Movie Review

Don't Think Twice gives some thought to often difficult world of comedy

From the outside, the comedy world seems brutal. Stand-up and improv comedians usually work late hours for little pay, all in pursuit of a big break that may never come.

Anyone who sticks with it for a long time without big success is either extremely committed to the craft or somewhat delusional about his or her talent.

People on both sides of that divide populate Don’t Think Twice, which follows a New York City improv troupe called The Commune. The sextet — Jack (Keegan-Michael Key), Samantha (Gillian Jacobs), Miles (Mike Birbiglia), Bill (Chris Gethard), Allison (Kate Micucci), and Lindsay (Tami Sagher) — have been together for years, with the goal for all of them to be picked for the cast of Weekend Live, an obvious stand-in for Saturday Night Live.

When only two of them are invited to audition for the show, cracks start to form in the group’s normally tight bond. When only one is chosen, those cracks become bigger and bigger, eventually threatening not only the group’s survival, but also their friendships.

Written and directed by Birbiglia, the film has its fair share of laughs, but it’s also filled with a good amount of sadness and awkwardness. Each member of the group has had such a single-minded pursuit for so long that the realization that they might not make it after all hits them hard, in a variety of ways.

Birbiglia does an excellent job of showing just how tight the group is, so when they start to fracture, it feels very impactful. Anyone who’s been part of a good group of friends can relate to the way changes big and small affect the chemistry. As Birbiglia shows, it can often be subtle things that lead to positive or negative effects, especially in a group that likes to crack jokes as often as this group does.

The entire group of actors will be familiar to anyone with a good knowledge of comedy world, and the characters’ stories seem to mirror those of the actors portraying them. That mixture works well for the movie, as each actor seems to draw on personal experience to give the character extra depth. It doesn’t hurt that each of them can easily draw a guffaw.

Don’t Think Twice is a fun, poignant, and sometimes difficult-to-take look at the intricacies of the comedy world and the difficulty of maintaining friendships.

Cast of Don't Think Twice.

Cast of Don't Think Twice

Photo courtesy of Jon Pack

Cast of Don't Think Twice.

Movie Review

Daniel Craig searches for elusive new bond in audacious film Queer

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer

Photo courtesy of A24

Drew Starkey and Daniel Craig in Queer.

As recently as the late 2010s, if a movie was made about an LGBTQ+ character, it was more than likely about their coming out experience. Romance, if it existed, was typically chaste, and actual sex was almost completely out of the question. Things have changed dramatically in the 2020s, to the point that a major movie star has no issue starring in a film called Queer.

Based on the 1985 novella by William S. Burroughs, the film features William Lee (Daniel Craig), whom everyone calls just Lee, a writer living in 1950s-era Mexico City who spends most of his time haunting local bars with friends like fellow writer Joe Guidry (Jason Schwartzman) and hitting on younger men. His early interactions in the film seem to indicate that Lee has a bad reputation within the local gay community, as multiple people avoid him or give him odd looks.

Lee senses an opportunity when he encounters a newcomer, Eugene Allerton (Drew Starkey). Despite some awkward interactions, the two of them start spending time together, although Lee has much more invested in the relationship than Eugene does. Their hit-and-miss bond continues until Lee, who’s starting to get into drugs in addition to the booze, convinces Eugene to accompany him on a trip to South America.

Directed by Luca Guadagnino and written by Justin Kuritzkes (making their second straight film together after Challengers), early on the film seems to be mostly about the divide between an older person who’s grown comfortable in his ways and a younger person who’s living a relatively carefree life. The introduction of drugs into the plot changes things, though, with Lee searching out more ways to open his eyes to what the world has to offer.

Guadagnino and his team use some interesting visual storytelling techniques to introduce ideas that may not be present in the actual script. The most successful, demonstrated in multiple scenes, is the superimposition of movements by Lee over what’s actually taking place in the scene. The subtle overlay gives the audience insight into Lee’s true feelings, showing what he can’t or won’t say out loud.

Music also plays a big part in how the plot is perceived, with the use of anachronistic songs from Nirvana and Prince serving to heighten certain moments. The score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is not as in-your-face as the one they did for Challengers, but it complements the film well, especially when the plot starts to get trippy in its final half hour.

Craig, who appears sweaty and disheveled for much of the film, is about as far from the suaveness of James Bond as you can get in this role. He takes multiple risks with his performance and almost all of them pay off. Starkey’s character is subdued by comparison, but still comes off well. Schwartzman and Lesley Manville are given showy roles, with both using altered appearances that make them nearly unrecognizable to deliver memorable performances.

Queer is not as accessible as Challengers was storytelling-wise, but the fact that it tells a story about gay men living their lives as they see fit with no interference or questions shows how far the film world has come in a short period of time. It also continues Guadagnino’s streak of making audacious films in a way that few other filmmakers are willing or able to approach.

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Queer is now playing in theaters.

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