Why do this spring’s blockbusters feel so smug?

I hope the irony of this article isn't lost on its author

Hi r/entertainment, this is Jake from The Guardian US. We wanted to share this essay that we published today from writer Jesse Hassenger, who thinks that "a deluge of recent releases are riddled with self-satisfied smarm." *From his story:* The new Hulu movie Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice has been marketed as a genre-mashing wild ride, with plenty of South by Southwest festival reactions and even genuine full reviews delighting in its supposed mixture of sci-fi, action, romance and buddy comedy. That’s a hell of a lot of genres. While watching it, I found myself wondering if the number of elements in play is supposed to distract from how its comedy has three deadening and similar modes. One involves characters being unexpectedly familiar with seemingly incongruous elements of pop culture: it opens with a scientist tinkering with his time-travel machine while singing along to Why Should I Worry?, a niche Billy Joel song from the old Disney cartoon Oliver & Company; later, there’s a long conversation about a bunch of criminal types’ deep familiarity with the TV show Gilmore Girls. If that doesn’t sound funny enough, writer-director BenDavid Grabinski finds the flip side equally hilarious: people not knowing things. Gags include a guy who hasn’t heard of Winnie-the-Pooh, a guy who doesn’t know the proper name of chloroform, and a guy who doesn’t know what the word “comeuppance” means. These are all different guys. The third, even less sophisticated strain of comedy in Mike & Nick & Nick & Alice, are characters who fuckin’ swear. Talk about fuckin’ comedy! Sometimes their names even swear: one guy is nicknamed, get this, Dumbass Tony! In every detail of the movie, you can feel the heavy hand of the screenwriter, straining for irreverence, desperate to show that he’s made something that’s not like the other, regular screenplays out there. There’s even arguably a gentler version of screenwriter comedy smarm on display in the feel-good mega-hit Project Hail Mary, where genius scientist Ryan Gosling communicates with an alien life form primarily through the medium of quippy adorability. Their banter is family-friendlier and more endearing, but the point is similar: to show off the film-makers’ convention-flouting cleverness. These new movies don’t bust down the fourth wall with direct-address asides, the way Deadpool does. In a way, that limitation makes them feel even phonier, because they’re trying to sell screenwriter-ly interjections as genuine behavior, rather than a conceit driven by a specific rule-breaking character. For all of the potential tedium of Deadpool’s snark, he’s communicating a clear sensibility. Those movies translate the antic, in-joke-y energy of a certain type of comic book designed to make goony 13-year-old boys, both literal and at heart, laugh knowingly. No, the real damage wrought by the decade-ago success of Deadpool is more insidious than its wisecracks. It’s the way it turned an R-rated superhero movie into a de facto outlet for the lack of actual big-studio comedies. Audiences still obviously like to laugh, but turning action, horror and sci-fi movies into smarmy sorta-comedies allows movies to tap into that feelgood energy without bothering to cultivate or support genuine comic talent. [*You can read the full story for free at this link*](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/apr/01/blockbusters-smug-humor-ready-or-not-2-mike-nick-nick-alice-project-hail-mary?referring_host=Listnook&utm_campaign=guardianacct)*.*