DON’T THINK TWICE (2016)

It’s fun to see a niche community represented in a movie almost always. It provides some patois that’s excited and educational.

The film moves nicely with some heartfelt moments, but unfortunately you’re not sure if the character’s hearts are the right place.

It sort of felt like the story should have been the exact same, but everyone in the movie should have been 10 years younger. Not only would the story make a bit more sense, but the immature behavior of the characters would make more sense. They all seemed a bit selfish, which is excusable (see: Seinfeld) but what I struggled with is some of their motivations.

In particular, they all seemed a little naive. Naive in the sense that the naivete was written into the story to drive conflict. Each character is a sort of less savvy version of a friend you’d find in your own life. You get the dream writing gig? Hey here’s my script.

There are a few moments like this that seem a little under-developed and make me wish the characters were portrayed a bit smarter.

In that way it felt a bit sketch-y. Characters acting how they needed to serve the story rather than who they might have been as people. It’s a tough problem to crack given the tone — somewhere between comedy and drama. Though I think this is the problem with a lot of modern comedies, the inclusion of characters acting to serve the plot over themselves — it leads to a weird tone and rings as untrue simultaneously.

What the movie did have going is some nice charming moments. The pace and cinematography felt appropriate, and some nice moments captured of their improv (although obviously scripted in this case).

In the end they all seem to reside to doing improv in a small theater in Philly. This was ultimately unsatisfying because it was the final departure from any heart or realism that was left. In reality, each of these characters should have moved on — in the end it actually seems like they’re back where they started — together, broke, not famous. Rather than chase the dream of success they seem to have resigned to continue with improv in obscurity. Nice as a tribute to the art form of improv but leads to some head scratching as far as character development.

For a movie about characters I just wish I bough into these a bit more.