Happythankyoumoreplease (2010)

We were lucky enough to be among about 400 people here in the heartland to attend an advance screening (September 2010) of this adorable and uplifting tale of young, attractive, 20-something New Yorkers trying to figure out how to be grown-ups. Written and directed by and starring Josh Radnor (best known for starring in the series How I Met Your Mother (2005-2010)), his feature debut was as beloved by the audience here as it was at Sundance in January, where it won the Audience Award. Radnor, as Sam, a writer who can't quite get his life together, is rumpled and appealing. Malin Åkerman (Swedish-born, she first came to my attention as the fetching Juna in the wonderful and cringe-y The Comeback on HBO and was very funny as the train wreck wife in the remake of The Heartbreak Kid (2007), as well as one episode of the brilliant-but-canceled Love Monkey, and more) plays his best friend Annie, who suffers from alopecia, plays the whole movie with eyebrows shaved off and a bald cap on her head, and makes us feel her pain and frustration. 9-year-old Michael Algieri is sweet as Rasheen. It's nice to see Tony Hale (who will always be Buster Bluth from Arrested Development to me, though he has a 15-year-long and varied resumé) playing it straight while getting some laughs as Sam #2. Zoe Kazan's (after I wrote about her in The Exploding Girl, she was in The Private Lives of Pippa Lee and It's Complicated) character Mary Catherine goes through some major changes and she's fully up to the challenge. Football princess (her great-grandfathers Timothy Mara and Art Rooney founded the New York Giants and Pittsburgh Steelers, respectively, and the ownership has been passed down through the generations) Kate Mara (I haven't seen that much of her work, but I liked her series arcs on Nip/Tuck (2003) and Entourage (2009), as well as her small part in Brokeback Mountain (2005)) is lovely as Mississippi, a sensible girl who keeps telling us she isn't. Liev's little brother Pablo Schreiber has the most winning ear-to-ear smile, plus his character Charlie is the best boyfriend ever. Cinematographer Seamus Tierney does some interesting things with focus; and watch for an instance early on of my #3 Rule for movies. I'm not going to say more because I want you to enjoy it for yourselves.

One of the ten producers is Jesse Hara, Radnor's boyhood friend, and it is also his feature debut. The music - score composed by New York singer/songwriter Jaymay, and songs sung by her, Kate Mara, and others - is first rate. Here's a taste plus another song from the movie, by Brendan Hines, full of cuss words. The movie is now out, but the soundtrack isn't! Here's a list of the 23 songs in it.

I promised Radnor last night at the premiere that I would publish this post when I saw it (which I did) and then again when the movie gets released, which I'm doing now. He told me that he decided to run the words together so people would remember the title. Remember it. See it as soon as you can (preferably opening weekend to help the movie's ratings at the box office). Jack and I, and everyone I asked, loved it. You will, too.