‘The Shitheads’ review: Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr hustle in agreeably chaotic comedy-thriller

Dir: Macon Blair. US. 2026. 100mins

Two losers get more than they bargained for when they agree to transport a spoiled rich kid to rehab in The Shitheads, an agreeably chaotic comedy-thriller that introduces subtle emotional undercurrents alongside the mayhem. Director Macon Blair’s third feature elicits impressive work from Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. as the endearing idiots who must work together to keep an eye on Mason Thames’ secret sociopath. The film refuses to go in predictable directions, unveiling bizarre side characters and travelling down odd narrative backroads. But that occasional bagginess also allows for a richly textured picture bursting with energy.

A richly textured picture bursting with energy

Blair won Sundance’s 2017 Grand Jury Prize in the US Dramatic Competition for his directorial debut, I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore, and he returns to the festival with this similarly nervy mixture of down-and-dirty genres. Franco and Jackson will attract audiences, and strong reviews out of Sundance should entice buyers interested in a rollicking B-movie with brains and wit.

The devoutly religious but slightly dim Davis (Jackson Jr) is teamed up with callous screwup Mark (Franco) to drive a teenager named Sheridan (Thames) to a facility that will help him get clean. These two strangers are unaware of who Sheridan is, and are shocked when they drive up to his family’s swanky mansion to pick him up. On the road, Davis and Mark learn more about this teen: he’s actually not going to rehab for drugs but, rather, behavioural issues. (Sheridan has become an online sensation for his brash antisocial demeanour, including filming himself setting a homeless man on fire.) This rich brat has no moral compass and no desire to go to a centre, and is plotting his escape from his chaperones.

Much of The Shitheads’ pleasure derives from watching Davis and Mark act foolishly. Each of them has made poor life choices, but Davis is a goodhearted person whereas Mark is a drug-abusing, selfish lout. They need this unenviable job, though, and Blair’s screenplay supplies them with plenty of funny back-and-forth bickering banter. The two leads complement each other by playing these guys as everyday failures, bringing out the characters’ vulnerability and insecurity. In due course, we’ll understand that Davis’ weakness is assuming the best in people, while Mark tries very hard to convince Sheridan that he is a tough guy, not yet appreciating that Sheridan is a far more twisted soul.

As one would imagine, this seemingly straightforward assignment will prove to be immensely more complicated, and Blair keeps the viewer off-balance as obstacles appear in the most unlikely places. It helps that Sheridan, unlike his drivers, is quite savvy, quickly working out a plan to free himself of them. Thames has risen to stardom thanks to the Black Phone films and the live-action How To Train Your Dragon, but here shows off a more cunning, slightly sinister side. It’s not simply that Sheridan has done terrible things but that he has no remorse about them. Sheridan proves to be a worthy adversary as he outsmarts Davis and Mark on several occasions, and the results are sometimes comedic and sometimes alarming.

The Shitheads features shoot-outs and fight scenes, but the picture also makes room for unapologetic gross-out humour and drug jokes. The film barrels forward with reckless abandon, starting out amusingly but growing darker along the way. Its digressions may sometimes underwhelm, but the audience never knows what surprises might be in store.

One of the most delightful is the arrival of Irina (Kiernan Shipka), an exotic dancer Mark hires one night while high. Initially, Irina seems to be merely the premise for a one-joke scene, but Shipka brings a welcome tenderness which ties into the story’s larger examination of economic inequality. And then there’s the rambunctious arrival of some dangerous, well-armed Sheridan super-fans, led by Koko (Peter Dinklage, who also starred in Blair’s The Toxic Avenger), who happily resort to violence to ’rescue’ the teen.

These villains are knowingly cartoonish, but Blair grounds even the picture’s weirdest moments in something real, hinting at the bizarre pockets of humanity that one finds simply by digging below the surface of polite society. He incorporated this same technique for I Don’t Feel At Home In This World Anymore, gradually unearthing the surreal while never losing sight of his main characters’ messy vitality. In The Shitheads, Davis and Mark may be failures, but their struggles to make something of themselves gives this occasionally outrageous comedy-thriller a gritty resonance. The film is consistently funny, but viewers end up caring about these losers, hoping they may finally come out on top.