A raucous, deliriously madcap midnight premiere of “Dicks: The Musical” closed out the first day of the Toronto Film Festival. A24’s first-ever musical, which leans hard into its R-rating and puts an irreverent, queer spin on “The Parent Trap,” played to laughs, cheers, audible gasps and shrieks and, yes, a few groans from the Royal Alexandra Theatre. The night ended, fittingly, as giant, inflatable genitalia flew through the audience.
“What’s up perverts? Why are you up so late? You should be in bed with your beautiful wives!” comedians Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp joked as they took the stage at 12:02 a.m.
They star in the film, which is adapted from their Upright Citizens Brigade two-man show called “Fucking Identical Twins.” Jackson and Sharp may have changed the title for the screen, but the general story and original songs — with lyrics like “life’s a fucking handjob, and I only play to win” — have stayed the same. The plot follows Jackson and Sharp as two self-obsessed business adversaries who discover they aren’t just brothers but (fucking) identical twins.
One gloriously silly and catchy tune at a time, they decide to switch places in order to reunite their bitterly divorced parents (Megan Mullally and Nathan Lane) and become a family again. Think Lindsay Lohan’s prankish exploits as Hallie and Annie in “The Parent Trap,” but with profanity, dick jokes (obviously) and unhinged sewer boys (you had to be there). All of that is to say, it’s fitting that “Borat” filmmaker Larry Charles directed “Dicks: The Musical,” and it somehow equally makes sense that it’s backed by the producers of the squeaky-clean, feel-good musical “The Greatest Showman.”
Cameos from Bowen Yang as God (the self-proclaimed “the greatest storyteller of all time”) and Megan thee Stallion as their suited-up “lady boss” scored some of the biggest applause of the night. In her big musical number, “Out-Alpha the Alpha,” she tells off haters while walking men on leashes. “She’s a brilliant improviser,” Jackson told the audience.
This year’s festival is unfolding amid two labor strikes that have left screenwriters and actors on the picket lines, so most stars aren’t making the voyage to Canada. Jackson, Sharp and Yang were able to attend because “Dicks,” at the 11th hour, was granted an interim agreement, which is a waiver from the Screen Actors Guild that allows them to engage in publicity. In the case of “Dicks” at TIFF, those efforts included a pre-party at Hooters with cocktails that were named after jokes in the film, such as “Queer as a $3 Bill” (a concoction of vodka, Southern Comfort, Grand Marnier and pineapple juice).
“Thank you SAG. We didn’t know we could be here until yesterday morning,” Sharp told the crowd. “Thank you, A24, for making a fucking deal that a trillion-dollar tech company won’t [make a deal],” he added, presumably referring to the streaming giant Netflix. Members of SAG-AFTRA are fighting for higher wages, increased residual payments and protections around using artificial intelligence.
Before the movie started, Jackson read a letter from Charles, who wasn’t in attendance. In the note, the director wrote: “I’ve had many experiences making movies. Some great; some amazing; some horrific; some really horrific. But none has joyous and as fun as the experience of making ‘Dicks: The Musical.” You can call it a musical. You can call it a comedy. But it’s so much more. It defies description.”
Charles ended his letter by encouraging the audience to “scream and laugh and clap” with the film. He concluded, “Welcome to the most anti-AI, pro-human movie of the 21st century.”
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