Girl Most Likely (2012)

We liked this story of a woman moving home to New Jersey when her glamorous NYC life doesn't pan out. Most reviewers said we wouldn't. They stink, as usual. With a terrific cast, plenty of jokes and quirky characters, and, okay, a few lags in timing, it entertained us fine. Kristen Wiig (last blogged in Friends with Kids) plays the lead Imogene (the movie was originally titled Imogene) as the insecure wreck crawling her way up from the bottom. Annette Bening's (most recently in Ginger & Rosa) Zelda, with a spot-on Jersey accent, lights up her every scene. Matt Dillon (Oscar-nominated for Crash (2004); I also liked him in My Bodyguard (1980), The Outsiders (1983), Rumble Fish (1983), Drugstore Cowboy (1989), To Die For (1995), Grace of My Heart (1996), Drugstore Cowboy (1989), There's Something About Mary (1998), and Factotum (2005), among others) also brings humor as the ridiculous George "The Bouche." We kept looking at Darren Criss, who plays the boarder, and wondering why he looked and sounded so familiar. Turns out he played Blaine, Kurt's boyfriend, on 58 episodes of Glee back when we were still watching it. Mickey Sumner (Frances Ha) has a cameo as one of the bitchy New York socialites, and I might not mention her except for the fact that her mother Trudie Styler is one of the 19 producers (hence the producers plethora tag). And also that many have compared the plots of Girl Most Likely and Frances Ha.

Directed by the married couple Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (directors/writers of American Splendor (2003), which earned them an Oscar nomination for the adapted screenplay, and The Nanny Diaries (2007), among others), written by Michelle Morgan (new to me, she apparently has a cameo in the movie but I didn't catch it), edited by Pulcini, this has lots of 1990s pop music hits, including one sung by Criss. The rest of the soundtrack is by Rob Simonsen (All Good Things) but you probably won't remember it.

Rottentomatoes' critics' average fell a point to 15% from Saturday to Sunday, yet in the video near the bottom of the squidoo page, shot at the movie's Toronto Film Festival premiere, the audience is cheering both before and after. This might be explained by audiences averaging 65% on rottentomatoes. If you want to read a slightly less stinky review, here's Ella Taylor's from NPR.

Because of the haters, we don't expect this to last long in theatres. Janice signaled a big thumbs down across the room to us this afternoon. Jack and I disagree. It was fun.