Nick Corirossi, Armen Weitzman, Jamar Neighbors, and Mike Mitchell Talk Willing a Franchise into Existence with ‘The Napa Boys’ [VIDEO INTERVIEW]

The Napa Boys are back!

That’s the central premise for the new niche as hell comedy from co-writers and stars Nick Corirossi (who also directs) and Armen Weitzman, The Napa Boys, a movie that devises its own cinematic universe and inherent real-world fandom over 90 minutes of abrasively polarizing humor. Don’t let the title fool you — this is not the first Napa Boys movie, as the film’s title card reveals it to be (ostensibly, apparently, somehow) the fourth entry in a long-running, hacky franchise about a group of broad studio comedy-type archetypal friends and wine connoisseurs returning for yet another zany, magical adventure in the vineyards of Napa Valley.

For most people who’ve seen The Napa Boys, the easiest shorthand for this strange amalgamation of touchstones is: imagine Sideways taking the form of your prototypical 2000s raunchy comedies, and that spawning a string of shoddy direct-to-video sequels à la American Pie, complete with a Napa Boys Presents title style. Hey, there’s even a central character called Stifler’s Brother (played by Jamar Neighbors), who is only ever referred to as such. It’s left unclear whether he’s meant to be a recreation of American Pie’s Matt Stifler, some other sibling of Seann William Scott’s Steve Stifler, or just a bizarre composite altogether — such is the type of deadpan absurdity the film delights in. But even such a simple distillation of the concept feels like a reductive understanding of how the crass stupidity of The Napa Boys’ humor reflects the vulgarity of franchise culture, where, increasingly, the only meaningful metric for measuring art is whether or not it’s profitable.

The Napa Boys resists that logic by being a movie that is destined to be profoundly estranging. That may sound like a dig, but I mean it as a revelation: it’s rare to watch a film that so unapologetically rests on its own doctrine of singular, often questionable taste. The highest compliment you can give a comedy of such acquired flavor is that it’s clearly not made for everyone — just ask the dozens of walkouts I witnessed at the Press & Industry screening at the Toronto International Film Festival, or the others who apparently just couldn’t vibe during its Midnight Madness premiere at the fest later that week.

At the same time, so much of the chatter about the film’s alienating qualities overlooks the warm sense of comedic unity within its sprawling ensemble of performers and creators. The Napa Boys pulls from a deep roster of seasoned veterans of L.A.’s alt-comedy scene — the kind who cut their teeth improvising at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre — guaranteeing a little extra affection from anyone who gets giddy spotting this who’s who of actors. Many are television mainstays, like Sarah Ramos (The Bear, Parenthood), who plays the intrepid, obsessive Napa Boys superfan/investigative podcaster, Puck, who’s stowing away for the adventure, alongside other familiar character actors such as Riki Lindhome and Nelson Franklin. Others hover in the general vicinity of the Earwolf and Headgum podcasting spheres, including Comedy Bang! Bang! regular and With Gourley and Rust host Paul Rust and Doughboys co-host Mike Mitchell. Add in well-established entities like Wet Hot American Summer director David Wain, legendary actor Ray Wise, and, no kidding, Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (I’m not counting this as a spoiler since they’re prominently listed in the opening credits), and you’ve got the perfect mix of people who know exactly what strange pitch this enterprise calls for.

I sat down with a selection of The Napa Boys themselves — Corirossi, Weitzman, Neighbors, and Mitchell — to talk about everything Napa Boys, the magic of movies, and how this film is kind of like The 15:17 to Paris. To the grape!

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Trace Sauveur

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