My daughter asked me to pause “A Stupid and Futile Gesture” a few days ago and I paused on Domnhall Gleeson holding a light brown Parker Jotter. I would have missed it otherwise, though I would have predicted he would be the holder of the pen were it in the film.
My dad loves the yearbook National Lampoon published. He loved telling me that his fraternity could watch Animal House and yawn. Lorne Michaels pilfered National Lampoon to begin Saturday Night Live. Who knows who Chevy Chase is without National Lampoon, not to mention Gilda Radner, Bill Murray, etc.
None of this is built or developed without Gleeson’s character, Henry Beard. After beginning National Lampoon together, Doug Kenney leaves for 9 months with a one line note left to explain. Beard keeps it together, though he isn’t long for the magazine. He keeps his promise to leave when it isn’t fun anymore. Beard ran the magazine for five years.
Miles Davis once quipped that he changed music. Beard and Kenney changed comedy, and through that – American culture. There is no Doug Kenney without Beard. The short, tragic, and hilarious film accomplishes all this in the style of an 80s movie – 90 minutes, lots of laughs, not too proud of itself.
Jotter in Film 