Don't Think Twice (Birbiglia!!)

[amberlita]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzbJXNiEdEg

I don't have much to say. So frickin' good. Surprisingly moving. Gillian Jacobs has this uncanny ability to play characters with a flat affect that I ultimately find I'm very emotionally invested in.

[number8]

I liked it a lot, for the most part. There are some things about the mechanics of the improv shows that feel really off. The hecklers, for example. Putting aside that I don't buy having improv audiences in New York throwing such celebrity-starved insults (bad improv audiences are usually more disruptive and self-centered than outright mean), it's pretty contrived for them to be perfectly prompting these folks' personal drama to be played out on the stage. The worst one is the climactic show where Jack and Sam break up, and there's no self-awareness on the movie's part about the fact that they're acting out this intensely personal exchange in front of a likely bewildered audience that's watching a television star have a teary falling out with his girlfriend. This would normally be a pretty insidery nitpick I'd just shrug through in favor of narrative expediency, but since this is a grounded movie with fairly predictably character growths and is all about the process, to have such blatantly scripted moments feel like a misstep. The characters are all terrifically drawn and brought to life, though. Birbiglia cast a group of actors that I really like individually and was thrilled to see interact so well as a group.

Gillian Jacobs is stunning to watch in this.

[number8]

Also, super weird to watch Mike Birbiglia's character's behavior this week right after the UCB rape scandal just broke.

[Spinal]

One of the year's best, to be sure. Perfectly cast. Knowingly crafted. It beautifully captures the mindset of the performer in search of validation. Very funny. Very touching.

[Spinal]

And I agree with the others. If there's a standout performer here, it's Jacobs.

What I really love about her character is the way she questions the desirability of the dream that all the others take for granted. It was a very nice touch to offer that perspective.

[Peng]

I know nothing about improv, barely (if ever) watch any improv (my exposure to SNL is only to political ones with Kate McKinnon), but I immensely enjoyed this, in which it doesn't matter how I feel about the art form because it is treated insightfully as a passionate job to these people. I expected the jokes and a warm look into an unfamiliar subject, but what I didn't expect is getting so involved in this circle of friends I got teared up a bit. This makes me realize that a film with an undercurrent of "life moves on" message is one of the easiest things to get to me emotionally (with Toy Story 3 as the epitome). And although it ends with more warm fuzzies than despair, that the message has an added layer of "life isn't fair" and comes after a whole film of dreams being deferred makes it a bit more stinging, and has just the right balance of bittersweet to the ending. 7.5/10

MVP: As many have noted, Gillian Jacobs. Her performance in the "well" scene destroys me.

[dreamdead]

This one, which is on Netflix Instant now, is quietly wonderful. I have a few reservations: the Tami Sagher character seems oddly welcomed into the epilogue even after Keegan-Michael Key has been ostracized for his naked interest in Weekend Live success, when it felt like the Commune had turned on her too (she also receives the least fully developed character); Birbiglia being at the coda also feels off since he'd told the girlfriend that he would leave improv and accept his lot; the hecklers' unceasing disinterest in the group at the end.

That said, there's a general ease in the flow and characterization of this film, and the Jacobs aspect generally work, especially in her refusal to want change. It's sweet, far more balanced in its treatment of gender than was Birbiglia's debut film, and just so, so tenderly depicted.