Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Drop’ on Hulu, an Offbeat Relationship Comedy Led by Anna Konkle

The Drop (now on Hulu) pairs a couple of compelling actors, Pen15’s Anna Konkle and Sorry to Bother You’s Jermaine Fowler, as partners-in-life who may be reconsidering their desire to have a family after she lets someone else’s baby hit the dirt. I’ll just say it upfront: THE BABY’S OK, because this isn’t that type of movie – it’s a comedy with a dark fringe produced by the Duplass Brothers, which tells us that it’s not going to be too wacky or too serious for its own good. But the question remains as to whether it’s good, period, which is exactly why we’re here right now, isn’t it?

THE DROP: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: “Kegel. Keeeeeeeegelllllllll.” We meet Lex (Anna Konkle) and Mani (Jermaine Fowler) in the process of (hopefully) conceiving a child. They’re maximizing their opportunities with the proper muscular squeezing and propping of her feet and all that. They’d rather bask in the afterglow of their commingling but they have a Wedding Weekend Away to attend. They stop at her bakery – named Carbs, cute – for some cakes and then we see them flying first class. The cakes, I mean. In their own seat, even.

No, the bakery business isn’t that good. They’re traveling to the wedding with friends, one of whom, Shauna (Robin Thede), is rich and famous for playing the Black Lady President Who Likes to Think She Might’ve Inspired Kamala Harris a Little Bit on TV, and she footed the bill. Shauna’s married to a touchy-feely weirdo, Robbie (Utkarsh Ambudkar), and they bring along their adopted teen son Levi (Elisha Henig), who openly watches porn on the plane because, as his mother explains, he’s “exploring.” The couple about to be married consists of Mia (Aparna Nancharla) and Peggy (Jennifer Lafleur), who have a baby girl. They arrive in Mexico, where they’ll stay at a resort owned by their pals Josh (Joshua Leonard) and Lindsay (Jillian Bell). They’re on the ground and everyone’s hugging and awkward and Lex holds onto the baby but not tight enough or long enough and she hits the pavement with a horrible thud.

Again, THE BABY’S OK, but I’m not sure anybody else is. Some of them, we’ll soon learn, probably weren’t all that OK to begin with, but Mani and Lex are thrust into a critical and awkward phase of their marriage because she wonders how and why she dropped a baby and he wonders if he still wants to have a baby with someone who drops babies. Lex mumbles something about being startled by a bee, but it seems flimsy, maybe not a full lie, but more than half a lie, and enough to make you want to rewind to the scene in question if it didn’t include the awful sound of a baby’s head hitting the ground.

Mani calls his mother, and shares some wisdom: “That’s a white people thing. Black people don’t drop babies.” Lex wanders off to the beach and takes her clothes off and bleak-comically decides not to walk into the ocean forever. Meanwhile, the wedding weekend proceeds and establishes Shauna and Robbie as eccentric Comedy Movie Lunatics, Levi as a budding pervert, Josh and Lindsay as naturalist neo-hippie dipshits and Mia as a potentially closeted – gulp – Republican. Mia, in fact, brings a gun on the trip. And you know what they say about a gun that’s introduced in the first act of a movie.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I dunno, what’s the last vacay-resort comedy I saw? Fire Island I think, so mix that with a post-mumblecore indie-com ca. 2010ish (think Your Sister’s Sister, something like that).

Performance Worth Watching: Konkle and Fowler hit similarly thoughtful notes of existential self-examination, and their performances are pretty much the only thing holding the movie together.

Memorable Dialogue: Mani issues a confession: “I know you named your bakery Carbs ironically, but I don’t want to live in a city that thinks that’s funny.”

Sex and Skin: Two mostly off-screen scrumps (legs in the air, lumps moving beneath an opaque mosquito net); Konkle’s naked hindquarters.

Our Take: I don’t think I’ve seen a you-dropped-a-baby-and-now-I-wonder-if-we-should-get-divorced comedy before, so let’s at least acknowledge the relative originality of the premise. But The Drop doesn’t quite do enough with it, padding Mani and Lex’s quandary with dopey-stereotype characters – the egomaniacal actress, the crunchy-granola vegans serving “beet root bacon,” etc. – and not necessarily hijinks, but something short of that – antics. Yes, antics. Antics that feel lifted from a bigger, dumber, broader comedy, and forced into cohabitation with elements of a contemplative relationship/character drama, like bad roommates.

It seems as if not enough thought went into the writing here. A better screenplay would’ve found a way for the supporting characters to inform or reflect upon Mani and Lex’s core relationship, but they more often distract from it with silly crapola that doesn’t inspire many laughs – a smirk or two maybe, or a snigger here or there. Director and co-writer Sarah Adina Smith (Leonard co-scripted) doesn’t lean into the dark-comedy stuff, or the serious-relationship stuff, or even the let’s-just-do-jokes stuff. It’s a weirdly noncommittal movie, stuck in a no-man’s-land between hangout movie and a story with substance. You feel a little something for the newly rocky couple, but not nearly enough.

Our Call: SKIP IT. With a less disheveled approach to the material, The Drop could’ve been a smart and funny offbeat comedy. But as it stands, it’s not a particularly satisfying watch.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.