Review: Dirty Grandpa
You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have the facts of Robert De Niro's cinematic life. It's meaningless at this point to analyse how De Niro's latter-day work dulls the sheen of his glory days. Whether motivated by money or by a compulsion to keep working, the actor is obviously long past caring what anyone thinks of his choices. One has to admire that quality even if one has to seriously question the state of De Niro's mind when he decided to involve himself in the highly inane and frequently offensive Dirty Grandpa.
The appropriately nicknamed Dick (De Niro) guilts his grandson Jason (Zac Efron) into driving him from Georgia to Boca Raton, an annual journey Dick made with his recently deceased wife. Jason reluctantly agrees despite the fact that he's about to be married in a week's time to the cheerfully controlling Meredith (Julianne Hough). He drives up to his grandfather's house in Meredith's Pepto Bismol pink car - alternately described by Dick as a "giant labia," a "giant tampon," and a "dildomobile" - only to discover the grieving widower wanking one out for the road. This is a sight too delicate for the corporate lawyer who once harboured ambitions to be a photographer and who has hidden away his well-muscled torso underneath polo shirts, khakis, and sweaters neatly swung over the shoulders. Dick seems to realise that his grandson is about to follow in his father's footsteps and become a materialistic cuckold and is hellbent on ensuring that Jason let his freak flag fly.
Thus does Jason spend most of the movie getting in and out of trouble, landing in and out of jail, and wondering if he will go through with his wedding to Meredith or fight his alleged attraction to former photography classmate and go-with-the-flow hippie chick Shadia (Zoey Deutch). The main objective for most of these shenanigans is to essentially have Efron as naked as much as possible, which might be reason enough for a good deal of the population to see this film. All of these scenes strain to be funny. Some may chuckle at the sight of Jason sporting a swastika made of penises as he's Facetiming with Meredith, his parents, and a rabbi whilst warding off a little boy intent on petting the stuffed animal covering his genitals. Comedy is subjective, after all.
A little bit amusing and a whole lot sad - that's how it feels watching De Niro spout streams of verbal diarrhea, flex his pecs with Efron, and perform a karaoke version of Ice Cube's "It Was a Good Day." On the other hand, it is admittedly fun to see him trade over-the-top sexual innuendos with Aubrey Plaza, who co-stars as the libidinous Lenore. Lenore wants to fulfill her goal of sleeping with a university student, alumni and professor and Dick convinces her that he's the teacher she's looking for to help her complete that trifecta. When the two finally get together, she encourages him to play up his age by complaining about how the neighbourhoods are getting worse, early bedtimes, and not being able to find his glasses as part of their foreplay. It's weird, raunchy, subversive, and funny - everything 95% of Dirty Grandpa wishes it could be but never comes close to becoming.
Dirty Grandpa
Directed by: Dan Mazer
Written by: John Phillips
Starring: Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, Zoey Deutch, Julianne Hough, Aubrey Plaza, Dermot Mulroney, Jason Mantzoukas, Adam Pally, Mo Collins, Henry Zebrowski, Jeffrey Bowyer-Chapman
