Director: Dan Eckman
Notable Cast: Donald Glover, D.C. Pierson, Dominic Dierkes, Aubrey Plaza
Rating: R
Review: If you haven’t discovered Donald Glover yet via “Community,” his stand up, or his participation in the comedy group Derrick Comedy; it’s time. Mystery Team is the first big production by Derrick Comedy, who usually just do Youtube skits, and their first real test. It’s easy (well, for people good at it) to write a 5 minute skit and throw it together, but a feature film is a much more daunting task. In Mystery Team, the comedy troupe play three friends who never grew out of their childhood detective agency. Now teenagers, they still act like the immature rugrats who pretended to be the greatest detectives in the world. Of course, the team gets involved in a case entirely over their head, and have to either grow up or accept defeat. Mystery Team was a great idea for a comedy, imagining what would happen if kids never grew out of their favorite childhood activities. The comedy is very awkward though, as Derrick Comedy takes the more subtle and dry approach to comedy, while mixing in the completely bizarre. Donald Glover is a shining star, bringing a mix of hilarious physical comedy via his facial expressions and such witty dialogue. This is the man who at a young age was hired by Tina Fey to write for “30 Rock” and the character Tracy Jordan. All those great lines Tracy said? Donald. He is an up and coming comic genius, and it shows in Mystery Team. That said, this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. If you’re only into mainstream comedy and gross out humor, you’ll probably be bored. The comedy is very dialogue driven and as I said isn’t thrown your face. What I’d suggest is to watch the skits that I’ll post below and judge from that. If you don’t like what Derrick Comedy does, Mystery Team is most definitely not for you. But for the rest, it will be a quirky and rewarding comedy experience.
Netflix Rating: 4/5
Don’t Jerk Off To This
Bro Rape
The Spelling Bee
Mystery Team Trailer
