Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele have continually peeled away at the outrageousness of modern machismo on their eponymous Comedy Central show. A sketch may be the ideal format for doing so, as their characters in that context can be as caricaturish as they need them to be. But in a film, typically the main characters have to track as real people. In Keanu, Clarence (Key) and Rell (Peele) come off as genuine as they trek through the drug-dealing black market to retrieve the titular cat. And as they pass themselves off as gangsters, they in fact do target machismo just as progressively as K&P usually do. But because they exist in a world that is supposed to be realer than the exaggerated worlds this duo usually plays around IN, there are a lot of hairy implications that are never fully dealt with. Their energy is as righteous as ever, making for some hearty laughs, but they leave an aftertaste of, “But how CAN this be fully resolved?” and “This is where you leave us?!”
I give Keanu 5.5 Oh My God!’s out of 9 Did That Really Just Happens?!’s.
Jeff Malone is a voracious entertainment consumer and entertainment creator. He currently resides in New York City, where he received his Master’s in Media Studies at The New School. In addition to his pieces on TMRzoo.com and StarPulse.com, you can check out his blog (jmunney.wordpress.com), where he provides regular coverage of Community and Saturday Night Live, as well as other television, film, music, and the rest of pop culture.
