Religious conservatives will no doubt have a collective stroke when they hear about "Dicks: the Musical." The film is filled with all kinds of raunchy humor, including twin brothers who fall in love and a flying vagina. You have to see it in order to believe it. But perhaps the film's most "offensive" (to religious conservatives) aspect is "Saturday Night Live" actor Bowen Yang as a flamboyantly gay God.
While Nathan Lane and Megan Mullally are billed as the film's stars, "Dicks" really belongs to newcomers Josh Sharp and Aaron Jackson, who play Craig and Trevor, two allegedly heterosexual alpha males who find out that they're long-lost twin brothers; never mind that they don't look anything alike. In an R-rated riff of the classic Disney film "The Parent Trap," the boys plot to get Harris and Evelyn (Lane and Mullally), their long-estranged birth parents, back together.
As Mom and Dad, the two veterans are hilarious. Harris is an eccentric older gay man who speaks nonchalantly of his penchant for men. Harris has a side-splitting musical number called "Gay Old Life" which has been posted on YouTube. It's highly unlikely that the video will remain there because he sings about almost having his dick bitten off. Mullally joins in at the end of the song to announce that she has no pussy. And this isn't even the film's raunchiest scene!
Harris has two "friends," a pair of monstrous-looking puppets, called his "sewer boys." They live in a cage in his apartment and keep him company. He feeds them by spitting deli meat into their mouths, which they eat hungrily. It's gross, but funny.
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion has a guest role as Craig and Trevor's female bossy employer. She stops the plot at the film's midway point for a show-stopping number, "Out-Alpha the Alpha," in which she sings about dominating men while leading several dudes on leashes.
Sharp and Jackson play their roles as though they were two bipolar guys having a manic episode. They're funny for a while, but at a certain point they become tiresome, though both performers display decent comedic chops. They're quite familiar with these roles.
The film is based on their two-man Off-Broadway musical, "Fucking Identical Twins," in which they starred. "FIT" might have been a better title for the film, because (spoiler) that's exactly what the boys end up doing in the film's final act. Is there a movie theater on the planet that would be willing to put such a title up on its marquee?
It's Mullally who walks away with the film's top acting honors. She plays Evelyn as an eccentric old kook with an outrageous lisp. She speaks quite openly about having lost her pussy, which she now carries around in her purse. It's one of many gags in the film that will no doubt leave LGBTQs, the film's target audience, in stitches.
Director Larry Charles is no stranger to over-the-top raunchy comedy. His filmography includes two extremely vulgar albeit very funny Sacha Baron Cohen films, "Borat" and "Bruno." The auteur knows how to mine a laugh from the most absurd situations and how to keep things moving at a fast pace. The film's 86-minute running time feels shorter than it is.
You have to hand it to distributor A24. They green-lighted the film and are gleefully promoting it. It remains to be seen if "Dicks: the Musical" will appeal to the target queer audience. At the screening the Bay Area Reporter attended, the mostly gay audience seemed to be having a good time.
'Dicks: the Musical' is playing at the Alamo Drafthouse New Mission Cinema, 2550 Mission St., and the AMC Kabuki, 1881 Post St. More theaters will be added on October 20. www.dicksthemusical.movie
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