Jack and I cringed but liked the ever-dependable Kristen Wiig in this story of a narcissist who uses her lottery winnings to finance a TV show that's all about herself. Wiig's Best Actress nomination from the Gotham Awards and the movie's win for Top Ten Independents from the National Board of Review are what drew us to it and it's certainly quirky. Wiig (last blogged for The Martian) is joined by Linda Cardellini (I had quit watching ER when she joined the cast, but enjoyed her work on Freaks and Geeks (1999-2000), nine episodes of Mad Men, and three of New Girl), Joan Cusack (after I wrote about her in The Perks of Being a Wallflower she's been a force and a farce on the Showtime series Shameless--the new season is starting up any day now, maybe even tonight!), James Marsden (most recently in The Butler), Wes Bentley (the star of American Beauty (1999), he was also in Interstellar but I didn't mention him), and Tim Robbins (won an Oscar for Mystic River (2003) and I liked him in Bull Durham (1998), The Player (1992), Bob Roberts (1992), Short Cuts (1993), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), I.Q. (1994), Dead Man Walking (1995), Cradle Will Rock (1999), High Fidelity (2000), Human Nature (2001), among others) as her psychiatrist. Narcissism may have been her diagnosis, unless it was borderline personality disorder.
This is the second feature for director Shira Piven, who is the sister of Jeremy and the wife of Adam McKay. She works here from a script by Eliot Laurence, in his feature debut after writing 14 episodes of The Big Gay Sketch Show (2006-08).
The original score is by Tim's brother David Robbins (covered in Buck) but I don't remember it because we streamed it three weeks ago on Netflix. There are a lot of songs on this youtube playlist, if you like.
The critics at 72% liked it a lot better than the audiences at 46 on Rotten Tomatoes. It's a must-see for Wiig fans and those with patience for cringe. The rest of you can skip it.
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