Sleepwalk with Me (2012)

Absolutely delightful, this semi-autobiographical movie from comedian Mike Birbiglia about his relationship, his career, and his dangerous sleep disorder, hits all the right notes. Birbiglia surrounds himself with a highly professional cast, co-directs, co-wrote the script, and stars as the leading man with a name even sillier than his own: Matt Pandamiglio. Birbiglia and co-director Seth Barrish (apparently a renowned acting coach and theatre director) make their feature directing debuts from the script they wrote with Ira Glass (creator of the long-lived radio and short-lived TV serieses of This American Life) and Joe Birbiglia, Mike's brother. Mike began talking about his sleep disorder in an award-winning off-Broadway one-man show in 2008, recorded an excerpt as a "chapter" of This American Life, which brought Glass in as producer of this movie, and turned it into a best-selling book, Sleepwalk with Me & Other Painfully True Stories (I'm not totally certain of the chronology of these events). You can hear the TAL chapter from this link, but be forewarned that the attached movie trailer contains spoilers and I imagine the chapter will, too.

Lauren Ambrose (covered in Wanderlust) co-stars as Matt's lovely, understanding, but perplexed girlfriend and gets to sing (beautifully!) late in the movie, accompanied by Loudon Wainwright III on ukulele (I had no idea she is a classically trained singer, has her own band, and will star as Fanny Brice in a Funny Girl revival on Broadway). James Rebhorn (a popular character actor, he never stars but always makes an impression--here's his filmography) and Carol Kane (so many to chose--my favorites include Hester Street (1975) for which she was Oscar-nominated but lost to Louise Fletcher in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Dog Day Afternoon (1975), Annie Hall (1977), 16 episodes of Taxi which earned her two Emmy Awards, The Princess Bride (1987), Scrooged (1988), My Blue Heaven (1990), and, of course, her first role, in the final sequence of Carnal Knowledge (1971) as Art Garfunkel's young hippie girlfriend) play his parents, loving but annoying and, therefore, a source of comedy. Supporting strength also comes from Alex Karpovsky (Ray on the series Girls), Kristen Schaal (Liz Lemon's nemesis Hazel on 30 Rock, Dinner for Schmucks, more), comedian Marc Maron, and an actual sleep disorder doctor named William Dement. This is not Birbiglia's first time onscreen, having acted in Cedar Rapids where I didn't notice him, Your Sister's Sister where I did, and one episode (so far) of Girls, among a few. He's now working on the screenplay based on his next one-man show, My Girlfriend's Boyfriend.

I looked for clips of the music by Andrew Hollander but googling sleepwalk with me soundtrack got clips from Birbiglia's one-man show. However one song from this movie and plenty of other work from Hollander is available on his website.

This indie movie is doing well and is moving around the country (here's a schedule) which is why I'm once again going out of order from my ever-growing list of movies yet unwritten. Do go see it and watch for Ira Glass' cameo as the wedding photographer.