‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Is a Charming, Funny Reminder That You Can’t Stop an Irrepressible Toon

There’s always a concern that when a narrative around a movie starts to form, it can dwarf the movie itself. That was certainly a possibility with Coyote vs. Acme, a film that Warner Bros. Discovery intended to destroy in exchange for a tax write-off, but Ketchup Entertainment came to the rescue, seeing the potential in the finished Looney Tunes feature like they did with 2024’s The Day the Earth Blew Up. I doubt anyone at WBD intended to mirror the film’s circumstances of a heartless corporation thinking they could crush the Coyote and he would stay down, but rather than overshadowing the picture, it only highlights the film’s uplifting message of perseverance in the face of defeat. But without the corporate intrigue, you’d still have a movie that clearly loves Looney Tunes and does the characters justice as it blends slapstick and satire.

Even if you’ve never seen an episode of Looney Tunes, you’re likely aware of the dynamic between Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner. The former is always chasing the latter, and Coyote typically employs devices from the Acme Corporation to catch the speedy bird. These tools always backfire, harming the Coyote instead of his prey. After his latest debacle, the Coyote sees a TV ad for accident attorney Kevin Avery (Will Forte), arguing that if you’ve been harmed by faulty Acme products, you may be entitled to compensation. What Kevin doesn’t say, much to the consternation of his go-getter niece and intern Paige (Lana Condor), is that he’s looking for the easy settlement, especially when faced with his domineering former law school classmate, Buddy Crane (John Cena), who represents Acme. However, the Coyote is not so easily cowed, and his refusal to accept a settlement forces a reluctant Kevin to uncover a conspiracy that threatens to upend the world of humans and toons.

Director Dave Green and screenwriter Samy Burch make no attempt to hide the Who Framed Roger Rabbit? influence, nor should they. If you’re going to be inspired, look to the best the genre has to offer, and Coyote vs. Acme sits comfortably in a narrative about a toon and a recalcitrant working-class human uncovering a mystery that affects all of toondom. That being said, the filmmakers are well aware that Looney Tunes has an energy distinct from Roger Rabbit, and there’s a lot of love here for these characters. You can tell they’re happy to play the deep cuts when the prologue shows not a major character like Sylvester or Marvin the Martian, but “Dr. Lorre,” a callback to the way the animated shorts would cheerfully caricature Hollywood icons. But they also don’t miss on the major elements of Looney Tunes lore, with the mute Coyote and his limited number of signs playing off the flustered Kevin.

While I don’t think we necessarily take Will Forte for granted, I can think of few actors better suited to playing opposite a cartoon. He knows how to match their energy, and he knows how to be animated without chewing the scenery. In his delivery and his rapport, Forte straddles the line between a guy who wants to lay low because he’s so afraid of failure, and the comic timing required for sharing the screen with an animated coyote. It’s a reminder that Forte is a brilliant comic talent who can hit broad comedy without ever losing the human pathos.

Which becomes surprising important when the film leans into its message that the Coyote’s failures are what make him great. There are times when the pacing drags a bit and not everything feels narratively cohesive, but those flaws fall away when the movie successfully argues that even though Acme wronged Coyote, his willingness to fall time and time again are the mark of his heroism. It’s a useful reframing from a guy who’s trying to eat his nemesis into one where the story celebrates the courage to risk looking foolish. If he falls flat on his face, so what? He’ll find a new approach tomorrow. The movie recognizes Coyote as a Sisyphean character, and then frames it with Camus’ famous quote, “One must imagine Sisyphus happy,” to square the absurdity of his never-ending struggle.

This affirming approach fits nicely against the real-world drama that sought to not only delete the movie from existence but also rejects risk as a matter of business. The outset of the plot sets Kevin up as cowardly, but as he decides to take on the case, we see that it’s Acme, Sonny, and their boss Foghorn Leghorn as the cowardly ones. They offload risk onto others, force them to eat the pain and suffering, and take the tidy profit. They risk nothing, just as WBD, rather than daring to release a slapstick family film (which isn’t that big of a risk!), wanted to take the tax write-off. While it would be a bit much to say Coyote vs. Acme is anti-corporate or anti-capitalist, it does recognize that risk of failure is a necessity of all worthwhile endeavors. The question then becomes who absorbs that risk, and are they absorbing it knowingly, or is it hidden through corporate deceit. 

