The Wasteland Reviewer

Rolling Loud: The Movie (2026) Written Review

Are you a fan of Rolling Loud? If you are a fan of hip hop music, this just might be the festival you are most looking forward to. An international festival full of A-list headliners certainly sounds like a place to be for hip hop fans all around. But if this is not your type of music, you might not have heard of it until you saw a trailer for a movie with Owen Wilson’s un-hip hop face all over it. Instead of selling this big-time hip-hop festival through highlighting the performers in a concert film, someone had the bright idea of delivering a raunchy, father-search-for-son comedy set at this massive festival. I don’t know about you but Wilson and Matt Rife just scream hip hop music at me.

What does director Jeremy Garelick do to bring this comedy to life in such a unique setting? To be frank, the best parts of the film are the performances. Unfortunately, that is quite frustrating as these are just fleeting glimpses at the performances that last upwards of 30 seconds at a time. The filmmaking that brings them to life is not particularly impressive, but the energy of the performers and the crowd make them worthwhile. Most of the filmmaking feels half-hearted and clunky. There are moments with the most obnoxious fake background where it is clearly obvious that Wilson and young Christian Convery are nowhere near an actual concert. The pacing of the film drags quite a bit even though it is a drugged out and manic story…what happens just isn’t that interesting. The tone of the film is aggressively mean-spirited and low brow with many gags centering on adult films, breasts, and intoxication (or porn, boobs, and drugged up shenanigans translated into the language of this film). Very little of this film feels funny and even less of it feels authentic. The more emotional moments fall mostly flat. There might be a 15-minute stretch in the later parts of the film where Garelick miraculously finds the rhythm of the story…but that is soon lost to quickly wrap up the proceedings (just too little, too late).

Is Garelick and Luke Burke’s writing much better? From a humor standpoint, they are diving for the lowest common denominator. A series of unfunny gags sink the film with too many of them going too long or unrelentingly reappearing throughout the runtime. What starts as a story that might be one about a genuine attempt by a father to connect with his son is bogged down by horrible writing choices that destroy most of the characters. Wilson’s protagonist is nothing more than a cuckolded husband, aloof father, and nobody at his job. There is barely anything to connect with to begin with then his horribly irresponsible behavior sinks all potential to like him. A Rife’s character is insufferable and becomes the worst possible Donkey from Shrek parallel (don’t worry, the film will make that connection for you). The unexpected inclusion of a second sidekick honestly savages a few moments, but Garelick and Burke run this character into the ground just as hard as Rife’s. The film is a series of unfunny and lazy shenanigans that never feel authentic or interesting. Every character feels like a one-dimensional prop to keep this loosely plotted mess together leaving almost no one to connect with. Again, somehow there is a chunk of this film towards the end that finds some earnestness and fun that makes you question why the rest of this film couldn’t be that. Instead, the audience is served a steady diet of prayers about your wife dying in an accident and Wilson’s protagonist being a welcome mat for everyone.

Does the cast do much to salvage this film? Wilson is such a charming and lovable performer, but he has had some real stinkers in his career. His character is written so poorly that his charm can barely salvage most scenes in the film. Rife is insufferable and makes you wonder if Pete Davidson would have been too expensive. Her character might also be written to be insufferable but honestly Christine Ko finds a rhythm that makes her one of the best parts of the movie. Jolene (actor and model) portrays Wilson’s wife, and she has nothing to work with as the annoyingly controlling wife character…except she is attractive. Travis Scott is honestly some fun in his limited role in the film as is Sexyy Red. Most of the remaining cast are just a bunch of random characters with little substance. The wildest claim to be made about this film is that Henry Winkler is the best part of the movie with his one scene as Wilson’s mean boss.

What was the purpose of this film? Where it seems like the intention was to draw attention to this international hip hop festival, this film sours its image with a clunky, poorly made comedy. The filmmaking is so flimsy with plenty of horrible editing which makes the experience that much worse. Wilson cannot do much to raise the tides on this unfunny film. Rolling Loud: The Movie feels like a horrible miscalculation that muddies the brand of this festival.