Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made: Review

  Quarantine has been a time of me catching up on stuff I've missed, which means chipping away at my mountainous Procrastination List of stuff I said I'd 'get around to' and never did (Euphoria, Sharp Objects, The Knick) as well as stuff I'd been carrying curiosity for (Lodge 49). Somewhere along the way I quit keeping up with new movies. Most of what I was anticipating got wrapped up like leftovers for 2021 (Judas And The Black Messiah, Halloween Kills, The Green Knight and Deep Water, to name a few). I haven't felt like watching the big 'event movies' like TENET, Wonder Woman 1984, etc. and the movies I did manage to watch, like Soul, Mank, and I'm Your Woman, pretty much sucked (I'm Your Woman is just plain boring and Mank was actively annoying [more about Soul later]). I tried watching She Dies Tomorrow as well as An American Pickle and I just...didn't...care. I'm sure they're fine, from what I saw, and plan to get back to them, but I just kinda lost the joy that I got from movies, as dramatic as that sounds.

...until I saw Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made.

 
  Throughout December I was on a steady diet of whatever my Niece picked on Disney+ and every movie she watched, save for classic Pixar or Holes, has been sedating. Like, Noelle and Godmothered are both unfunny Elf rip-offs and Magic Camp is a watered-down School Of Rock, then there's the truly benign shit I don't even remember. But Timmy Failure, which I picked with complete stoicism after my Niece said she couldn't find anything, ended up blowing me away. And as much as that sounds like a dehydrated man being thankful for whatever fluid he can find in the desert, even if it's piss, I watched it a second time to make absolutely sure I wasn't just bored. Thankfully, it held up.

 

  This is the rare kids movie, especially with Disney, that isn't a cloyingly saccharine schmaltz-fest. I know I already made the 'desert' analogy and this kinda cancels it out, but lemme have it: it's such a refreshingly dry kids movie. In the spirit of Napoleon Dynamite it's very matter-of-fact and wry, but it has a Calvin & Hobbes cuteness to it, too. The kid (Mr. Failure) thinks he's a detective and it echoes Hawk Jones at times without being cheaply made and kinda creepy. His first 'case' is an investigation of a missing backpack, then the possible 'homicide' of a hamster, and collecting intel on a student that might be a Russian spy (they're 10).

  Tom McCarthy (who also directed Spotlight) is why it works as well as it does with his small world world-building of Portland, Oregon, as the base of Gumshoe Timmy's junior noir. Rife with tattoos, hair dye, piercings, and kitschy hipster restaurants, the citizens and artwork of Portland bring a truly unique tableau for a Disney production without feeling like gentrification. This includes Timmy's Mom, Patty Failure. Timmy's relationship with her is so genuine and there's a constant reminder that his fantasies are downright harmful and inconsiderate, especially toward her, who's struggling with letting him have the comfort of imagination without it turning into consequence-free delusion. When the drama hits, particularly between them, it ACTUALLY hits, in a way I wasn't sure was even allowed in a Disney movie. Of course it's rated PG so it's not, like, unflinching melodrama, but it does exactly what it needs to do (sometimes in subtle ways, which is also few-and-far-between in these types of movies). Their rapport is so natural without it ever hitting you over the head. McCarthy is great at handling the humor, too; the frequent cutaways, including a hilariously DUMB fencing joke, hit their mark every time. Even Timmy's one-liners had me rolling, both times I watched it, like when his friend comments on how nice the houses are in the neighborhood they're 'surveilling,' Timmy responds "crime pays" without a smirk. He's blunt and super self-serious, even when he's constantly living up to his namesake.

  I think I love it so much, beyond every bit of praise I just croaked out about it, because it's not condescending in any way. Most movies tend to over-explain themselves, ESPECIALLY kids movies. I get that kids aren't exactly receptive to subtlety but they're not entirely blithe either. Timmy Failure trusts its main audience and that kind of maturity toward immaturity is in short supply.

  This movie deserves your attention and I know that's a weird thing to say about something under the colossal Disney label but it should have been saved for a theatrical release in 2021. Buried by the useless pageantry for shit like Artemis Fowl and Mulan, Timmy Failure is like Disney+'s own version of an 'indie,' dumped on streaming with no fanfare - much like A24 did to their own neo noir, Under The Silver Lake, on Amazon Prime. That's two detective yarns being swept under the rug (or lake).

  There's a conspiracy here. I mean, after all: what is Disney hiding...? Surely something evil...

  Rest assured, Timmy is on the case.