---
title: "Idiots"
year: 2026
kind: "film"
canonical: "https://film.one/film/idiots"
fi1m_id: "idiots"
imdb_id: "tt6628920"
tmdb_id: 445466
wikidata_id: "Q137356276"
fi1m_score: 62
critics_score: 59
critics_reviews: 9
published: "2026-09-21"
updated: "2026-09-21T02:00:16.418338+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Idiots (2026)

Directed by Macon Blair · 1h 40m · MPA R · Comedy, Crime

## Identity

Idiots

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/idiots
- **Type:** Film
- **Fi1m ID:** idiots
- **IMDb ID:** tt6628920
- **TMDB ID:** 445466
- **Wikidata ID:** Q137356276
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6628920/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/445466, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q137356276

**Fi1m score: 62** · Critics 59 from 9 reviews

*In a sentence:* Two men who cannot be trusted with a car are trusted with a rich kid, and the kid is the problem

> Macon Blair’s road comedy has two funny leads and one nasty idea about the teenager in their back seat. For an hour it is a treat. Then it plays the idea and never settles what kind of film it wants to be afterwards.

## Synopsis

Mark (Dave Franco) and Davis (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) drive for a living and are not good at it. Mark talks; Davis waits for him to stop. A job puts a teenager in their back seat: Sheridan (Mason Thames), rich, bored and used to getting his way, and the drive quickly becomes something closer to a kidnapping, with the two men only half aware of which side of it they are on. The road takes them through drugs, a strip club and a rapper with a gun who goes by Pricka Bush Da Werewoof (Nicholas Braun). Further along it are Irina Anastas (Kiernan Shipka), Bodha ‘Baba’ Anastas (Lynn Wanlass) and a man called Karl “Koko” Sandoz (Peter Dinklage), and behind all of them the question of who is paying for this and what they expect to get.

## Review

Macon Blair, whose *I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore* (2017) had the same soft spot for hopeless people in trouble, wrote and directed *Idiots*, and it starts as the sort of thing he plainly loves: two men bad at their jobs, a car, a job that goes wrong, and a run of strangers each odder than the last. Mark (Dave Franco) and Davis (O’Shea Jackson Jr.) are the drivers. Sheridan (Mason Thames) is the rich teenager in their back seat. The film wants to be a stoner road caper in the Coen manner and also a film about boys who are never made to pay for anything. It manages the first for an hour and the second for about ten minutes, and it runs 100.

The leads are the reason to watch. Franco plays Mark as a man who explains his plans in full to people who did not ask, and Jackson plays Davis as a man who has heard every one of them and has given up interrupting. That is the whole engine of the first hour, two rhythms of talk in a front seat, and it runs without effort. We laughed, a lot and out loud, at how little either of them notices when a scene has turned against them. Franco produced the film as well as leading it, and it is the loosest we have seen him.

Around them Blair has assembled his usual gallery. Nicholas Braun plays a rapper with a gun who calls himself Pricka Bush Da Werewoof, and the best running joke is that Braun says the name as if it were Steven. Peter Dinklage arrives as Karl “Koko” Sandoz and keeps his voice down, which in this company counts as menace. Kiernan Shipka’s Irina Anastas and Lynn Wanlass’s Bodha ‘Baba’ Anastas hold the backwoods stretch, and Blair gives himself a part as D.D and stays out of the way. Not every stop earns its scene; a couple of the encounters exist so that someone can be odd at the camera for three minutes before the car pulls away.

Guillermo Garza shoots it in the flat, bright light of a long afternoon on a two-lane road, so that nothing looks dangerous until it is, and he keeps the camera in the car with the men rather than on the view. Hunter Brown’s production design fills every motel room and roadhouse with things somebody meant to throw out. Karen Freed dresses Mark and Davis like men who bought their clothes for a different job, and Sheridan like money. Brooke Blair and Will Blair’s score is a low, twangy pulse under the driving that knows to stop when a joke needs air. Dane McMaster cuts the first hour fast and clean, and the last thirty minutes as though the film were being described to him from another room.

