Henry O'Brien
A pseudo-intellectual film critic would probably note the trend of time travel movies starting in 2026. With the releases of Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die, then Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie and now BenDavid Grabinski’s Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice, one could easily claim an emphasis on fixing the mistakes of the present/past bears a remarkable resemblance to how we analyze what went wrong in our modern society.
But reading Grabinski’s film this way would ignore the feat of genre-blending the two-time director pulled off with the work that stars Vince Vaughn as two versions of the gangster Nick, who goes back in time to stop his past self from murdering his friend Mike (James Marsden). Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice features far more of a spark compared to other straight-to-streaming action comedies (although, this has also far more sci-fi) and utilizes a delightful double performance from Vaughn, who balances his traditional douchey charm with a genuine sense of remorse.
If anything else besides the film being an emergence for Grabinski, it’s a pleasant return for Vaughn, who hasn’t been given as meaty a movie role since S. Craig Zahler’s Brawl in Cell Block 99. One of the versions of Nick presents a sadness to him that permeates throughout the whole proceeding.
The movie opens at a party hosted by mobster Sosa (Keith David), who explains that there is a rat in his midst. And while he doesn’t say it at the party, Sosa thinks it’s Marsden’s character. Mike’s predicament has all the trappings of a film noir, with a woman — in this case Alice (Eiza González) — and a gun. But once Grabinski reveals the film’s full premise, it is off to the races. The film never loses its kinetic pace and pulls charming, if slightly predictable, twists and turns. But what Grabinski lacks in novelty (this film is a riff of 80’s movies anyway, so why does it have to be novel?), he more than makes up for it in his unexpected, off-beat pop culture discussions.
There’s a long conversation about the wonderful WB show Gilmore Girls and there will be no spoilers here about who each character thinks is the right boyfriend for Rory. This, along with the specific needle drops, points to Grabinski making careful consideration for what pop culture he references, instead of feeling like it was nostalgia pulled out of a hat.
Grabinski also displays a flair for the daring in how he shoots this picture. Throughout the movie, Grabinski relies on a slow shutter speed in moments where characters are at an emotional impasse. The regret that Nick feels turns into an odd form of longing that makes his character feel far richer.
For being a film that went straight to Hulu — with general assumptions of its lack of artistic quality — Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice feels closer to Wong Kar-wai than to, say, Amazon’s The Wrecking Crew. The cast aside from Vaughn is willing and game for all the shenanigans Grabinski is up to. Even in limited screentime, David is a welcome presence and a highlight, using a similar comedic tenor to his guest work on Rick and Morty and Community. While he has to be an intimidating mob boss, he reads every line with a healthy amount of meta humor, never going overboard to make the whole enterprise feel pointless.
The one downside is Jimmy Tatro’s character, who is supposed to be Sosa’s son, Jimmy Boy. Tatro has understood his persona since the days of The Real Bros of Simi Valley as the aptly defined bro. While he is funny as Jimmy Boy, his character’s role in moving the plot along feels forced and wasted. For a movie that’s just over 90 minutes, Jimmy Boy’s insertion jams up the film ever so slightly.
Minor gripes aside, Grabinski still crafted a world that never lets go of his viewers’ attention, while actually earning emotions that usually are not merited in movies released in the same form as Mike and Nick and Nick and Alice. It should give anyone hope that a good movie can come from anywhere, even as streaming services are content leaving more unwatchable, forgettable garbage in their libraries.
