Jack and I liked a lot this story of a frustrated middle-aged actor and his friends looking for work in New York. With a distinguished cast headed by Gabriel Byrne and including Nathan Lane and Frances Conroy, it's funny and a little sentimental in a good way. Over ten years ago Amy and I met Byrne when I was consulting on a script that didn't get made. He's a bit of a sentimental guy in person, too. Some of my favorites of his work are Siesta (1987), Miller's Crossing (1990), Cool World (1992), Into the West (1992), The Usual Suspects (1995), and Wah-Wah (2005). Of Lane's film and TV resumé, the standouts are The Lion King (1994), The Birdcage (1996), Trixie (2000), The Producers (2005), Modern Family, The Good Wife, and The People vs. O.J. Simpson (in the last two he barely cracks a smile). We also just saw him onstage in the revival of The Front Page. Frances Conroy was last blogged for Stone.
Director Lee Wilkof, a middle-aged actor who gets lots of work (94 credits!), makes his directing debut with this picture and has a cameo as an auditioning actor who makes loud, annoying vocalizations in the waiting room. Ethan Sandler is an actor and producer making his feature screenwriting debut.
Craig Richey, no novice, has composed for a number of projects, including two of my favorites by Nicole Holofcener, Lovely & Amazing (2001) and Friends with Money (2006). The soundtrack doesn't seem to be available online but here's a sampler of his movie work and a list of the other songs.
This is in limited release so very few people have seen this yet. We went to a premiere last week. The six critics on Rotten Tomatoes who wrote about it average 83%. Googling it without quotation marks leads to some unsavory results so search only for "no pay nudity." The title refers to the kind of jobs an out-of-work actor can get.
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