Then there is Sheridan. Thames plays him as a boy who has never been told no in a tone that meant it, and it is funny. Blair has larger plans for him than annoyance, and Thames is good enough to let us see them coming in a face we had been enjoying going still. It is the best acting in the film. Once Sheridan is what Blair needs him to be, the two men in the front seat are in a different film from the boy in the back, and the script gives them no lines to notice. Blair had the nerve for the first half of the idea and not the second.

*Burn After Reading* (2008), which this resembles more than once, kept its idiots stupid to the last frame and let the world be the thing that turned nasty. Blair puts the nastiness inside one character instead, which is a better idea, and then lets nobody on screen respond to it, which is not.

Watch it with people and a drink for the first hour, which is as easy a laugh as a road comedy gets. Do not expect the second hour to be the film the first one promised, and if you find yourself reaching for the remote at the sixty-minute mark we would understand.

*Fi1m score 62, published 21 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics take Idiots for what it offers: a foul-mouthed buddy road comedy in the raunchy 2000s mould, with a kidnapping plot, drugs, strippers and a gun-toting rapper. The reviews lean positive, and the praise clusters on the two leads. O’Shea Jackson Jr. and Dave Franco are credited with the chemistry that keeps the thing moving, and several reviews reach for the Coen brothers as the model for the anarchy.

The spread is wide. Two reviews find the film slack and thin, with characters who have no backstory or motive and set-ups that exist mainly for mugging. Others accept the shagginess but object to a tonal shift midway, when the teenage character turns monstrous and the comedy goes somewhere darker than it can handle; The Wrap says it never recovers its identity. /Film dissents the other way, calling it one of the year’s best comedies and singling out Mason Thames for making the laughs unsettling on purpose.

## Straight answers

**Is Idiots worth watching?**

*Idiots* is worth watching for its first hour, when Dave Franco and O'Shea Jackson Jr. make a road comedy out of nothing but two rhythms of talk in a front seat, and we scored it 62. The second half turns on a nastier idea about the teenager in the back and never settles what kind of film it is afterwards. Watch it with friends and modest expectations.

**How long is Idiots, and what is it rated?**

*Idiots* runs 1h 40m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a comedy and crime film.

**Where can I watch Idiots in the US?**

*Idiots* is available to buy from Amazon Prime Video from $19.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**How violent or frightening is Idiots, and is it suitable for children?**

*Idiots* is not suitable for children: it carries an R in the United States and has no UK certificate, and the road runs through drugs, a strip club, a rapper waving a gun and a drive that becomes something close to a kidnapping. The violence is played for laughs until it is not. Older teenagers and adults who can take a comedy going sour will manage it.

**What should I watch after Idiots?**

After *Idiots*, try [*Burn After Reading*](https://film.one/film/burn-after-reading) (2008, Fi1m 72): The Coens’ idiots stay idiots to the end, and the world does the punishing. Then [*Midnight Run*](https://film.one/film/midnight-run) (1988, Fi1m 88): Two men who cannot stand each other, one car, and a script that keeps its nerve; and [*In Bruges*](https://film.one/film/in-bruges) (2008, Fi1m 83): Foul-mouthed, funny, then suddenly not, and it knows exactly when the turn comes.

