings outside coffee-houses, the obligatory ego-butting recording session and the long dreamt-of appearance at the prestigious “Festeroo.”
Humor flows naturally from Electric Apricot’s self-important pronouncements, with an occasional throwaway stunner (“I felt like Hitler at Waterloo”). Though the evolution of the band’s name is not exactly side-splitting, Lapdog’s explanation of how the lightning bolt on the band’s logo differs from the Grateful Dead’s is one for the books.
Tech credits are suitably grungy.
Jump to CommentsNational Lampoon Presents Electric Apricot: Quest for Festeroo
More from Variety
Tim Meadows Joins CBS Comedy Pilot ‘DMV’
Hollywood’s Next Superhero: Purpose-Led Branding
Sam Strangis, ‘CSI’ and ‘Happy Days’ Producer, Dies at 95
Paramount Global’s Ad Group Lays Off Staff as Part of Companywide Cost-Cutting Move
Virtual Production Growth in Focus at IBC Event
Nate Bargatze to Host CBS Primetime Special Taped at Grand Ole Opry
Most Popular
Inside the 'Joker: Folie à Deux' Debacle: Todd Phillips ‘Wanted Nothing to Do’ With DC on the $200 Million Misfire
‘Kaos’ Canceled After One Season at Netflix
‘Menendez Brothers’ Netflix Doc Reveals Erik’s Drawings of His Abuse and Lyle Saying ‘I Would Much Rather Lose the Murder Trial Than Talk About Our…
Kathy Bates Won an Oscar and Her Mom Told Her: ‘You Didn't Discover the Cure for Cancer,’ So ‘I Don't Know What All the Excitement Is About…
Saoirse Ronan Says Losing Luna Lovegood Role in ‘Harry Potter’ Has ‘Stayed With Me Over the Years’: ‘I Was Too Young’ and ‘Knew I Wasn't Going to Get…
‘Joker 2’ Director Says Arthur Fleck Was Never Joker: ‘He's an Unwitting Icon’ and Joker Is ‘This Idea That Gotham People Put on Him…
‘Joker 2’ Axed Scene of Lady Gaga’s Lee Kissing a Woman at the Courthouse Because ‘It Had Dialogue in It’ and ‘Got in the Way’ of a Music…
Andrew Garfield Says Sex Scene With Florence Pugh in ‘We Live in Time’ Went a ‘Little Bit Further’ Than Intended: ‘We Never Heard Cut…
‘Skyfall’ Director Sam Mendes Says James Bond Studio Prefers Filmmakers ‘Who Are More Controllable’: ‘I Would Doubt’ I’d…
Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried to Star in ‘The Housemaid’ Adaptation From Director Paul Feig, Lionsgate
Must Read
- Film
COVER | Sebastian Stan Tells All: Becoming Donald Trump and Starring in 2024’s Most Controversial Movie
By Andrew Wallenstein 3 weeks
- TV
Menendez Family Slams Netflix’s ‘Monsters’ as ‘Grotesque’ and ‘Riddled With Mistruths’: ‘The Character Assassination of Erik and Lyke Is Repulsive…
- TV
‘Yellowstone’ Season 5 Part 2 to Air on CBS After Paramount Network Debut
- TV
50 Cent Sets Diddy Abuse Allegations Docuseries at Netflix: ‘It’s a Complex Narrative Spanning Decades’ (EXCLUSIVE)
- Shopping
‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Sets Digital and Blu-ray/DVD Release Dates
Sign Up for Variety Newsletters
By providing your information, you agree to our Terms of Use and our Privacy Policy.We use vendors that may also process your information to help provide our services. // This site is protected by reCAPTCHA Enterprise and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.Variety Confidential
ncG1vNJzZmiukae2psDYZ5qopV9nfXGDjp%2BgpaVfp7K3tcSwqmimkam2sLrApWSlmZ2lvLC6jKmpnquVo8G0ecSlnJysop6wbq3Pq6Ccp6Rivrax0q1kn6eiYrOmv9OeqainXWZ%2FcXyUbmtubmJk