DVD: Don’t Think Twice

By
Irv
– December 7, 2016Find Others: DVD, Movie, ReviewGet More: , ,

twicedvdSTUDIO: Universal | DIRECTOR: Mike Birbiglia | CAST: Mike Birbiglia, Keegan-Michael Key, Gillian Jacobs, Kate Micucci, Chris Gethard, Tami Saghner
RELEASE DATE: 12/6/16 | PRICE: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $19.96, DVD $14.96
BONUSES: featurettes, interviews, deleted scenes
 SPECS: NR | 74 min. | Comedy drama | 2.40:1 widescreen | Dolby Digital 5.1/DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 | French and Spanish subtitles

RATINGS (out of 5 dishes): Movie  | Audio | Video  | Overall

NPR fave comedian Mike Birbiglia returns to the director’s chair after the quirky, well received 2012 outing Sleepwalk with Me. The multi-hyphenate Birbiglia —he directs! he co-stars! he writes!—delivers a winner in Don’t Think Twice, which is more ambitious and more observantly funny than its predecessor.

The premise has Birbiglia as a member of a struggling New York City improvisational comedy group. The members find themselves uncomfortable and feeling betrayed when two of their own get an opportunity to find fame and fortune with an invitation to audition for a popular SNL-type network sketch comedy show called “Weekend Live.”

dont-think-twice1Anecdotal in nature and filled with hilariously insecure characters, Don’t Think Twice has  been one of the year’s  major indie film surprises, taking in an impressive $4 million in limited release. Birbiglia,  a veteran standup and contributor to the radio show “This American Life” (whose host, Ira Glass, co-produced here)  tackles a world he’s familiar with and gives it a fly-on-the-wall sense of realism while poking fun at it at the same time.

Helping the film succeed is the top-notch ensemble cast that showcases Keegan-Michael Key (Keanu), Gillian Jacobs (TV’s Community), Kate Micucci (When in Rome) and Chris Gethard (The Angriest Man in Brooklyn), as well as some nifty cameos by actors playing themselves.

With a title that may have been inspired by the Bob Dylan song, this is a small film that provides lots of chuckles and some big laughs as it surveys the foibles of folks hanging on –-often, just barely–in the lower rungs of show biz. In other words, Don’t Think Twice is more than just alright.

 

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About Irv

Irv Slifkin has been reviewing movies since before he got kicked off of his high school radio station for panning The Towering Inferno in 1974. He has written the books VideoHound’s Groovy Movies: Far-Out Films of the Psychedelic Era and Filmadelphia: A Celebration of a City’s Movies, and has contributed film reportage and reviews to such outlets as Entertainment Weekly, The Hollywood Reporter, Video Business magazine and National Public Radio.