Film review: The Bubble - "tiresome" lockdown comedy from Judd Apatow

Apart from a game performance from Karen Gillan, there’s not much to recommend Judd Apatow’s unfunny lockdown comedy The Bubble, writes Alistair Harkness, writes Alistair Harkness
By Alistair Harkness
Published 1st Apr 2022, 10:21 BST
Updated 4th Apr 2022, 11:20 BST
The Bubble. (L to R) Keegan-Michael Key as Sean Knox, Karen Gillan as Carol Cobb, Leslie Mann as Lauren Van Chance, David Duchovny as Dustin Mulray, Guz Khan as Howie Frangopolous, Iris Apatow as Krystal Kris, Pedro Pascal as Dieter Bravo in The Bubble. Cr. Laura Radford/Netflix © 2021The Bubble. (L to R) Keegan-Michael Key as Sean Knox, Karen Gillan as Carol Cobb, Leslie Mann as Lauren Van Chance, David Duchovny as Dustin Mulray, Guz Khan as Howie Frangopolous, Iris Apatow as Krystal Kris, Pedro Pascal as Dieter Bravo in The Bubble. Cr. Laura Radford/Netflix © 2021
The Bubble. (L to R) Keegan-Michael Key as Sean Knox, Karen Gillan as Carol Cobb, Leslie Mann as Lauren Van Chance, David Duchovny as Dustin Mulray, Guz Khan as Howie Frangopolous, Iris Apatow as Krystal Kris, Pedro Pascal as Dieter Bravo in The Bubble. Cr. Laura Radford/Netflix © 2021

Judd Apatow films can be a little uneven at times, but rarely has he delivered a misfire as complete as The Bubble. An unfunny lockdown comedy about the production of a blockbuster movie in the early days of the pandemic, the Netflix backed film isn’t so much a satire of the movie industry in a time of crisis as an example of why it’s in crisis.

A game Karen Gillan – the one good thing about it – takes the lead as Carol Cobb, the star of a Jurassic Park-style franchise coerced into appearing in a sixth instalment that’s being rushed into production to offset the potential shortage of new content as the world goes into lockdown. Having skipped the previous film to appear in a tone-deaf prestige movie that’s left her career on the brink of ruin, Carol's reluctance to return is exacerbated by the prospect of being stuck in a (luxurious) bubble with her grudge-bearing former cast members, among them David Duchovny as the franchise’s grizzled hero and Pedro Pascale as a slumming-it Oscar-winner looking for a big paycheque.

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Most of the alleged jokes are built around pampered movie stars struggling with quarantine while their underlings mock them behind their backs. It’s pretty tiresome stuff and even the ideas with promise – like the casting of a Tik-Tok star who doesn’t like films – are squandered by the film’s TV sketch-show execution.

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