Sometimes, total ignorance of a film’s origins makes watching it that much more enjoyable. But when a film wears its past proudly, said ignorance is barely a factor. Throughout Plantman & Blondie, all I could think was how much the film felt like an extended Saturday Night Live sketch– and not in a bad way.
In a sense, I was right; this distinctly present-day buddy-comedy comes from long-time sketch-comedy group The Dress Up Gang. Formed in 2008, the troupe includes Plantman & Blondie director/writer Robb Boardman, and actors DeMorge Brown, Kevin Camia, Donny Divanian, Christian Duguay, Kirk Fox, Cory Loykasek, Frankie Quinones, and Brent Weinbach.
Sketch-comedy humor doesn’t usually appeal to my tastes, and hasn’t for years. Nonetheless, I couldn’t suppress some stray chuckles as Plantman & Blondie charmingly began to show awareness of the absurdity of it’s own premise — a horticultural vigilante (Donny) rescues neglected houseplants from their absent-minded owners, but slowly befriends a remote worker (Cory) who, like many others, bought a houseplant for the sake of it with no care for it’s wellbeing.
So is it any good?
Simply, yes. What makes Plantman & Blondie most tangible in that classic sketch form is how it spotlights the weird ways in which social media and technology now consume all aspects of everyday life, in a refreshingly humorous yet conscientious manner. The mundanity of online work, misplaced trust in crypto, ChatGPT-generated legal documents, the usefulness (but also oddity) of constantly sharing your location with people, etc. It’s so relatable, and yet, not at all forced.
The film mixes meaningful commentary on how these rapid technological advancements both support and prevent community with deceivingly simple jokes. The comedy here isn’t particularly high-brow, and it doesn’t need to be. One of my favorite such jokes came early on; after his boss says he should get a houseplant to spruce up his Zoom background, Cory closes the Zoom and immediately sees a TikTok about how your phone is listening to you, and then a TikTok ad from the local mom-and-pop plant nursery.
I actually think what makes Plantman and Blondie anything more than just another sketch comedy is its characters, who become quite endearing throughout the runtime, even if they admittedly all felt quite boring — or in the case of the Plantman, annoying — at first. You can tell these are characters that the Gang has played some version of for years; they feel fully realized.
It’s easy to detest characters who embody the worst qualities of ourselves with little else to offer. So when the film opened with Cory (Cory Loykasek), who, like many of us post-pandemic, has accepted a life of self-perpetuated loneliness and doom-scrolling, I was already preparing myself to keep the film at a distance; perhaps enjoying the story, but not quite lost in it.
A moment of missed opportunity in an otherwise good film.
Thankfully, the plot quickly picks up when Cory meets the Plantman and inadvertently becomes his accomplice, but then a certain sequence revolving around an unexpected high almost lost me completely. Humor where the joke is simply just someone experiencing an unexpected drug-induced high has never really appealed to me, and this is one of the few moments where I think Plantman & Blondie could’ve gone much further with the visual and written comedy.
The visuals briefly change to match the high, but not in a way that’s particularly striking. Truthfully, the sequence as a whole feels out of place in a film that otherwise oozes increasing amounts of charm, self-awareness, and attention to detail.
Not only was I surprised by how much I became invested in the film’s conflict, Plantman and Cory vs. disgruntled owners of houseplants that were ‘rescued’, but I was also surprised by how many small details displayed intentionality rather than frivolousness. Even something as simple as the recurring use of “he thought he was tripping” is indicative of how, like the professional comedians they are, The Dress Up Gang know it’s generally funnier to build off an existing joke rather than just constantly spew new cheap ones.
The film also very much sticks the landing with an ending that is funny, but also displays much growth for Cory. But for better or worse, this ultimately does just feel like an extended comedy sketch. If you’re already a fan of the group, this will just be another entry in the many odd scenarios the gang finds themselves in. If you’re not, this film alone probably won’t leave you begging for more or exceptionally obsessed— but it’ll still be a good time.
A 96-minute sketch first, The Dress Up Gang’s debut film second.
Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, but it’s clear that with a focus on writing and chemistry, things like cinematography or costuming took a backseat — other than one scene where the Plantman wears a fake mustache and blonde wig. Pretty much every single conversation in the film is shot and edited the exact same way, which is disappointing when used correctly, camera work and editing can make for great jokes.
One deviation from the usual form, a drone shot near the film’s end, is not only one of the few cinematically beautiful moments in Plantman & Blondie, but its nonchalant use also serves as an unexpected gag that rewards engaged viewership, considering what had happened in the narrative previously with a drone.
With all that said, the sound for this film is actually really well done and accompanies the story, especially in moments of heightened tension (of which there are many) very well. As Cory becomes deeper entrenched in the yet-unknown mystery of the Plantman, the score nearly resembles the classics of the film noir era, but as this friendship evolves, the movie shifts to brighter, more electronic, sounds.
All in all, Plantman & Blondie is not some unforgettable masterpiece, though it is a heartfelt effort made from an established group of sketch comedians to not only make people laugh, but highlight the importance of proactively maintaining community in this world where it’s so easy to lose hours to doom-scrolling, and hours more to catastrophizing.
Some of life’s greatest joys can come from meeting random people in random situations, but this will only happen when you begin to refuse the reclusive mundanity that COVID has led people to accept as ‘normal’. Maybe you feel overwhelmed by all that goes on in the world and as if you can do nothing to support the spirit of goodness, but as Plantman shows, sometimes just being active and aware in your community is a good enough start.
So even if Plantman & Blondie didn’t have me busting out in laughter at all times, and likely won’t be a film that sticks with me for years to come, it did give me a brief reprieve of simple joy on a night when I was unusually stressed. But more importantly so, I find myself with a new insatiable itch to not only get a houseplant, but actually take care of it and love it, so in that way, The Dress Up Gang’s debut feature is a life-saving advert for potted plants everywhere.
Rating: 3/5 Fiddle-leaf figs
‘Plantman & Blondie: A Dress Up Gang Film’ premiered during the 2026 SXSW Film & TV Festival, on Saturday, March 14th, 2026. It will screen again during the festival on March 15th and March 18th. For more information, visit the film’s SXSW listing.
