A One Mann’s Movies review of “The Beanie Bubble” (2023).
“The Beanie Bubble” on Apple+ is a very similar movie to the recent “Air“. It follows the fortunes of an American commercial success: the stuffed toy called the Beanie Baby. It’s a really fascinating story, but the structuring of the film makes for a frustrating watch.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
Plot Summary:
Ty Warner (Zach Galifianakis) is a vain, blustering businessman who through his partnership with Robbie (Elizabeth Banks) creates Ty Inc. Ty harvests the ideas from the daughters of his girlfriend Sheila (Sarah Snook) to develop the Beanie Babies toy-range. By leveraging the marketing ideas of young intern Maya (Geraldine Viswanathan) around a new-fangled thing called “the internet”, a boom in sales occurs. But success has its price.
Certification:
UK: 15; US: R. (From the BBFC web site: “Strong language”.)
Talent:
Starring: Zach Galifianakis, Elizabeth Banks, Sarah Snook, Geraldine Viswanathan.
Directed by: Kristin Gore & Damian Kulash.
Written by: Kristin Gore & Zac Bissonnette.
Twitter Handle: #BeanieBubble.
Ty (Zach Galifianakis) and Mia (Geraldine Viswanathan) waiting for the internet to load. (Source: Apple+).
“The Beanie Bubble” Review:
Positives:
- This is a fascinating story of boom and bust and the individuals involved in it. We are immersed in the fevered-world of the late 80’s and 90’s. It’s a time when the internet revolution was unfolding before our eyes. We get a decent dose of nostalgia here. However, the film doesn’t quite manage to capture it quite as adroitly as “Air” did. (Sorry… I keep referring back to it, since it is a very similar beast), I particularly enjoyed a scene where Ty and Mia are staring at a screen for a good 30 seconds. The AOL message boards load up via the modem…. “Fast isn’t it” says Ty, without a hint of sarcasm!
- Nicely portrayed is the fervour around the collecting of the toys. An opening lorry crash (very loosely based on the true incident) makes for a dramatic scene. It must have been a lot of fun to film.
- There are some strong performances in this film:
- I thought Zach Galifianakis was teriffic in this film as Ty Warner. He is portrayed as a complete arsehole! Had it not been for the woman working for him, his terrible business decisions could have derailed the sales phenomenon . Galifianakis does a great job being both needy, slightly slimy and tad creepy as the deranged boss.
- I have had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Elizabeth Banks as an actress. For every “Brightburn” where I enjoyed her performance there’s a “Pitch Perfect 3” where (imho) she was dreadful. As Robbie, she ends up on the positive side of the balance. Banks is really effective as the woman left out in the cold.
- Sarah Snook, fresh from the brilliant “Succession”, is great as the single-mother Sheila.
- But I PARTICULARLY enjoyed Geraldine Viswanathan as Mia. It’s a performance that’s full of style and vivacity and she really lit up every scene she was in. As the viewer you get excited when she gets excitable. About the web; about the launch of eBay; about a promotional video on the new thing called Youtube!
Negatives:
- I praised “Oppenheimer” to the high-heavens and gave it 5*s. So it seems incongruous to complain about this film messing with the timeline and events flipping backwards and forwards. But maybe that just highlights the gap in talent between Christopher Nolan and these two directors. Kristin Gore and Damian Kulasha are a married couple, with this being their feature debuts. Unfortunately , for me, the time-shifting narrative just comes across as gimmicky and plain annoying. This would have been a far better and more compelling film if they had just stuck to a linear narrative timeline. I’m almost tempted to grab a copy and re-edit it into that linear sequence to see!
- For “Air“, Sonny Vaccaro says “they were 80% on board”. But this is a story that has been ‘fictionalised’ to the extent that you are not quite sure how much is reality. (As the opening title amusingly says “There are parts of the truth you just can’t make up. The rest we did”.) Robbie and Sheila are loosely based on the real-life figures of Patricia Roche and Faith McGowan. Mia is based on the internet marketing pioneer Lina Trivedi. But presumably not closely enough that they wanted to have their real-names attributed to the roles! There’s a good article here that lays out some of the truths and some of the fabrications. I was surprised that there were actually more truths than the opening title might have suggested. I think this lack of clarity made it difficult to know what bits of the story you could rely on.
The real Ty Warner, photographed at a trade show in 2003 (Source: Chris Hondros/Getty Images).
Summary Thoughts on “The Beanie Bubble”
There’s a lot to irritate you about this movie, but I’ve gone and given it three-and-a-half stars regardless. Because I really did enjoy the ride. This could have been a bit of a classic if some of the rough edges had been smoothed out.
I guess the surprising thing is that Ty Warner hasn’t sued, given the atrocious light the film paints him in. It was actually a surprise to me (his wiki entry is here) that the film was released while the man is still alive. Moreover, he released a statement via Ty Inc about the film that is moderately glowing:
“I applaud the filmmakers for capturing the unprecedented energy and excitement – though not the facts – surrounding the original release of Beanie Babies 30 years ago. The movie is, by its own admission, partly fiction. But, like the filmmakers, I am in the business of dreams, and I admire their creative spirit. To the fans and collectors of Beanie Babies who have been there for the last three decades, thank you for all the love you have shown.”
Insider.com article (referenced above)
I guess that’s a pretty magnanimous thing to do under the circumstances.
“The Beanie Bubble” is available to stream on Apple TV+ now.
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Trailer for “The Beanie Bubble”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KV32siOI9mU .
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