Keanu Review

For Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele, Keanu is basically their watershed moment as high-profile comedic figures. For comedians transitioning from TV to film, their first on-screen project, more often than not, can make or break their careers. For every Amy Schumer, Jason Bateman and Will Ferrell that went from the small screen to the big screen with major success, you've got your Jimmy Fallons and Chris Kattans that couldn't quite break through to the level of marquee names in movie theaters (though the latter two actors, especially Fallon, would find glory in the realm of TV). For Key & Peele, this is their first time leading a feature film, and with their hit sketch comedy TV show off the air, they have no safety net to return to. Like I said, this is the time to do or die, as Jared Leto would put it.

The premise writers Jordan Peele and Alex Rubens have concocted for this critical motion picture is one that patterns itself after a number of Key & Peele skits in the way that it merges a more absurd sounding concept with more realistic archetypes and environments. Here, the archetypes in questions are Rell (Jordan Peele), a guy severely down in the dumps after his girlfriend has exited his life and Clarence (Keegan-Michael Key), a married man whose too much of a people-pleaser, to the point where his wife, Hannah (Nia Long) asks him to have some me-time. Like I said, pretty tired and true stock characters, a tad more rote than the figures usually seen on the skits in the two lead actors TV show, but there's no denying that Key & Peele do a fine job wringing every laugh possible out of the people they're playing, particularly Key who can sell both a humorously plain personality and attempts to be an over-the-top macho guy in equal measures of hilarity.

Now, where does the more absurd concept figure into the plot? Well, the thing that gets Rell out of his funk is the arrival of an adorable kitten that he names Keanu. All seems well in the world...until Rell finds his house robbed and the kitty abducted. An extremely dangerous gang, the 17th Street Blips (the origin of that gang name is one of the most inspired gags in the whole film), is behind the catnapping and now Rell and Clarence are determined to get him back. A simple rescue mission soon spirals out of control though, as the head of the gang, Cheddar (Method Man) soon mistakes the two for legendary killers and asks for their participation in a drug deal in exchange for the ownership of the cat.

From there, it's pretty clear that a large share of the jokes will come from juxtaposing the more everyday personalities of Rell and Clarence with the more violent tendencies of the gang they're attempting to infiltrate. It's a one-note concept for a comedy, but it actually holds up rather well, primarily because all of the actors involved (which include Jason Mitchell as a criminal who takes a shine to Clarence and his love for George-Michael music and Will Forte as a dreadlock wearing drug dealer neighbor) are showing commendable commitment to their characters. The jokes come at a steady clip and the regular appearance of an adorable kitten just sweetens the deal further.

Rhythm and pacing is a critical component of making comedy work, and unfortunately, that's one area where the screenplay for Keanu stumbles most noticeably. In the middle portion of the story, things take a brief turn for the meandering, most notably for an elongated stake-out sequence and, that tired trope of R-rated comedies, the extended drug trip sequence. These scenes not contributing much to the overall plot wouldn't be too much of a problem if they brought out plenty of jokes to speak of, but aside from one or two grin-worthy bits in the aforementioned drug scene, they're also not that funny. Like I said, rhythm and pacing are so crucial to getting comedy right that it's sorta shocking to see these more superfluous segments of the motion picture actually made it to the final cut.

After seeing recent theatrical American comedies like Daddy's Home that had all the directorial flourish of a video journalism project I made in 9th grade, it's super nice to see some attention paid to the visual aspects of Keanu, with director Peter Atencio (who directed a number of episodes of the Key & Peele TV show) displaying some solid chops as a director in his second feature-film endeavor. He's one of the highest peaks of Keanu, a movie whose high points are good enough to make it fun enough to watch, but also make its weaker aspects all the more noticable. Still, there's plenty of successful jokes and quotable lines to be found in Keanu to make it a solid first big-screen outing for its lead actors.