### Reviews we read (9)

- **The Guardian** (70/100, inferred): The critic finds it an entertaining throwback to raunchy 2000s bro comedies with infectious cast chemistry and standout gags, though it becomes muddled toward the end and struggles to resolve its loose ends. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/aug/27/idiots-review-dave-franco-oshea-jackson-jr)
- **The New York Times**, Calum Marsh (70/100, inferred): The critic finds Blair's follow-up a goofy, foul-mouthed road movie and kidnapping caper that draws heavily from the Coen brothers' Burn After Reading. It follows two inept odd-couple drivers entangled in an over-the-top plot with drugs, strippers, and a gun-toting rapper. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/27/movies/idiots-review.html)
- **The AV Club**, Matt Schimkowitz (C): The frenetic R-rated comedy moves at a chaotic clip but strains to find meaning in its shades of stupidity and lacks depth for its characters. Charisma from the leads only carries it so far before contrived situations take over. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/idiots-review)
- **IndieWire**, David Ehrlich (30/100, inferred): The critic finds the road-trip comedy uneven and unable to live up to its strongest moments despite solid performances. It merges influences like The Last Detail and Road Trip but fails to carve out its own lane. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/idiots-the-shitheads-movie-review-macon-blair-1235175120/)
- **Slant Magazine**, Charles Lyons-Burt (30/100, inferred): The low-effort buddy road comedy about low-effort people struggles to clear even a low bar for idle amusement, with slack scenes and threadbare execution. The characters lack backstory or motivation, and absurd encounters feel like excuses for mugging. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/idiots-review-dave-franco-oshea-jackson-jr/)
- **/Film**, BJ Colangelo (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it one of the best comedies of 2026 and praises its tonal whiplash that blends road-trip buddy comedy with unflinching social commentary on wealth and accountability. They single out Mason Thames' performance as the villainous teen Sheridan for making the laughs deeply unsettling and recontextualizing the story. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/2243601/idiots-2026-comedy-audiences-not-prepared/)
- **Deadline**, Damon Wise (80/100, inferred): The critic calls it an endearing buddy movie and goofily violent stoner romp full of surprises, comparing it favorably to Coen brothers-style anarchy and Dumb and Dumber meets Midnight Run. They single out the excellent casting, particularly O'Shea Jackson Jr. and Dave Franco as the sad-sack leads, and the organic shaggy-dog storytelling with social commentary. [Read](https://deadline.com/2026/01/the-shitheads-review-dave-franco-macon-blair-oshea-jackson-jr-1236695714/)
- **Collider**, Ross Bonaime (7/10): The critic finds it a hilarious but uneven road trip comedy that benefits from Blair's dark style and strong performances from the leads, but is hurt by some overly dark tangents that disrupt the tone. [Read](https://collider.com/the-shitheads-review-dark-comedy-road-trip-mason-thames-dave-franco-sundance-2026/)
- **The Wrap** (45/100, inferred): The critic finds the film starts as a fun, mind-rotted stoner comedy with strong odd-couple chemistry between the leads but suffers a damaging tonal shift midway when the teen character turns monstrous, leaving a sour taste and unfulfilled arc. They praise the backwoods weirdness and some performances but note it never fully recovers its identity. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/the-shitheads-review-mason-thames/)

## Details

- **Director:** Macon Blair
- **Director:** Macon Blair
- **Screenplay:** Macon Blair
- **Story:** Macon Blair, Alex Orr
- **Cinematography:** Guillermo Garza
- **Editor:** Dane McMaster
- **Music:** Brooke Blair, Will Blair
- **Production design:** Hunter Brown
- **Costume design:** Karen Freed
- **Producer:** Alex Orr, Dave Franco, Nathan Klingher
- **Cast:** Dave Franco as Mark; O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Davis; Mason Thames as Sheridan; Kiernan Shipka as Irina Anastas; Peter Dinklage as Karl "Koko" Sandoz; Nicholas Braun as Joe Thom Pell a.k.a Pricka Bush Da Werewoof; Lynn Wanlass as Bodha 'Baba' Anastas; Macon Blair as D.D
- **Runtime:** 1h 40m
- **Certificate (MPA):** R
- **Release (the US):** 28 August 2026
- **Genres:** Comedy, Crime
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UoAf0LNAn30

## Where to watch in the US

- Amazon Prime Video: buy $19.99, uhd

*Checked 2026-09-21.*

Also available in: US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Burn After Reading* (2008), Fi1m 72: The Coens’ idiots stay idiots to the end, and the world does the punishing. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/burn-after-reading.md)
- *Midnight Run* (1988), Fi1m 88: Two men who cannot stand each other, one car, and a script that keeps its nerve. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/midnight-run.md)
- *Kikujiro* (1999): A useless man drives a boy across Japan; Kitano finds the tenderness Blair skips.
- *In Bruges* (2008), Fi1m 83: Foul-mouthed, funny, then suddenly not, and it knows exactly when the turn comes. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/in-bruges.md)
- *I Don't Feel at Home in This World Anymore* (2017): Blair’s earlier film, smaller and steadier, with the same taste for backwoods weirdness.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/idiots