The Beanie Bubble is a dramedy/biopic about Ty Warner(Zach Galifianakis), his two long term girlfirends Robbie(Elizabeth Banks) and Shelia(Sarah Snook), and long time entry level employee Maya(Geraldine Viswanathan) who made his company Ty Inc. a success and launched the Beanie Baby craze of the late 90's. The movie jumps around in time from the early 80's when the company was founded to the Beanie Bubble burst in '99.
Galifianakis gives a startlingly clear performance, navigating Warner's excitement, eccentricity, insecurity and actual innovation with a deftness we typically don't see from him. Not that he's not going big, the character has a flamboyant charm to him, but he's able to modulate it in an incredible way bringing believability and pathos but not at the cost of comedy. Banks and Snook are always excellent and they are so here but their storylines are more about their character's romantic tribulations with Warner so have some nice moments but overall take kind of a back seat to Warner. Viswanathan has a bit more room to play and a bit more meat to deal with and is tremendous. The supporting cast are mostly background actors but there all effective, in essence its about the core four in the poster.
Visually crisp, clean, if not terribly inspired it looks polished the non-linear structure helps to elevate what could have been a movie with low energy but the time jumps build tension, keep the pacing clipping along, and generally keep you hooked. It's a tight, well acted, funny, piece of 90's nostalgia.
A solid piece of entertainment that is troubling only because of the broader glut of this kind of product-biopic that has arisen this year.
Currently streaming on Apple+.
Rent It.
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