Jack and I really liked this cringe-inducing comedy about a father, played by Ben Stiller, verging on a nervous breakdown while taking his son college visiting. If that doesn't make you want to run screaming from the room, you might like it too.
Stiller (after I wrote about him for While We're Young he had a cameo in Don't Think Twice) is a master at playing neurotic and narcissistic and this is no exception. Jenna Fischer's (best known for 188 episodes of the American version of The Office, she has dozens of other credits, including all ten episodes of You, Me and the Apocalypse and three of The Mysteries of Laura, to name just a few) Melanie is a nice foil to Brad's intensity as his easy-going optimistic wife, and Austin Abrams (at age 21 he's got a number of credits but I don't think I've seen any) is a strong, silent type as son Troy.
Brad's old college buddies, all wealthy, inspire much jealousy even though Brad has chosen to work in nonprofits. Michael Sheen, Jemaine Clement, and Luke Wilson (last blogged for Home Again, The BFG, and The Skeleton Twins, respectively) are great as those men.
Director/writer Mike White (covered in my blog post for Beatriz at Dinner, which he wrote) makes his feature directing debut here after six episodes of Enlightened and a TV movie and onscreen plays another now-wealthy college buddy.
We saw this over three weeks ago but I think we liked the music by Mark Mothersbaugh (scored Beatriz) but, like that soundtrack, none is available online. Here's a partial list of songs.
Clearly, most of Rotten Tomatoes' critics didn't want to run screaming from the room, averaging 81% instead of its audiences who were edging towards the exits at 59. As an Amazon production, it's likely to be found on some of your streaming devices soon.
No comments:
Post a Comment