We will never forget 2020: the fires, the pandemic, the election, the murder hornets, the protests and more. You remember, you were there. Well, the year is finally over, and alas, Netflix has released a mockumentary commemorating it.

This comedy feature, (made by the creators of Black Mirror) while a good idea in theory, fell short of the mark. While there were some funny cracks and humorous quips, most of this movie was either cringeworthy, boring, or made the hour-and-ten-minute run-time feel like three.

This movie features an ensemble of celebrity comedians and actors who were pretty hit-or-miss. My personal favorite, Dr. Maggie Gravel, a behavioral therapist played by comedian Leslie Jones was one of the few things that prevented this movie from being totally terrible. Her blunt and cynical attitude towards people (ironic, for being a therapist), combined with a mountain of f-bombs, made the majority of her lines amusing, and she definitely got the most laughs out of the movie’s viewers.

Now for the negatives. Cristin Milioti plays Kathy Flowers, a far-right white supremacist and self-proclaimed “regular soccer mom,” who gets her information from the most unreliable of sources. From believing Dr. Fauci is an actor, to thinking the Coronavirus is a conspiracy so Bill Gates can track the population, to being blatantly racist, this character embodies so many of the incredibly frustrating and terrible people of 2020. While it was clear that this character was supposed to poke fun at them, the execution didn’t feel clever or funny, but more exasperating and angering.

The rest of the characters, all interviewed documentary-style, were equally disappointing. Tennyson Foss, a history professor played by Hugh Grant, was one of the more heavily-featured “interviewees” in this movie, for no apparent reason. His dull jokes and underdeveloped character delivered a monotonous and unfunny narrative of 2020 interspersed with subtle bigotry and alcoholism.

Pyrex Flask (yes, that was the character’s name), a scientist played by Samson Kayo, had a few moderately funny lines. Yet those lines were overshadowed when the character started “flossing” (the dance, not the dental activity), and he became immediately uncomfortable and awkward.

Now, the most glaring issue to me was that they made a movie about this hot mess of a year before we had fully recovered from the events. In fact, released on December 27th, 2020, the year wasn’t even over.

They touched on many subjects and events that happened this year that caused a lot of pain to people, such as the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the deadly pandemic and the Australian wildfires. However these subjects were presented in a mocking and facetious way. I understand that is the point of a movie like this, but to be honest, it felt too soon after the events of 2020 to be joking about them. These issues are still hurting people, even though it’s not 2020 anymore. It didn’t feel right to watch a movie turning them into a joke.

This begs the question: was this movie really necessary? If we were to get a movie recapping 2020, I would rather get a nice, hopeful and optimistic one that gave you closure for this disastrous year and left you ready for the next one. But instead, we got a flat, insensitive, try-hard film that left viewers appalled by the catastrophe we just lived through and not at all ready to tackle 2021.

Who knows, maybe this movie will be funny in 10 to 15 years when we’ve all gotten over the events of this tragic year and can find them relatively humorous, but as of right now, you’re better off spending your time watching a movie that is actually funny.