As a director, Judd Apatow has always infused his comedies with heartfelt character development. His last couple of movies have been focused on telling personal stories for their stars and co-writers, like Amy Schumer in Trainwreck and Pete Davidson in The King of Staten Island. With The Bubble, Apatow not only moves away from that kind of personal storytelling, but he also abandons emotional arcs almost entirely, delivering a shapeless series of wan showbiz jokes via a cast of narcissistic characters the audience has little reason to care about.
Apatow can be very funny, so there's nothing inherently wrong with him deciding to just deliver silly laughs, especially in a movie designed specifically as a counterpoint to all the current difficulties in the world. However, The Bubble is rarely funny, despite all of the talented people in the cast, and it suffers from Apatow's typical problem of dragging on far too long, filled with meandering scenes of mediocre improv. With so little actual narrative in The Bubble, there's no justification for the movie to have a running time of over two hours.
The rudimentary story is set in the early days of the pandemic when nearly all of Hollywood was shut down. Inspired by the quick return to production for Jurassic World: Dominion, Apatow has invented a sci-fi blockbuster franchise, Cliff Beasts, that is gearing up for its sixth installment. An opening title card calls it the "23rd biggest action franchise of all time," and these are clearly not A-list productions. They're popular enough that the unnamed studio decides to make Cliff Beasts 6 one of only two movies actually filming during this crisis. "It's us and Tom Cruise," says studio executive Paula (Kate McKinnon), who appears only via video chat as she's busy vacationing among the elite who have early access to vaccines.
She delegates the day-to-day work to producer Gavin (Peter Serafinowicz), who has to corral the various franchise stars as they quarantine together in a lavish hotel in England in a pandemic "bubble." The Bubble's nominal main character is Carol Cobb (Karen Gillan), an actress with more serious ambitions who feels stuck in the Cliff Beasts series and who skipped out on the last installment to star in a poorly received movie about the Israel-Palestine conflict. Initially, Carol appears to be somewhat grounded and likable in contrast to her oblivious, self-involved co-stars, but despite Gillan's appealing performance, she never develops much of a distinct personality.
Instead, Gillan's just one of several cartoonish Hollywood types hanging around the set. There's on-again, off-again couple Lauren Van Chance (Leslie Mann) and Dustin Mulray (David Duchovny), who are in the process of getting divorced right after adopting a teenage son. Mann and Duchovny have no chemistry, but at least Apatow and co-writer Pam Brady attempt to give them a character arc at first. The Cliff Beasts 6 cast also includes eccentric Oscar-winner Dieter Bravo (Pedro Pascal), upbeat action star Sean Knox (Keegan-Michael Key), and TikTok sensation Krystal Kris (Iris Apatow), who seems to have no familiarity with the Cliff Beasts series or with movies in general.
The characters all represent showbiz stereotypes, and The Bubble's only joke is that they're stuck together for many months as the shoot drags on endlessly and the studio resorts to increasingly dangerous and elaborate measures to prevent them from leaving. The actors are all putting in their best efforts, but that mainly just gives The Bubble an air of desperation. Apatow and Brady avoid any overt social commentary, so the COVID jokes are all bland and toothless, but it's also impossible for The Bubble to transcend the circumstances of its own making. Instead of making fun, escapist entertainment, Apatow has produced a dispiriting reminder of the frustrations of the pandemic.
The Bubble is also full of narrative and comedic filler, including extended scenes from Cliff Beasts 6, which is neither believable as a major action blockbuster nor an effective parody. Apatow came up with clever, incisive examples of fake movies and TV series in 2009's Funny People, but those were only brief sketches or background poster images. The Bubble devotes substantial screen time to the repetitive, nonsensical Cliff Beasts 6, all of which seems to take place in a single green-screened location. Apatow expends significant resources on CGI monsters for the sake of the same weak joke over and over.
The Bubble is full of those weak jokes, bolstered by tired, look-at-me cameos and haphazard romantic storylines. The Bubble isn't offensive or insensitive, but instead the kind of middling satire that anyone could have made. It's a step down for someone as empathetic and funny as Apatow.
The Bubble premieres Friday, April 1 on Netflix.