Because I’m old and all — and yeah, also because I grew up in Jersey near Philly — Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, the Bill Cosby Orchestrated Saturday Morning Cartoon That Taught You A Damn Ass Lesson Come Hell Or High Water, meant a lot to me back in the late ’70s/early ’80s. So, needless to say, I just couldn’t turn away from the inevitable mess of a film adaptation, which has made its way to HBO.

Easily one of the all-out weirdest and well-meaning American mainstream films of the past couple years, Fat Albert as a whole is remarkably aimless and sometimes even head-scratchingly incompetent. But it does manage to distinguish itself with a good cast (the permanently bemused Kenan Thompson is great), and through a couple mildly brilliant scenes — I’m not kidding — that seem to position the film as an exercise in post-modernism for grade schoolers.

A couple examples: 1) in the beginning of the film, the characters of the Fat Albert cartoon suddenly realize they’re in a cartoon (a la Purple Rose of Cairo), struggle to break out of the TV into the “real” world and then can’t tell the difference between the two realities — although cartoon logic applies in both places; and 2) get this: the scene where the real Cos meets the “real” Fat Albert.

And then there’s the genuinely poignant ending, which comes out of nowhere, but sort of makes sense…because it features the real-life inspirations for the Fat Albert characters! Yes, my children, wtf indeed.

Quite honestly, I’m not even sure if this post even makes sense anymore. Fat Albert will mess with your mind, man! Your mind! Man!

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