In the New Orleans-shot, Los Angeles-set “Keanu”, their consistently amusing and well-sustained feature debut – co-written by Peele with Alex Rubens, and directed by Peter Atencio, both of whom had previously worked on the TV show – they manage to strike that careful sweet spot midway between silly and smart.
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Keanu, Key and Peele’s first feature-length film, follows two friends as they search for a stolen kitten named after Reeves.
Of course it doesn’t make any sense that gang leader Cheddar (Method Man) would entrust a shipment of his new hallucinogenic drug to a couple of guys off the street who look like they just picked up their wardrobe at JCPenney. Taking the street names Shark Tank and Techtonic they infiltrate the gang, take drugs (“It’s like you’re smoking crack with God!”), get shot at and rescue the cat. Working from a script Peele penned with Alex Rubens, the pair asks the audience to hang on for the ride along with their characters, and their shaggy, anything-goes approach reflects the show’s spirit better than a more straightforward action-comedy might have. Uh-oh. Before the film even has a chance to get its feet, fear sets in that this will be nothing more than recycled jokes from Key & Peele. And, if they live to see it through, all will be right in the world again.
“Keanu”, a Warner Bros. release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association of America for “violence, language throughout, drug use and sexuality/nudity”.
Both Key, from Detroit, and Peele, from New York City, grew up in biracial families and moved between different worlds, which is where much of their humor stems from. I can think of a dozen recent ones off the top of my head (most egregiously, this week’s “Mother’s Day”) that would have been vastly improved by an adorable miniature cat.
“… we wrote the whole thing, the first draft, without a kitten in it”, Jordan Peele explains.
The action half of this action-comedy takes over in the third act, which generates fewer laughs as it spins out a series of too many climaxes (call it the “Face/Off” effect). They subsequently school the Blips on the finer points of George Michael and middle-management-style team-building, all while trying to maintain their cover (with Rell darkly warning at one point that if Allentown muthafuckas don’t get their sleep, they get “cranky”.) A cornrowed Will Forte, Anna Faris, and late-entering Luis Guzmán help keep the lunacy on just enough of a boil. But Key and Peele, with a screenplay by Peele and co-writer Alex Rubens, and some sharp action movie-style direction from Peter Atencio, manage to not only keep the joke afloat but make it amusing long after lesser performers would have run it into the ground.
Rell is feeling some serious heartache. “And it’s nearly a subconscious thing that happens”, says Peele, who is engaged to Oakland-born comedian and actress Chelsea Peretti (“Brooklyn Nine-Nine”).
Rell and his buddy Clarence (Key) are nerdy, middle class pals who spend their time arguing over whose hometown is tougher based on which had the meaner bullies.
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“George Michael possesses a certain amount of soul – a legitimate R&B performer who happened to be white”, says Key.
