Drugstore June

Like an ice cream topping, Drugstore June is packed with comedians. The writer Esther Povitsky also appears as the Title character, the typical Unbearable influencer that she has gone with throughout these episodes. One can’t ignore social media , it is one of the most sought out professions to the younger generation, which is why the poorly executed erratic ideas come off as more of an after thought than anything else.

In addition, the drowsy and under developed characters and arcs contribute to the overall impression and feeling of a “nothing burger”. There are all these supporting characters and flashy style but sadly all that does not equate to a successful comedy, and the final product disappoints just like a melted ice cream that falls on the cha.

For the viewers familiar with the internet and its culture, June Povitsky is another aspiring internet ‘celebrity’, but not quite successful. June lives in Pasadena with her strange parents, Marla Beverly D’Angelo and Arnold James Remar and younger brother Jonathan Brandon Wardell who plays video games. She works at a pharmacy, with her co-worker Bill Bobby Lee at the counter.

She tries to post content even while having a fat person in a marketing role in a way that could take one’s hopes away June’s ex lover, even when June is aware that he has a fiancée named Kelly, is something that she cannot bear.

One fine day, while working, June notices that there is a robbery going on in the pharmacy in which she works, and two local detectives Jackie Sandler and Al Madrigal think that it is a case of insurance hoax. June takes charge of proving her and Bill’s innocence by single handedly pursuing the criminals and ends up on an interesting ride full of eccentric characters and lots of delicious food.

The piece is impressively padded out with visuals that include the more colorfully decked out surrounds, and the absurdity that is present in dream sequences according to writer/director Nicholaus Goossen. The small town is livened up by the presence of comedy greats like Ms Pat, Bobby Lee, Al Madrigal and Bill Burr among others. With Bhad Bhabie/Danielle Bregoli and Trevor Wallace unable to restrain themselves from appearing in the picture, the tone felt like a skit of sorts.

Maybe Bhad Bhabie did a surprisingly decent job but Wallace’s stoner dude-bro would be hard to miss. I have not seen any of Povitsky’s previous attempts, but she is whiny, and her exaggerated facial expressions and delivery stylization are quite hard to bear. It is not a great sign when multiple scenes become instantly less engaging once the protagonist starts talking.

There are a few times where June’s interactions bring out a human side that hints at complexity, such as the way other characters chide her for her abrasive attitude and the fact that she has a caring yet enabling mother. Unfortunately, a lot of June’s narcissistic tendencies get so tiresome that one fails to muster any feelings of sympathy and resentment gets directed at a poorly crafted character that is neither relatable nor interesting.

Three plotlines stand out: the theft, the former lover, and June’s quest for internet notoriety in Drugstore June. Sadly, the combination of them feels so disjointed and tedious that the audience is left frustrated. It is a pity that if there was more emphasis on a small-town scheme and framing it through a Coen brothers’ Fargo lens, or current social media sleuthing cultural practice, the overarching plot would have perhaps looked more cohesive.

The culture of influencers is definitely something worth critique, including excessive materialism, the distorted idealization of women’s physique, and obsession with having a large number of ‘friends’. Yet, June’s ‘cultured’ aspirations are so pointlessly fused into the film’s narrative and bear very little significance in her curious undertakings.

The business of true crime videos varies in delivery from outrageously crass, to intelligently crafted, to the point where Drugstore June looked like it could have been the story of a dullnothingound woman who rode the waves of useless fads in pursuit of her own web regatta. It is the impression of a cheap gimmick designed to provide easy one-liners for a generation of teenagers who idolise “internet culture”.

A series of jokes revolve around June’s desire to eat junk food as well as her thirst for male attention. Each is presented in an off-putting and cringeworthy manner that raises the question of when bad satire turns into obnoxious mockery, and can disengage the people from not her point, but the essence of it in Drugstore June. June’s parents abuse her saying that she is a pig and will even call her fat, but the woman swings from indifferent to hysterical about the references made to her body. Her relationship with food is incomprehensibly represented by uncalled for insults and very weird replies.

One of her major apparitive goals is to take revenge for ruining the ice cream making machine in the chemist’s shop, although she had not yet been mentioned before the robbery. Moreover, it is stunning as to why June the character isn’t made a dessert critic, since all the pieces are simply in front of eyes. Very few of the jokes could cut for me, most of them just seem to take a punch at people who have an eating disorder or are really into dieting and fitness.

June, in consideration to a young female singer who is in a relationship with her former partner, would target older men regardless of what her ex-lover would say. But there is nothing inappropriate in itself in talking over this sort of theme – some points on June’s delusional behavior transform this situation into analysis of psychosocial interrelations that underline an urge to be validated in one’s sex role, and in this scenario, being a woman.

When in context of Drugstore June, however, it becomes a careless throwaway line about “daddy issues” that is somehow accompanied with obscene and unnecessary dialogue that warrants cringe and the desire to leave the room. There is at least consistency in her assumptions regarding men ‘s fascination with her that raises prospects of more self-aware irony, if applied in more sophisticated manner.

There is also an interesting sequence where June lies to her mother that her doctor (Bill Burr) is divorcing because he loves her, and there is no adequate further exploration of her mental state. Unfortunately, any more intelligent explanation for this type of avowal is, as a rule, blurred by monotony in its implementation and poor preconditions.

Only short bursts of very brief glimpses allow me to see any standout moments, and it’s disappointing because I sense potential that isn’t fully realized. I don’t have to dislike protagonists even if they are ridiculously out there, if they are adequately self aware and have reflexivity. In this case, however, June’s narcissism, which is so overwhelming that it clouds almost every aspect of the character development served as his fodder, ontologically ruins everything.

What the script sometimes goes too far in using jokes? I’d have to say for the worst kind of bathos: tension and stakes being interrupted for the sake of a joke in order to avert expectations. June’s reaction towards serious incidents that require a response is reduced to mortifying cliches which result in a disjointed character arc, giving the impression to the audience that they did not earn this development.

If a character is unreasonable and diffuses calm, how do you expect them to be altered in the process? To worsen the situation, she blatantly claims at the end, “I learned a lot,” with no credible support in her behavior to back up this assertion. Inconsistency and rage of delivered characterization, irrelevant plot arcs tied with irrelevant monologues, horrible temple humor integrated into mind-numbing mess that at least in my perception of reality felt completely lackhuster.

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