Fool's Paradise is a 2023 satirical comedy film written and directed by actor Charlie Day (It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, The Cool Kids, I want you Back, and How it Ends) in his directorial debut. It grossed $855,173 during it's limited theatrical run. A mute John Doe (played by: Charlie Day from The Super Mario Bros, Fist Fight, Pacific Rim: Uprising, and Hotel Artemis) with the mental capacity of a five-year-old is released from a mental hospital when the state cannot afford his treatment. He begins living on the streets and taking direction from whomever he comes across. While making a biopic about Billy the Kid, the Producer is incensed that method actor Sir Tom Bingsley (played by: Charlie Day from Horrible Bosses 1/2, The Lego Movie 1/2, Pacific Rim, and Going the Distance) refuses to leave his trailer.

Since this costs the film time and money, the Producer (played by: Ray Liotta from Goodfellas, Cop Land, Smokin Aces, Narc, Cocaine Bear, Hannibal, and Field of Dreams) resorts to using a stand-in. The Producer comes across the John Doe selling oranges on the street and hires him due to the striking resemblance to Bingsley. Meanwhile, Lenny (played by: Ken Jeong from The Hangover Trilogy, Scoob!, My Spy, Dr Ken, and Community) is a struggling publicist who has not been able to maintain one client since moving to L. A. and bribes his way onto studio lots to look for talent. Lenny sees John Doe filming the biopic and misunderstands his name to be "Latte Pronto" due to the Producer demanding coffee. After Bingsley dies in a misguided method acting technique of hanging himself, "Billy the Kid" is forced to continue filming with Pronto as the star. Although hindered by Pronto's lack of acting talent and his continued looks directly into camera, his co-stars Christiana Dior (played by: Kate Beckinsale from the Underworld franchise, Click, Van Helsing, Vacancy, Pearl Harbor, and Total Recall) and Chad Luxt (played by: Adrien Brody from Winning Time, The Pianist, Predators, Peaky Blinders, Summer of Sam, and King Kong) are inspired by the unique avant-garde performance and emulate his acting style.

Critics praising Pronto's performance of breaking the fourth wall by looking into the camera. At the after party, Lenny asks Pronto to confirm they will never end their business relationship. When Pronto cannot respond to Lenny's request. He gets an offer to star in "Mosquito Boy" directed by Lex Tanner (played by: Jason Sudeikis from Ted Lasso, Horrible Bosses 1/2, We're the Millers, Booksmart, and Hall Pass). Pronto is blamed in the media after getting arrested during the production. Pronto is injured and a stand-in is used for the majority of the movie. The movie is a colossal failure at the box office and Pronto's representation leaves him. Dior is frustrated with her husband's failing stardom so she divorces him, takes the children, and begins dating Luxt. Pronto goes back to living on the street. Pronto befriends a homeless man named Dagger (played by: Common from Smokin Aces, John Wick Chapter 2, and Suicide Squad) and saves his life, gaining media acclaim and is awarded the Key to the City by the Mayor of Los Angeles. The Mayor privately encourages Pronto to run for office on an anti-corporate platform since his acting career is over. The rich and powerful Cote brothers (played by: Tom O'Rion from Major Dad and John Malkovich from Con Air) have Pronto kidnapped to discourage his political career. He gets another chance at acting after dealing with so much bad luck and he agrees to leave politics to the Cote brothers. Can the once rising star get back into his former life before it's all too late????

Are you a Charlie Day fan? If so, you might really enjoy this one considering he's the star, he wrote the script, and he directed this satire. Day definitely went with a weird approach for this comedy. He made the lead character a mute in Fool's Paradise. I find it very bizarre because he's hilarious and his voice is unique plus it always add to his style of humor.

I think he had a solid performance here but honestly it wasn't what I was expecting from him. It has some interesting costumes, set designs, and cinematography that makes it stand out a little more compared to your typical comedy. The best thing about Fool's Paradise is it's all star cast. It's loaded with talent and familiar faces, Day must have called in all his favors for this one. It has Ray Liotta, Jason Sudeikis, John Malkovich, Common, Ken Jeong, Adrien Brody, Kate Beckinsale, Jason Bateman, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Edie Falco, Jimmi Simpson, Dean Norris, Glenn Howerton, and George Lopez. I enjoyed Fool's Paradise because it's very weird and somewhat original but I'm honestly not sure how much I would want to revisit it in the future. It's definitely worth checking out at least once.

I shouldn't have paid attention to this movie as long as I did. The premise was kind of interesting and had the potential for a mid to good plot, but it was just so chaotic without actually going anywhere.

The whole movie was just a bunch of stuff happening to this random guy who has no memories, doesn't talk, and has the intelligence of a 5 year old. Charlie Day's character, Latte Pronto, is essentially Charlie Chaplain's The Tramp. Latte has absolutely nothing going on. He doesn't interact with other characters in meaningful ways, and doesn't seem to have any thoughts, opinions, desires about the things happening around him. The plot literally happens to him and he's just along for the ride.

Which, ok, if you're gonna have an entirely blank character, then at least make the plot interesting. But the plot is not interesting. Charlie Day goes from the mental hospital to the streets of LA, then a director picks him up cause he's a dead ringer for his problematic lead, then he gets famous in a very "Step 1. Hit the streets of LA, Step 2. Become famous celebrity" kind of way. And that's essentially how the entire movie goes. He gets married, divorced, loses everything in such quick succession that I almost got whiplash.

This movie just needed something more substantial than it gave. Charlie Day's character was the perfect setup for a self discovery plot line, where he finds out who he is and/or who he wants to be through his experiences. I mean they could have had a moment at the end where he finally talks, and that would have been pretty cool. But the movie ends, and nobody important learns anything important, and nothing was accomplished, and also I didn't laugh once. Actually I did get some cleaning done between confused glances at my TV, so one thing was accomplished I guess.

"Fool's Paradise" tries to be funny and entertaining. It tries. Charlie Day wrote & directed an homage to Buster Keaton and the Peter Sellers film "Being There," but he didn't deliver an entertaining film. It is meant to be a satire of who we make celebrities and how quickly our opinions can change. By the end, though, I just didn't care.

I love Charlie Day and thought he was perfectly cast to be the lead. His eyes portrayed his naivety perfectly, but he lacked the physical comedy and over expression that would have made this more entertaining.

What he needed was help. He needed a partner to help with both writing and directing duties. Someone to say "that's not funny" or "this scene makes no sense and needs a rewrite." I get what he was trying to accomplish and I hope it leads to more attempts by Charlie Day. But I hope the next attempts are better.