REVIEW: New Film Paint May Crush Your Bob Ross Dreams

Written and directed by Brit McAdams, Paint is inspired by real-life “celebrity” painter Bob Ross and stars Owen Wilson, Michaela Watkins, Ciara Renée, StephenRoot, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Lucy Freyer, and Lusia Strus.

Bob Ross is a figure of peace, calm, and serenity who became popular in the ’80s and ’90s through his weekly PBS television series, where he would paint beautiful natural landscapes and whisper to his fans while working while donning an afro. It was the first time I had ever seen a white guy with an afro, and for me, that was fascinating, along with his gentle brown and green strokes with specks of white that, after minutes, became some of the most beautiful natural landscapes each and every time.

Airing weekly as the PBS host of “The Joy of Painting” who passed away in 1995, Ross’ series fascinated people from all walks of life, with viewers actually losing a sense of time and place; you would literally drift off into the work in progress. Ross was a fixture in childhood memories for some and new memories for millennials and Gen Z, who have gotten a hold of reruns and were enveloped in his gentleness and kindness on air.

Owen Wilson now stars as an inspired version of the real-life Bob Ross but with flaws and all; many invented and some based on rumor. Owen portrays Carl Nargle, Vermont’s #1 public television painter who is the center of public adoration, including a flock of female fans who are smitten with his raspy voice with a tag line “They all fall for Carl,” blond curly permed hair, his custom van that has a bed with fancy Portuguese flannel sheets, and his brush stroke.

Until his reign begins to spiral to an end, as his spot is usurped by a young attractive female artist, Ambrosia (Ciara Renée), who is able to appeal to the younger new fanbase of the station and can literally paint a whopping two paintings at times, instead of one, cracking the system of everything that Nargle has come to know as comforting and privileged. As he is pushed into retirement, he finds that he has roughly 4,274 landscape paintings of Vermont’s tallest peak, Mt. Mansfield, that he can’t find a home for.

The film opens with a hilarious scene where the production staff is fawning over Carl on the studio floor as he paints on camera, and once the show wraps, the women of the station, who may or may not have slept with him or are trying to, are vying for his attention. Beverly (Lusia Strus) is seen cleaning the nonexistent paint and turpentine from his hands, Jenna (Lucy Freyer) is bringing him coffee with milk slowly, Wendy (Wendi McClendon-Covey) is asking for his keys to bring his artwork to his van and professing how warm they are, as he slides them out of his pocket and into her hands as she lingers deep into his eyes. These scenes were some of the most hilarious, with Wendi stealing the stage with her natural comedic timing as we’ve seen in ABC’s The Goldbergs, Bridesmaids and Barb and Star Go To Vista Del Mar.

Carl isn’t just adored by staff, he also romanced and discarded the station manager Katherine (Michaela Watkins), but he’s stopped on the street by fans around town that recognize his signature look. They are anxious to share random details about their day, capturing the essence of how everyone felt like they knew the real Bob or he was a part of their lives. The real magic starts to happen when the screenplay takes a detour out of the seemingly perfect life of Ross and we see Carl go from the highs of PBS fame to the lows of feeling left behind and not taken seriously as a real artist. He can’t quite get over that he has never had one of his paintings featured in the Burlington Museum of Art.

The real-life Bob Ross’ work is allegedly kept under lock and key by former business partners, and his family supposedly doesn’t have access to it. He was also heavily merchandised, from t-shirts to coffee mugs. Ross’s fans were in an uproar at the negative side portrayed of Carl, feeling that it was tarnishing the image of Bob, the artist.

Carl’s lows have him sleeping with numerous coworkers in his van, obsessed with the privileged bubble he’s in as he sees it crumble, and the sheer internal silent anxiety that the gorgeous “everyone’s fav” Ambrosia is causing, as she buzzes through the studio. He’s now smoking weed and chewing edibles at the advice of his hairstylist. Ultimately the moral of Carl’s story is, are you really living if you are not in tune with what’s happening outside of your tiny pampered world? And as that universe shifts, how do you begin to piece together the meaning of life, including your own flaws and the world of the people around you? The film also embraces Carl’s mega helping of toxic masculinity coming home to roost.

The film was shot in only 20 days with a 27mm and 32mm lens, mostly with one person in the shot and with very limited dialogue and almost no improvisation, according to the director. This, along with the costumes and score, helped capture the ’70s look and feel and the slow-moving, simple, quite repetitive, and sometimes boring life of Carl. He’s spent his whole life playing it safe and realizing the things and people that he felt made his life perfect are all almost gone.

Owen perfectly captures the essence of Bob Ross, but by the end of the film, you want him to break out of character and run down the street shouting or showing any other emotion that isn’t calm; Carl even whispers on the speaker from his van to fans on the road.

Bob Ross was said to have devised the whisper as a part of his show to tantalize fans; seeing that whisper for 90 mins was a stretch. We so almost get that fire in Carl as he has a mini meltdown and splashes gallons of paint across his mountain cabin walls, ruining all of his art. But then he realizes he has inadvertently splashed another mountain masterpiece across the entire wall and sea of paintings; even his rage is perfect and monotonous.

Was it worth damaging our childhood dreams of Bob Ross for Carl? At first, I was humorously appalled and emotionally damaged and shouting, “This is why we can’t have nice things.” But the film’s quiet movement and satire make it worth a watch if you can open your senses and find the humor and the life lessons Paint brings.

Paint premieres on April 7. Watch the trailer below.