I am far from a big fan of Bob Ross. I have seen his shoes a few times here and there over the years, but I was never really one to find myself really captivated by them like others. Some of that recent popularity arising from the Netflix uploading, as well as pop culture hit by airing on Twitch continuously, of course spawning a much younger fanbase as well as hordes of memes to follow. I can see why his show ended up impacting people this much, there is a simple approach to a television series in which you just observe a man paint beautiful landscapes with much simplicity, while narrating the process and talking gently about life and its many experiences. These days with some like YouTube it is much easier to produce, but still very few would be able to capture the charm that Bob Ross had through his mannerisms.
If Bob Ross had not been a real person, I think as a character there is plenty of room to create comedic stories surrounding him. For a person so calm and seemingly so gentle, it serves as the foundations of something fun to place such a character into a chaotic world. One that really tests that patience and kindness. Director Brit McAdams knows this, and sees the potential in trying to take that idea and create a full feature length story from it. Though with this attempt, I would have to say it falls flat, failing to really do much. Perhaps a result of completely taking a real person's identity but having to mix things up slightly to avoid any legal issues, having to carefully tread. Though I believe it is this reason that set it up for failure, as Brit McAdams looked into the wrong direction for answers to the story that would help it reach its full length justification. At times I felt this concept might have just been better as a short film to get its idea across and then step away. To some degree, I still feel this way having seen Paint.
A quick unrelated note here, but I have no doubts that some dorky critic somewhere has definitely referred to Paint as an experience closely similar to watching it dry.
Paint
Of course using a fictional name, Paint stars Owen Wilson as Carl Nargle, a prolific painter and host of a painting show for a failing network. This show having a mostly aged audience and having the television network seeking methods to reach that younger demographic and stay afloat. Carl Nargle is rather popular, seemingly with a lot of people that love him and the work he has done for three decades. For the first quarter of the film, it is actually quite enjoyable since it sticks quite closely to the idea that this is Bob Ross, and it gives us a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes sort of engagements that he has with others. Something you don't quite see in reality, where the shows are really just him talking to the camera. These engagements he has with those at the network aren't bad at all to begin with, there's some fun humour in it that pokes lightly at the idea that Bob Ross was a gentle man that would never raise his voice, so those in this fictionalised story are never quite sure as to whether he's "yelling" or angry at them due to his gentle tone and body language. I have to admit, I did actually enjoy the way this was going at first.
Carl Nargle's character is set up with a rather hippy nature, wearing very 70s attire and running around with a pipe, living in the back of what most would refer to as a Scooby-Doo van. It seems like his entire life is just dedicated to this television series which has made him quite the local celebrity. But as far as the narrative goes, that's about it for Carl Nargle. It's quite strange how quickly the show seems to be dedicated around this Bob Ross sort of character, only to almost throw it all away in pursuit of a broader narrative that just seems utterly atrocious. Paint is in fact hardly about the act of painting, and more a strange love triangle that involves lesbianism, for some reason. Sooner or later, the Bob Ross influence is replaced with the drama of the failing television network trying to replace him with a younger, female copycat, essentially. With Carl Nargle's former lover working at the station as well, she meets her and the two sort of, somehow, start something. I noticed that once this romance side of the film appeared, the quality of the film took a huge dive, and all comedy and soul was just gone.
Despite the terrible narrative that just makes no sense and pulls the identity of unfortunate Bob Ross across with it, Paint is a film that has quite an impressive cast. Owen Wilson's performance as Carl Nargle does actually seem fitting, I think he did a good job playing out the role, especially with his more gentle tone. Wilson is typically known as an actor essentially whispering in all of his roles, and even showing little body language and movement with his dialogue. In terms of casting here, I can't say I have any huge complaints. Stephen Root playing the head of the television network also really worked, this is an actor I don't see a whole lot of, but when I do, I find his casting to be near perfect. He really suits these types of comedy films as the also very gentle and quiet speaking character. If you don't know about Stephen Root, well, he's Milton in Office Space! That said, while other characters weren't cast poorly, I just found their characters incredibly thin and rather unlikeable, but this isn't a casting problem but instead a writing problem.
It's hard to point out the film's strengths and flaws when so much of it is polluted with totally unnecessary moments and dialogue. It forgets Carl Nargle and then suddenly revives him to draw up a conclusion, but we don't really have much reason to care for any of it. Especially given that this is purely fictionalised and has no connection to reality or the true identity of Bob Ross, instead just copying his likeness and hoping some nostalgia makes it justified. I could even imagine that the family of Bob Ross would be highly offended of his character being used. Especially when it does nothing to explore reality or contribute to his legacy, merely stealing from it, if anything. Perhaps if the film had not used his character it may have worked a bit better, but even then it suffers greatly from just being a weird, pointless story on random women having an unexpected thing for each other at some dying off television station, to which even that story is hardly considered. I'm not sure what led to this weird story and writing, I definitely didn't like it. I think there was potential here, but even that was pushing some sort of grey area. That said, in terms of the directing and cinematography, it didn't look bad.
