REVIEW: ‘Bupkis’ strays in telling Pete Davidson’s (sort of) story

Borrowing from his personal life (largely elements from his tabloid presence), it reveals a more vulnerable Pete – one who’s perplexed by the profile he has gained.

Edie Falco plays his mother, Joe Pesci plays his grandfather, and both help flesh the story of the comedian whose father died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.

While it doesn’t drop in on “Saturday Night Live,” there are plenty of veterans who drift in and out of his untethered life.

Pete, meanwhile, has that wide-eyed, who me? approach to just about everything. Even though it means he won’t be home for Christmas, he agrees to take a role in a Brad Pitt film because, well, it’s Brad Pitt. The experience suggests Davidson believes he’s less of a star than he is.

Sure, he spends money like a drunken sailor and has hangers-on who do nothing but plunk in his mother’s basement, but there’s nothing that confirms the kind of Pete we’ve seen on the cover of tabloids. This is very much the deer-in-the-headlights performer who’s just trying to make it to the next day.

Pesci – an interesting choice – plays it cool while Falco comes closest to what you think his mother is really like (“Marisa Tomei played me!” she offers). “Bupkis” flashes back to his adolescence and fills his world with characters right out of “A Bronx Tale.”

Bobby Cannavale is great as a relative trying to provide guidance to a younger Pete; John Mulaney plays a version of himself talking about – what else? – addiction.

Dribs and drabs from Davidson’s real life touch this “reel” life. You see him getting rid of tattoos (that has happened); you hear his sister (played by Oona Roche) talk about the downside of being fame adjacent.

But much of this doesn’t lead anywhere. It doesn’t tell us more about Davidson (or ease our concern for him); it doesn’t paint a version of his life that’s naturally funny. Much, in fact, plays out like a therapy session.

Only when he steps out of it (and shows the ego beginning to spark) does it really become fun.

In that Brad Pitt episode, he gets to spar with Pitt’s body double Devon Leech (Rob O’Malley) and it’s great to see a celebrity lament his inability to work with the real deal.

Those Hollywood forays are the best of “Bupkis,” but they don’t come often enough. For that matter, Davidson doesn’t do much more than lump along. His “King of Staten Island” showed more acting chops. This just seems to trade on his celebrity.

Written by Davidson, Judah Miller and Dave Sirus, “Bupkis” tries to be too many things at once. There’s a Ray Romano father-figure moment that might have been interesting but it isn’t given the time other moments are. Heck, Al Gore, Jane Curtin and Eli Manning are here.

And there are movies-within-movies that might have been interesting to pursue. But, like Davidson, “Bupkis” loses interest and moves on to something else.

“Bupkis” is streaming on Peacock.