Trying to weave in Looney Tunes slapstick alongside corporate satire isn’t the easy task, and it’s not the first time we’ve seen this live-action/animated attempt to bring down a villainous Acme (check out Joe Dante’s entertaining Looney Tunes: Back in Action if you haven’t seen it). But Coyote vs. Acme has a life of its own thanks to the chemistry between Forte and his animated counterpart, and even when the trivia of its tortured post-release fades into the background, you’ll still have a rambunctious, chaotic, and endearing comedy that does the Looney Tunes proud. We don’t know how long Warner Bros. Discovery will even exist, but Coyote vs. Acme is a good reminder that the Looney Tunes will never die. 

Coyote vs. Acme opens in theaters on August 28. Matt Goldberg is a film and TV critic who runs the newsletter Commentary Track.

‘The Wrong Girls’ Lights Up Some Shaggy Stoner Charms

Like any classic Hollywood genre, stoner comedies have evolved quite a bit over the years. The lo-fi vibes of Cheech & Chong’s counterculture 1970s vehicles gave way to the bawdy absurdism of Dave Chappelle’s Half Baked, which in turn evolved into sleek action comedies like Pineapple Express. Now Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat are here to revamp the genre once again with The Wrong Girls, a stoner movie that takes its favorite bits and pieces of what’s come before and reconfigures them into something sort of new, with a welcome female buddy dynamic at its center. Writer/director Dylan Meyer opens her debut feature with a shot of a giant Rube Goldbergian “bongatron” that’s impressive in its creativity even if it barely holds together. And that’s kind of what the movie feels like too.

It makes for a slightly disorienting viewing experience for those who want their movies to pick a consistent comedic lane. The Wrong Girls brushes up against something more conventional with its story of best friend roommates Frankie (Stewart) and Molly (Shawkat); the mysterious briefcase that falls into their hands; and the gun-toting Dutch bad guys who come looking for it. This could easily have been a glossier action comedy in the vein of American Ultra, the film where Meyer and Stewart first met. (They’re now married in addition to being creative collaborators.) Yet instead of serving up the expected joke/punchline rhythms of a big studio comedy, Meyer favors something shaggier, mellower, and weirder instead. The Wrong Girls doesn’t just center on two characters who love getting high; it aims to capture the loopy logic of being stoned.

It's an experiment in glorious stupidity that wouldn’t work nearly as well without Stewart and Shawkat at its center. They’re two wildly charismatic comedic actors who have great chemistry together and that papers over the occasional misstep as the movie struggles to get from point A to point B. Frankie is a Stanford-dropout-turned-delivery-driver who’s quick to quit when something gets too hard while Molly is a slightly more put together amateur chef whose job is hilariously just “spreadsheets.” They’re bonded together by their two cats, their mutual love of Celine Dion, and the sense that no one truly understands them as well as they understand each other, not even Molly’s boyfriend Josh (Abbott Elementary’s Zack Fox). Yet hanging over their friendship is the question of whether their codependence might be holding them back from taking some next steps in life.

The Wrong Girls doesn’t get too bogged down in the self-actualization arcs, though. Instead, it leans into a sweet, amiable hangout vibe even as the story veers into increasingly wacky places involving psychedelic drugs, telepathy, giant squids, and two unexpected (and slightly overused) voice performances from Seth Rogen and Kumail Nanjiani. The plot sends Frankie and Molly barreling around L.A., dodging bullets in between trying to blackmail millionaires and figure out what’s going on with the mysterious glowing drugs they decide to ingest on a whim. Still, one of Meyer’s better jokes is that Frankie and Molly are so go-with-the-flow, their reactions are seldom proportional to what’s happening around them. The most emotional we see them is when they discover their favorite all-you-can-eat buffet is closing down.

Funny supporting turns from LaKeith Stanfield, Tony Hale, and especially Kate McKinnon help pick up the energy when the movie starts to lag a bit. (It only runs 100 minutes but could probably stand to lose about 15.) Yet it’s the pleasure of hanging out with its two gross, grungy leading ladies that lingers. On the spectrum of female buddy comedy absurdity, The Wrong Girls doesn’t push things quite as far as the absolute insanity of Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar but is more heightened than the delightful hijinks of One of Them Days. Mostly, though, the trio would make a great triple feature of films about female friendships so charming and upbeat, there’s nothing they can’t handle, whether sober or (more likely) stoned.

The Wrong Girls is currently in theaters. Caroline Siede is a film and TV critic who runs the newsletter Girl Culture.