This popped up on a recommended watch list and I'm a sucker or Thomas Middleditch and Nick Kroll. Its a fun comedy that hits you right in the feels. Everything feels right on point with real life and connects with you. Every connection feels real, and no interactions felt out of place in this movie. Not slapstick funny like "The Hangover", but takes a slightly more solemn humor and has plenty of real moments to make this feel far more engaging, even when the strippers show up. I didn't read any reviews prior, and I feel that the general synopsis written makes you think "Hangover + Parks and Rec + Silicon Valley + some general depression and solemness". This movie takes some rote comedic humor like bachelor party drugs and strippers, and you start to see the haze of depression slowly clear. But not because of the partying, but because of each other and the things they experienced together. All in all, this was a great movie that felt like a brief interlude of someone going through a tough time. I was still engaged and connected to several characters, but when characters didn't reappear and hold hands and make out at the end or else where, it felt OK. You don't know what happened and that's fine, because you're just along for the ride.
... View MoreI watched this with no prior knowledge of what it would be and was very pleasantly surprised. There's a great cast, all of whom I've seen and enjoyed in their various TV shows. The story is about a group of friends on a weekend retreat bonding after a traumatic event and it's mostly just conversations and mundane character interactions, usually involving drinking and drugs.Some of it was absolutely hilarious and some of it was very emotional, yet it all felt very real. It's not a mind blowing or deep film but it's brisk, fun and well acted. A great low key adult comedy! Definitely recommended.
... View MoreI haven't been more pleased with a modest indie this year as I was with the daringly (and misleadingly) named Joshy, starring some very bright funny young comic actors, including Silicon Valley's hero Thomas Middleditch.It's not a stretch to say that Middleditch holds Mike Judge's usual- spot-on-brilliance together on the HBO series, yet it's tempting to relegate him to playing a very good "young tech type". Jeff Baena's Joshy doesn't exactly discard that perception of Middleditch but it's a fantastic vehicle for the actor's emotional range.But this film isn't a one man show. It's a brilliant ensemble cast of (mostly) guys, drawn together after disparate periods apart from each other to support Josh (Middleditch) who's suffered a pre-marital setback that redefines Awkward. It's such a clever device that I won't reveal it, though it comes in the first five minutes of the film.Adam Pally, Alex Ross Perry, Nick Kroll, and Bret Gelman kill with rapid-fire, naturally delivered one-liners that perfectly capture their age, maturity-level (or lack thereof), time and place (Ojai, CA -- very now), and most importantly their relation to each other as well as their biases, fears, and prejudices. It's been said the key to all drama is conflict and it works even better for comedy here. All the guys in this film have a lot going on, much more than they'd disclose about what they're really thinking, about Josh's horrific plight and about each other. It's also refreshing to see a film about guys being guys in Tech Culture 2016 without resorting to some half-baked Big Bang Theory clone. Even better, the indestructible Jenny Slate and Aubrey Plaza join in to kick the feminine factor through the solar-paned roof. Joe Swanberg even shows up in a hilarious cameo, inadvertently toting his wife and kids to this weekend-long drug and booze-filled orgython.Most impressively, Joshy could even give the tired Mumblecore genre, where "nothing and everything happens" a good name again after some recent major-league misfires ("Results"). The flow of events in Joshy is, like its so-appalling-its-almost-funny McGuffin, so organically developed and executed that it almost seems plausible.And just when you think there may really be *no* point, Middleditch slam-dunks an extremely cathartic last act monologue that is pain-filled and hypnotic.I really did not expect this from the director of Life After Beth or I Heart Huckabees. It only makes Joshy all the more sweeter.
... View MoreFirst off let me say that there are a few good, but not great actors in this movie. Whom I like in other TV Shows and Movies. So I thought that I might like this one. I was sadly mistaken. This movie didn't seem to have a scripted. It was like a non-funny "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" episode. I'm guessing the director just gave the actors a bio on each of their characters and let them improvise their lines. It's an interesting concept that didn't work. I really wanted to like this movie. I honestly tried to keep an open mind. It was just a chaotic mess right from the first. There was no part in the movie that I found funny, humorous or slightly witty. Don't wast your time on this one.
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