Idiots

Grade: B-

Idiots would have fit right in with that wave of Miramaxy, Tarantinian Pulp Fiction copycats/wannabes that were dumped on us in the second half of the 1990s, and it would have been one of the better ones. Its plot reminded me of Very Bad Things (from 1998), and I detected a heavier-than-usual Pulp Fiction influence, particularly with some dialogue and character journeys. It’s not a masterpiece, but for a film called (and about) Idiots, there’s something here. If this is the only thing you see in theaters, you could do a lot worse.

Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. (Ice Cube in Straight Outta Compton) star as Mark and Davis. Recently fired from their respective jobs, they land a new one: transporting ne’er-do-wells to a rehab/recovery center. Their first client is Sheridan (Franco’s Regretting You co-star Mason Thames), who is popular on social media and comes from a family with deep pockets. The three men stop at a motel for the night, Davis wanders the property on a drug trip, a sex worker (Kiernan Shipka) comes to the room, Sheridan disappears, and it snowballs into more twists and complications.

If some of the hijinks get to be a bit much, well, remember the name of the movie. Director Macon Blair did 2025’s The Toxic Avenger, which I thought was one of the worst movies of the year. I clocked the same directorial style here, but in this case, he somehow channels that style into a film I could connect with. What I found interesting was how motivations would shift and morph as the situations changed. In one scene, Sheridan might be trying to get away from some people, and then he’d depend on those same people to rescue him.

That shifting of loyalties also reminded me of Pulp Fiction. Franco and Jackson would often bring to mind Jules and Vincent. There’s a religious redemption angle to Davis, much like Samuel L. Jackson. And Franco has a line eerily similar to John Travolta’s “Did you ever hear the philosophy that once a man admits that he’s wrong that he is immediately forgiven for all wrongdoings?” Idiots has a large ensemble, but they all understand the assignment and feel like they’re playing in the same movie. Peter Dinklage (the title character in Blair’s Toxic Avenger) must have enjoyed working with him, because he came back to do this.

I had obscure recondite reasons for catching up with Idiots before it left theaters. Mason Thames appeared in Nimrods (out less than a month ago), and I was curious to track his progress from Nimrods to Idiots. Kiernan Shipka is one of my favorite young actresses working today, and I try to keep up with her projects. I sometimes confuse her with Mckenna Grace, another favorite. To make matters more complicated, Grace appeared in Nimrods. Have I exploded your brain yet?

A trailer might make its corresponding film look better than it has a right to look. The trailer for Idiots sells it short. I was bracing myself for an uninteresting, unfunny dark stoner comedy with too many people, too many interlocking stories, and nary a character anyone would care about. Instead, what I got was one focused, simple plot that kept me engaged. The characters were well-developed enough, and at least one of them had a discernible arc. Kiernan Shipka is better utilized here than her “counterpart” Mckenna Grace was in Nimrods. I’m glad I saw Idiots.

Grade: B-