Okay, now back to our regularly scheduled programming...
Chris and I recently went to a screening of Don't Think Twice with a Q&A with the writer/director/lead actor Mike Birbiglia and it was fantastic. One of the best movies I've seen this year.
- Rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 100%
- Brief Synopsis: When a member of a popular New York City improv troupe gets cast on a hit TV show, the rest of the group - all best friends - start to realize that not everyone is going to make it after all, offering a hilarious and honest look at the lives of professional funny people.
- My Thoughts: It's an insightful, honest, hilarious look into the world of comedy and dealing with chasing the same very-difficult-to-attain-goals as your peers. While I'm not in the improv world, I'm an huge fan and love watching it (Upright Citizens Brigade is one of my top favorite things about LA), so it made me very nostalgic for going to shows there on the reg. It has a stacked cast of super talented comedians, but it delivers a wide range of emotions along with the LOLs. Mike Birbiglia said that he can't even watch the film before the Q&A sessions because it makes him too emotional.
- Recommendation: 👍👍 You should definitely go see this.
Shout out to my former boss/professional mentor's husband's company - The Film Arcade - for putting out this great movie and shout out to the Magnolia Theatre for putting on cool events like this screening/QA. The Magnolia also does cool things like post letters from filmmakers on their website. They posted one such letter from Mike Birbiglia about this film, and his thoughts on his own film are obviously way more eloquent than my own, so here ya go...
A few years ago my wife Jen came to one of my improv shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York City and made this observation:
“Everyone onstage is equally brilliant, but somehow that person is a movie star and that person is on SNL and that guy lives on an air mattress in Queens.”
I remember thinking “Not only is that an astute observation about the unfairness of life, but it’s also a movie.” I could see the whole film. A Big Chill-esque ensemble comedy set in the world of an improv theater that has just lost its lease. A group of best friends in their 30s confronting the idea that not everyone is gonna make it after all. And to me, improv is a great metaphor for life. The basic rules of improv are:
1. Say yes.
2. It’s all about the group.
3. Don’t think.
These, to me, are principles that have helped me in being a filmmaker, an artist, a parent, and a husband. So that was the jumping off point.
And then, to be honest with you, part of the reason I made the film was that it was a film I wanted to see. I feel like comedies with true drama are something of a lost art form I fell in love with films like Hannah and Her Sisters, Broadcast News, Almost Famous, and Bob & Carol and Ted and Alice. I was asked by my producers to come up with some more recent references, but there aren’t a lot. Beautiful Girls?
Anyway, when I go to the movies I want to laugh and cry and laugh and cry and then think and talk with my wife about it for a week—or a month—or for the rest of our lives. To me that’s what separates film from TV. As filmmakers we try to introduce characters, place you in their shoes as they struggle, and reach some sense of resolution. All within 90 minutes or so.
Not easy, but we took a stab at it.
Which is why I’d urge you to see the film in the theater. To laugh with strangers. To cry with strangers. Maybe bring a few friends and go out afterwards to talk about how your group of friends has aged through the years. How you feel like there are things in life that you feel like you deserve more of, or less of. If anything, it’ll be a great jumping off point for a discussion.
Life isn’t fair, but it is funny.
xoxo,
Annie.
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