Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Review: Don't Think Twice

by Adam Riske
Yes and...go see this movie.

This might be a bit of super-specific hyperbole, but I think with Don’t Think Twice writer-director-star Mike Birbiglia has made the definitive movie about improv comedy. Coming off of his feature debut Sleepwalk with Me (which took a similar look at the ground-level of stand-up comedy), the filmmaker has carved out a very interesting place for himself in modern cinema. He’s flat out making the best comedies about comedy around right now. He’s like Judd Apatow circa 1999, when he was producing autobiographical output like TV’s Freaks and Geeks. This has actually been a pretty good summer for independent cinema, and Don’t Think Twice may just be the best one yet. It’s refreshingly alive, urgent and involving in ways that put most of this summer’s movies to shame.

The film is an excellent multi-person character study, telling the story of a popular New York City improv troupe who are facing a period of transition where some of their comedy careers are about to flourish and the window on others is about to close. The troupe consists of Mike Birbiglia, Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Kate Micucci, Tami Sagher and Chris Gethard. They’re a wonderful ensemble and each have some great moments of insight and humor. This is a very funny comedy but it plays just as well as a drama. I think the movie will work for those who’ve never taken the stage to perform comedy or theater, but if you have, this movie will really hit home in a personal way.
Based on my experience, I found Don’t Think Twice to be very observant and insightful on its subject matter. It knows what it’s talking about. I used to perform improv comedy in Chicago (before I became a staff writer at F This Movie!) and it’s a period of my life I look back on with great fondness and nostalgia. I never “made it” performing improv comedy in any way, shape or form, but what I did take away from it was a great group of pals, most of whom are my best friends and ones I remain in touch with today. Don’t Think Twice gets that, and that’s what is most painful to the troupe in the film. It represents the end of their group. In the movie’s most heartbreaking bit of dialogue, Chris Gethard says something to the effect of (totally paraphrasing here) “In my life I’m a loser but I know that those people don’t know that when I go on stage, I kill it. Without improv, what am I? I’m just the loser.”

The film also has some very interesting things to say about comedy and hobbies in general, including the toll it takes on your hobby when you turn it into a career, when you realize that you are not the virtuoso performer you may have thought you were, the jealousy (as well as the support) within your respective peer group (e.g. comedians don’t laugh at other comedians – they’re ultra-competitive), etc. Plus, the movie is also a masterful skewering of Saturday Night Live. Some of the best moments of humor in Don’t Think Twice are the cutting observations it has of the long-running program, which, in this film, is thinly veiled as a show called Weekend Live. I also appreciate how the movie is knowledgeable enough to know that people get into improv for a number of different reasons: some to be part of a peer group, some to launch a career, some to get laid and others to feel a sense of self-worth. It’s rarely about wanting to make people laugh.

What I love most about the movie, though, is its heart. The character that touched me the most is Samantha played by the invaluable Gillian Jacobs. Her character started as a fan of the improv troupe (known as The Commune) who was then later asked to become a member. A large part of her life and identity are tied into The Commune and I could relate to that in a way to how I feel about F This Movie!, which is a site where I began as a fan and then was lucky enough to become a contributor. I found an affiliation here I didn’t have elsewhere. Ironically, I didn’t feel that way about improv comedy. I knew pretty decisively when I wanted to walk away and it was a decision I have not regretted.
Watching Don’t Think Twice was an emotional experience for me. It felt like looking back on a photo album to my own improv career and remembering all of the good times I had and, who knows, might one day feel compelled to return to. Improv comedy is most successful when it hones in on recognition -- nothing makes an audience laugh harder than seeing themselves in a character, a line reading or a joke. Don’t Think Twice was like watching the best improv show possible, one that is all recall to my own joys and insecurities. It plays like a bookend to one of my favorite movies, Saturday Night Fever, which is about style and the beginning of stepping into your dream life. Don’t Think Twice tells the story of the dream ending and knowing how to say goodbye with grace.

9 comments:

  1. I've never taken to the stage to perform comedy per se, but I love, love, love improv comedy with every fiber of my being. I love comedy in general, but something about the skill and talent it must take to come up with hilarious things out of thin air, and the fact that it's always fresh material, elevates my love for improv all the more. Hopefully my deep interest in the subject from a spectator's point of view will help me to connect very well with this movie! Sounds like fun! :)

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    1. It's so good, John! Definitely will make my top 10 for the year.

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    2. Excellent! I have a sneaking suspicion it will make mine as well, so I hope to see it soon to verify that! Thanks for bringing this to my attention with this awesome review! :)

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  2. This sounds great - I have a bit of a love/hate relationship with improv comedy. I've only done it as a dramatic exercise so I have a small bit of very low-stakes experience and mad respect for the actor-comedians that do it well - it takes a lot of skill and a quick mind - but I'm just such a fan of meticulously crafted and finely honed stand-up, that improv only kinda does it for me. It's good because it's on the fly but if you were writing it you'd probably throw 75% of it away. Sorry, don't mean to bag on it so much - again the people who do it are amazing and I can enjoy it, especially live.

    Big fan of Mike Birbiglia and pretty much everyone else in the cast so I'm sure I'll love the movie. And any movie in Adam Riske's Top 10 of the year is a friend of mine!

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    1. Improv is often very bad. I understand.

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    2. It can be, depending on the talent. But when it's great, I feel like it can be REALLY funny.

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  3. I finally got around to seeing it this weekend and I have some thoughts!

    I did not enjoy the movie as much as you did, Adam. It's flecked with really special moments, like Gillian Jacobs' final soliloquy about the well, but somehow this didn't all quite congeal for me.

    I think it stars with the ensemble. While the actors are all wonderful comedic talents, I couldn't shake this nagging feeling that they did not seem at all like friends or collaborators. The chemistry wasn't quite there, and that is really crucial for a movie that is about this specific thing and told in this specific way.

    Ironically enough, I think the movie could have done with a more loosely scripted and relaxed approach to dialogue in order to achieve this. Basically at no point did I think these people had been hanging out or talking before the camera began to roll.

    At a more substantive level, and I love Birbiglia very much, but this script was woefully literal at times. At one point a character says, out loud, "if I don't have improve, I don't have anything!" there are other moments like this that stood out in the moment, but I can't really recall now.

    But as you note, it has a real respect and adoration for its source material and it takes the stakes very seriously in a way that is rare in comedy these days. It's fine film, just fell a bit short of great for me.

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    1. Just wanted to reply back to the "if I don't have improve, I don't have anything!" line. Trust me, improvisers in real life say stupid shit like this at bars after practice/shows all the time. A lot of improvisers are overly dramatic. E.G. One night a guy I didn't like too much comes up to me and is like "I'm so worn out. I think I'm going to quit." Not knowing I was the wrong person to turn to for a shoulder to cry on I said "Ok. If you want to then you should quit." Then he goes "But I don't know, maybe I don't want to quit.." to which I answered "Look, I don't have time for this. If you want to do it, do it. If you don't, then don't."

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    2. If you've come here for sympathy you've come to the wrong place! Straight talking with Riske

      Ps and then end with the Killerpov quote "And Get off my lawn!"

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