The Napa Boys
[Blu-ray]
“Water! My favorite!”
Would it be too deep if I told you Napa Boys is a love letter to movies?
Look it up and see if you can find anyone who actually talks about the plot. Mostly, people just called it one big inside joke. I knew I was going to watch it because I’m a Doughboys fan and a Mike Mitchell fan, but with this cast I knew to also brace myself.
A movie’s plot isn’t always what a movie is about. Napa Boys’ plot is that a group of old wine-drinking buddies (potentially also heroes), get back together one last time to have some more adventures. That’s it.
What the movie is actually about is other movies and how they’re made. Pick a plot (see what I did there?) and use character types, tropes, and beats from other movies to complete it. So, I don’t know if it’s necessarily parodying if it’s completely dependent on those movies. The movies Napa Boys borrows from mostly are Sideways (which I’ve since rewatched and really enjoyed) and the American Pie series (which I hope to never watch). It calls itself Napa Boys 4: The Sommelier’s Amulet to prove a point. The way the American Pie movies work is that all the character types are instantly recognizable and any exposition you need to understand the story will be given to you…clumsily. The movie references go very deep, from John Ford, to Fidler on the Roof, Groundhog Day, Lord of the Rings, Tree of Life, Jay and Silent Bob, and the MCU. I’m sure I’m missing a bunch, because this movie is DENSE. The jokes come hard and fast. It even overstays its welcome by 15 minutes like all the movies it references. But you know, the more I watch it, the more I pick up on, and the more enjoyable this movie becomes. It’s a wild movie unlike anything else, written and directed by a team that’s clearly talented with a singular vision and they somehow pulled it off. Thinking about what this movie is, that’s kind of unbelievable.
The blu-ray comes with some cool special features, like a deleted scene and a couple commentary tracks. The deleted scene might have been a little too wacky for the movie (if you can believe it) and I’m glad it wasn’t included. The commentary tracks by writers Nick and Armen is purposely pretentious, and is kind of hard to sit through, but there are some interesting takeaways and they do point out some of the references they used. The cast commentary is just a great time and sounds like a party. I think that’s how the American Pie movie commentaries are so they got me there too! See? Layers!
There’s nothing out there like Napa Boys. As odd as it may seem, it gets better each time you watch it. I’m willing to bet this movie will be heavily studied or even picked apart by fans. And it should be. It’s gonna age like…something that gets better with age.
