Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
Cast: Melissa McCarthy, Elizabeth Banks, Maya Rudulph, Leslie David Baker, Joel McHale, Cynthy Wu, Michael McDonald, Mitch Silpa, Hemky Madera, Bill Barratta, Dorien Davies, Kevin Clash, Victor Yerrid, Drew Massey, Ted Michaels, Brian Henson, Allan Trautman.
The Muppet Show it isn’t, there is no cosy sense of mischief, of childhood playfulness felt, and yet the Henson name is driven through The Happytime Murders like a nail being hammered through a sock and because of this sense of stuffed innuendo and rebellion to go and deliver an adult-orientated puppet/human story, the makers have stitched together a film which is beautifully insubordinate, outrageously defiant and completely, and utterly, sublime.
It is the power in which we hold over puppets, whether through the use of the ventriloquist doll, or in the marionette, that we are able to communicate with each other and with a potential audience in such a way that suggests they have an influence, a control over us. Who hasn’t put a sock puppet on their hands and felt compelled to say something rude, be outspoken or even vulgar and have it dismissed as a bit of fun? It is in that influence that puppets have that we can almost see that the human capacity for absolute truth comes in, we cannot, we dare not, ever let such words pass our lips normally, so we take the opportunity to let a puppet take the fall.
It is this idea of the puppet taking the blame that comes out initially in the film, on one level the viewer will seek out the point of the experience as being the human expression being allowed to flourish, to see the joke go beyond the area in which it might naturally finish when seeing two human beings interact with each other; dig deeper though and the film touches on the basis of institutional racism and prejudice and it is this which makes the film an absolute dream of challenging attitude.
How else can we show that the absolute carnage that comes across when at first we decide that a section of society isn’t good enough, that whether the person is Jewish, black, gay, transgender, Muslim or Aborigine, gives us the right to abuse them, we belittle them, we make them dance for their rights. It is across many powerful scenes that this under the radar statement comes kicking out and calling us for what we are, we are playthings for those that wish to cause division, we are the open vessels for someone to use their words through us and that it must be questioned at every opportunity.
The Happytime Murders is brutally funny, it is deliberately shocking and an absolute riot of humour, Melissa McCarthy is in her element as Detective Connie Edwards, Elizabeth Banks proves that comedy is in her blood and for the whole team who take on the mannerisms and voices of the puppets, the sense of fun, and thought, they bring to the film is extraordinary.
Arguably one of the best detective buddy films since Lethal Weapon, and just as hard hitting with its commentary, The Happytime Murders might go down as the film that gave cinema its bite in the summer of 2018.
Ian D. Hall