STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK

Bobby Farrelly is a standard bearer for an endangered species—movie comedy.

For 30 years he and his brother Peter have used slapstick, toilet humor and buffoonish characters to create such box office hits as “There’s Something About Mary,” “Shallow Hal,” “Kingpin” and “Me, Myself & Irene.”

The Sun Valley homeowner showed his latest comic endeavor to the hometown audience Sunday night when Sun Valley Film Festival presented “Dear Santa” as a Christmas gift to the community.

Bobby Farrelly says he believes comedy will come around eventually—“It’s cyclical.”

A full house, including members of the Sun Valley Suns—Farrelly’s hockey team rivals--took their seats at Merlin’s Magic Lantern Cinema, getting loud when they spotted someone in the movie they knew and sticking around for a Q&A with Farrelly and actor Hayes MacArthur, another Sun Valley homeowner and the great nephew of Helen Hayes.

The movie revolves around a dyslexic little boy named Liam who accidentally addresses his Christmas wish list to Satan, rather than Santa. Who should appear in Liam’s bedroom that night but a devilish Jack Black, pleased as posh to have received a fan letter.

When Liam still believes he is Santa despite his appearance and manners, Satan decides to play along and offers to grant Liam three wishes. And the pure-hearted Liam teaches Satan a thing or two as he considers just what he should do with those wishes.

Farrelly told the audience that he was presented with the idea 12 years ago and loved it immediately. But it took 12 years to write a script that was just right. Some of the early drafts were dark, he said, but he and others eventually found the right mix of fantasy, comedy and humanity as they told the story of a little boy focused on saving his parents’ marriage following a tragedy that had left the family shattered.

Jack Wild presses all the right buttons in his role in “Dear Santa.”

Farrelly said it’s difficult to make comedies right now, he said, because of the Me Too movement and other things that have made it hard to laugh at this and that.

“I think it will come back. Laughter is the best medicine. Laughter is the best healer,” he said.

Jack Black brings a big boost of comedy to the film with his manic, Infectious enthusiasm for his role. Singer Post Malone, who plays himself, was great to work with—so polite and nice that everyone on the set enjoyed being around him, Farrelly said.

Hayes MacArthur, who played the father, said he got the call to come to Atalanta to film during an epic ski day on Sun Valley’s Baldy.

“Working with Bobby felt like family,” he added.

Keegan-Michael Key enthralled filmmakers and fellow actors as he spent 30 minutes improvising the digestion of a nut as Dr. Finkleman, a child psychologist whom the family turns to when they think Liam’s fantasies have gotten out of hand.

And 11-year-old Robert Timothy Smith, whom Farrelly said reminded him of Peter Billingsley in “A Christmas Story,” could only work 10 hours a day per filmmaking regulations. And he had school work, too.

The film began production in April 2023. It filmed five days a week for 30 days. Films typically never go over 40 days, Farrelly said.

“It’s never easy—there’s a thousand things that can derail it,” he said. “Making movies is really hard--any filmmaker will tell you that. And it’s hard to get financing. We had a crew of about 150 to 200 people so do the math. Someone has to write all those checks.”

While certainly worthy of being shown in theaters, the film was released just before Thanksgiving on Paramount + and other digital platforms.

Before it was released, Farrelly ran the movie in front of a test audience, retreating to the editing studio afterwards to tweak the film according to the crowd’s reaction.

“So, it’s nice to sit here and watch the movie with friends, knowing I don’t have to go back to the studio!”