ok so this one's a swing. Rob Lowe, Gillian Jacobs, and Will Brill are starring in a new dark comedy that's hitting theaters today, September 18, and the premise is... a lot. Per ComingSoon, it's a revenge comedy with a musical element baked in. yes, all of those words at once.

I'm not going to pretend I know how this plays on screen, because I haven't seen it yet. but the cast alone earns a raised eyebrow in the good way. Gillian Jacobs can do literally any genre you hand her, Community to horror to indie stuff nobody saw and everyone should have. and Rob Lowe has spent the last decade being weirdly great at playing men who are slightly unhinged beneath the tan.

Will Brill is the name that makes me lean in though. if you saw him steal scenes in A Complete Unknown or any of his stage stuff, you know. that guy commits.

so the setup, from what's out there: a revenge plot, and it's a musical. which is either the boldest tonal tightrope walk of the year or a complete car crash, and there's basically no middle setting. genre mashups like this walk straight into that problem. they either find the human nerve under the joke or they just feel expensive and awkward.

and theatrical dark comedies are basically an endangered species right now. mid-budget movies for adults barely get screens anymore unless something weird is happening, so the fact that this one made it to theaters instead of getting quietly dumped on a streamer at 3am is kind of the story on its own. every time that happens I feel like we should acknowledge it.

this also feels like one of those movies you have to see with a crowd to know if the jokes land or die loudly in the room. that's the whole test with dark comedy. a joke that works alone on your couch can crater with 40 strangers around you, and vice versa.

I'm going this weekend if I can swing it, mostly out of pure curiosity. a revenge comedy with this cast is exactly the kind of unhinged swing I want studios taking more of, even when they miss. and if it's bad, well. at least it'll be interesting bad, which is more than I can say for half the stuff I covered this month.

if anyone catches it opening weekend, I need a full report. no spoilers, just vibes.