Jarrett Jung’s comedy SERGEANT PICKLE BREATH AND THE ROOFTOP WARRIORS has quirky, fun 90s vibe
Jarrett Jung’s comedy SERGEANT PICKLE BREATH AND THE ROOFTOP WARRIORS
Summary: A pothead has to move out because his conservative roommate wants a normal, domesticated life with his girlfriend. The roommate threatens to destroy the pothead’s favorite teddy bear if he’s not out in a month. What the roommate doesn’t know is that he’s losing his girlfriend a little everyday to the pothead.
Review: I’m not being facetious when I say this, but I love this movie. I knew nothing about it when I started watching it except that the title was unique. The title had my mind going in a million directions, but the writer/director Jarrett Jung took me in a direction I could have never imagined, and it was a good direction.
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Sergeant Pickle Breath And The Rooftop Warriors (2024) has a strong Clerks (1994) vibe to it. I was also reminded of Suburbia (1996), The Daytrippers (1997), The Stoned Aged (1994), and Bottle Rocket (1996). Sergent Pickle Breath And The Rooftop Warriors had a similar style; and what I mean by this is that it had that quirky, unique feel without trying too hard to be cool and hip. The film wasn’t trying to be anything but itself, which is hard to do. The dialogue was fresh and there weren’t any obvious rip offs of Quentin Tarantino films (which is something I see too much from amateur screenwriters trying to be really ‘cool’ and ‘individual’). I also want to bring up The Promotion (2008), Balls Out (2009), and Garden State (2004) as similar, character driven movies that have a similar vibe.
So, I would have to say that Sergeant Pickle Breath And The Rooftop Warriors has a strong 90’s film vibe to it – except for the ending when Rufus (played by Jose Duran) is shown Tiktok. But, with the films I brought up, like Clerks and Suburbia, we saw some funny characters who epitomized Generation X: they wanted to have fun – they wanted to mix work and fun.
This whole idea was blatant in TV shows like “Friends.” A lot of controversial subjects were brought up and we (I’m also Gen X) laughed and showed those hard parts of the human condition were not as serious as Boomers made them out to be. The Boomers never talked about them, and Gen Z wanted to show they could be fun.
However, like the Boomers, Gen X never really looked inside themselves and dealt with any trauma or issues we carried with us.
But, when watching Sergeant Pickle Breath And The Rooftop Warriors, it is nice to see the characters trying to deal with their pasts and come to terms with who they are without just resorting to humor as a coping mechanism. When Rufus gets real with Claire on the rooftop a few times, it brings a clarity and realism to the characters that similar movies from the nineties really lacked. Those conversations, too, seemed like real conversations I would have with my friends.
The scene where Claire and Andrew laid in bed and Claire was talking about how awesome it would be to travel around in a van really showed her character and how similar she was to the free spirited Rufus. “If you have to poop, you can always find a way to poop,” she said when her unhip and square boyfriend was worried about domestic life on the road.
From that moment on, we (the viewers) knew she was a misshaping lego (you will know the reference when you watch the film). I really look forward to what Jarrett Jung has in mind for his next film.
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I remember when The Sopranos made it okay for men to seek therapy, and how Sex And The City normalized therapy, too. Now that I work in a facility with therapists all around, I have realized I shouldn’t have been so dismissive of therapy in my past. Sargeant Pickle Breath And The Rooftop Warriors is very character based and shows us a slice of their lives as they spend their days having fun and trying to get by in life. They spout their armchair philosophies about life and all have goals for their immediate futures that may seem off or bad ideas to Boomers. I mean, the fact that Rufus aims to live in a van shows how much times have changed since Chris Farley’s character Matt Foley warned people about living in a van down by the river. Rufus described all this pretty well when he said, “What’s wrong with being a pussy? I love pussy.”
As a screenwriter, I really want to have a coming-of-age film like this produced. And, I try to find ways to bring out dialogue and not just have characters sitting on a couch talking. When Rufus first finds out that he has to move out and he’s yelling at Andrew, who is trying to take a dump in the bathroom, I thought that was a great way to add some more tension to an already stressful moment. And, it changed up the dynamic of just having Andrew and Rufus yelling at each other in the living room.
Besides the characters, this film had a unique way of world building. There is a scene where Rufus is on a rooftop at a party. Some guys he doesn’t know start freestyling while another guy lays down a beat with some talented beatboxing. The guy we see freestyling (there had obviously been others) raps about Brooklyn and sets the scene for where they live. I loved the idea of world building with freestyling instead of having a narrator with a Morgan Freeman style voice narrate about the city. I mean, I’ve never lived in Brooklyn, but this scene helped me get a feeling for the city.
Without giving away any spoilers, the viewer does find out that Sergent Pickle Breath is a small teddy bear wearing a partial army uniform. The rooftop warriors are mainly Rufus, Andrew (played by Reed Lancaster), and Claire (played by Stephanie Mieko Cohen). Rufus loves to spend time on the rooftops in Brooklyn. He even has a cooler full of beer, a hammock, and a bucket to pee in all set up. Oh, he even has some hand sanitizer next to the piss bucket so he can keep his hands clean. You, the viewer, will have to watch the film to find out the significance of Sargent Pickle Breath. What SPB meant to Rufus really drove me while watching the film. I got little tidbits here and there until Rufus explained about SPB at the end to Claire. A lot of little things came into clear view and made sense after Rufus explained, which shows that Jarrett Jung really knew what he was doing with every little detail of the film while writing and directing.
Sergeant Pickle Breath and the Rooftop Warriors screened at Dances With Films: NY.