If you really think about it, it only could’ve been the Napa Boys. No really, only these Napa Boys could’ve made The Napa Boys. After three entries, you’d think you’ve seen it all with these guys, but they really push the boundaries with their fourth entry, The Sommelier’s Amulet, to different heights. Like a countryside wine tasting farewell to a group of guys you’ve known your entire life.
Or at least that’s what you’d think watching Nick Corirossi’s incredibly idiosyncratic film. And despite the titular group’s notoriety, this is actually the first film in which they’ve played this eclectic group of characters. Don’t feel dumb if you reach for your phone to check whether you missed something about twenty minutes in. That’s the inside joke. And within the 92-minute runtime of The Napa Boys, you’ll be subjected to a relentless stream of inside jokes and callbacks to movies and adventures that have never been put to film. Corirossi and co-writer Armen Weitzman developed the whole thing as a franchise spoof, framing it as the fourth entry in a fictional universe complete with its own mythology and recurring characters, none of which exist anywhere outside this movie. It’s an audacious, arguably brilliant premise for a comedy and a truly insane thing to actually build a film around.
It’s disorienting, and the film is one of those you’ll either get completely or won’t at all. You’ll either love it or absolutely hate it. Hijinks and absurd set pieces build from a trip through California’s wine country in a movie with a tone that mixes Sideways with Wet Hot American Summer with something you’d catch on a late-night YouTube rabbit hole at two in the morning. Dimwitted and silly, jokes flying left right and center, and crass in a way that will surely piss off self-serious viewers. Some of the early gross-out sequences meant for situational humor will test a viewer’s stomach for the film right out of the gate, enough so that there were reportedly walkouts during its midnight premiere in the TIFF Midnight Madness section last September.
In ways, I really admire it. Corirossi co-stars as Jack Jr. alongside Weitzman’s Miles Jr. and the two commit to the bit in incredible ways. The film was shot with a sort of dreamlike haze by cinematographer Markus Mentzer, and the acting is purposefully a bit flat, like you’re watching a YouTube or SNL sketch stretched to feature length.
Admittedly, though, part of the joy in those formats is that they’re usually five to ten minutes long. The humor itself wears a bit thin for me, at least on first watch. It’s not quite as clever in its individual jokes as the aforementioned Wet Hot American Summer, nor is it stupidly ridiculous in the way American Pie earned its gross-out reputation. It feels more like peering into an inside conversation that started twenty minutes before you joined, which is certainly the point, but also potentially a major limitation of the whole enterprise, depending on your tolerance for that kind of thing.
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Not necessarily a bad comedy, rather one that’ll find a cult following early on (if it hasn’t already) and probably won’t be for general audiences. I’m genuinely curious to see what Corirossi does next without the gimmick of the fictional franchise mythology to lean on. The hope is that his next project forces him to stretch his wings and build something more structurally demanding, because the comedic instincts here are real. For now, The Napa Boys lands with a softer nod of approval than I’d hoped for.
Score: 5/10
The Napa Boys (2026)
- Cast: Armen Weitzman, Nick Corirossi, Jamar Malachi Neighbors, Sarah Ramos, Riki Lindhome, Steve Agee, Chloe Cherry, Ray Wise
- Director: Nick Corirossi
- Genre: Comedy
- Runtime: 92 minutes
- Rated: NR
- Release Date: February 27, 2026
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