There are buddy comedies, and then there are buddy comedies about two absolute disasters who probably shouldn’t be allowed to drive a golf cart, let alone transport a human being across state lines. Idiots, the new film from director Macon Blair, falls firmly into the second category, and the newly released poster captures exactly the right energy: two men staring into the middle distance with the blank determination of people who have made terrible life choices and are about to make several more.
Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. star as the titular idiots—two unqualified bozos hired to transport a wealthy teenager to rehab. The job sounds simple enough: pick up the kid, drive him to the facility, collect the paycheck, maybe buy a nice sandwich. But because this is a comedy and not a documentary about competent logistics professionals, the simple job spirals into a chaotic journey of drugs, danger, and crime as their passenger derails their plans with the enthusiasm of a trust-fund anarchist.
Mason Thames plays the wealthy teen, a role that apparently requires him to be both the catalyst for chaos and the straight man to two grown men who have no business being in charge of anything. The poster shows Franco and Jackson Jr. looking exhausted, disheveled, and slightly terrified—the universal expression of people who thought they were signing up for an easy gig and ended up in a Coen Brothers nightmare.
Macon Blair directs from his own script, which shouldn’t surprise anyone familiar with his work. Blair made his directorial debut with Small Crimes and followed it with I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, both films about ordinary people stumbling into extraordinary criminal situations. Idiots fits neatly into that filmography, exploring the gap between who we think we are and who we become when circumstances strip away our illusions of competence.
The film premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it presumably delighted audiences who enjoy watching attractive people suffer. IFC is releasing it theatrically on August 28, positioning it as the perfect end-of-summer comedy for people who are tired of blockbusters and ready for something smaller, weirder, and significantly more profane.
What distinguishes Idiots from standard road-trip comedies is Blair’s sensibility. This isn’t a film where the protagonists learn valuable lessons about friendship and responsibility. This is a film where two rock-bottom drivers discover that their passenger is more dangerous than their own incompetence, and that the road to redemption is paved with bad decisions and worse consequences.
Franco has built a career playing charming underachievers who somehow fail upward, and Jackson Jr. brings the kind of deadpan exasperation that made his father famous in Friday. Together, they create a dynamic that feels less like a polished comedy duo and more like two guys who actually got stuck in a car together and are trying not to kill each other before they reach their destination.
The poster’s tagline presumably writes itself—something about how the only thing worse than the job is the employees. And in an era where every comedy feels focus-grouped into blandness, Idiots promises something genuinely abrasive, genuinely funny, and genuinely committed to the bit.
August 28. Bring a friend. Preferably one you don’t mind seeing you laugh at other people’s misfortune.
Don’t be an idiot—see Idiots in theaters August 28 and watch Dave Franco and O’Shea Jackson Jr. navigate the worst road trip since your last family vacation.
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