4 stars out of 5
In the grand tradition of The Kentucky Fried Movie, SCTV, and Too Many Cooks comes… VHYes. This anthology of 80s pop-culture spoofs is the feature-length debut from director/co-writer Jack Henry Robbins. Two of the executive producers, who also appear in the movie, are Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon, coincidentally the parents of 30-year-old Jack Robbins. The young man has clearly inherited not only creative talent, but a love of the absurd.
The film — using the word “film” loosely, as it was recorded solely on VHS and Betamax — does have a plot of sorts. It’s Christmas 1987, and young Ralph’s family gets a video camera. Eager to experiment, Ralphie accidentally starts taping over his parents’ wedding video, with both home movies, and late-night shows and movies taped off the TV.
Some familiar faces pop up in bigger recurring roles: Thomas Lennon as a home-shopping host, Lennon’s Reno 911 co-star Kerri Kenney as a Bob Ross-esque painting instructor, and Mark Proksch (who I used to think was Rob Corddry’s brother) from What We Do in the Shadows and The Office as host of a pseudo-Antiques Roadshow. The musician Weyes Blood also appears in a very amusing segment.
Ralphie (a nod to A Christmas Story?) is played by Mason McNulty. He’s fine, maybe a little annoying as child actors sometimes are. I was more impressed with Ralph’s BFF Josh, portrayed by Rahm Braslaw. The young man has soul.
As a devotee of 1987, there are a scattering of anachronisms that jumped out at me. There’s a picture of Dennis Rodman with neon-yellow hair, which he didn’t start doing till the 90s. Antiques Roadshow wasn’t known in the U.S. till 1997. Conversely, there’s a jokey reference to Betamax, which was already mostly irrelevant by ’87. And Ralphie looked more like a 70s kid to me than an 80s kid.
OK Boomer, that’s pretty minor stuff; so how was the movie? With any anthology project, it’s going to be hit-and-miss, but VHYes has a lot more hits than misses. There is some very, very funny and very clever stuff, well-conceived and well-performed. Young Robbins definitely captures the spirit of the 1980s. Perhaps more importantly, he includes a few quieter, more reflective scenes that perhaps point to a promising future as a dramatic filmmaker. I am certainly looking forward to more work from Jack Henry Robbins.
I have a lot of trouble sleeping, and I can’t get the Sleeping with Joan segment out of my head. In other words, I’ve been looking everywhere for catmilk. Alas, it’s not to be found. I think catmilk must have been bought up in the COVID-19 quarantine shopping panic, along with 10,000 sheet containers of of non-flushable sanitizing wipes and shipping pallets of bottled water.