By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.4
Director: Lake Bell
Starring: Alexandra Holden | Demetri Martin | Eva Longoria | Ken Marino | Lake Bell | Rob Corddry
Country: united_states
Year: 2013
Running time: 93
IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2294677/reference
Jason says: “Funny thing; even when trailers starting with ‘in a world…’ supposedly happened all the time, I don’t ever recall hearing it enough to snicker when it did show up. Still, the very fact that people act like it was ubiquitous makes it a good title for a comedy set in the competitive world of voice-over narration – the audience knows exactly what it’s about when they hear the name. It’s a shame, then, that the movie itself doesn’t always seem quite so clear on what it’s trying to accomplish.
“While the voice most of us identify with movie previews belonged to Don LaFontaine, In a World… gives us Sam Sotto (Fred Melamed) as the clear #2 and heir to LaFontaine’s throne. His daughter Carol Solomon (Lake Bell) lives in his house is sort of in the same business, working as a dialect coach since she has a fantastic ear for accents. With Sam’s much-younger girlfriend Jamie (Alexandra Holden) moving in, Carol winds up crashing with her sister Dani (Michaela Watkins) and her husband Moe (Rob Corddry). She also winds up getting a couple of voice-over jobs, and may be in a position to get the most coveted job of all – a trailer for an adaptation of a hot series of young-adult novels, previously expected to go to Sam’s protégé Gustav Warner (Ken Marino), where those three words will be used for the first time since LaFontaine’s death.
“That may seem like a small and silly thing to fixate on, but that’s what makes it potentially such great material for a comedy: It practically guarantees eccentricity from its characters, puts them in odd situations, and the very fact that what they’re gunning for is so seemingly trivial makes the lengths that people will go to achieve it even funnier. Writer/director/star Bell seems to get that most of the time, especially as she loads up the film with truly oddball characters. Carol ‘collects’ accents and practically has her hair stand up on end whenever she hears a grown woman talking like a teen valley girl (especially Jamie), Gustav is bizarrely self-centered, and everyone at the recording studio where she works is full of people who would be misfits anywhere else – including and especially sweetly awkward sound engineer Louis (Demetri Martin). It’s an ensemble with a lot of potential.
“The voice-over stuff is amusingly quirky enough that I wish Bell had stuck closer to it. For instance, Dani & Moe are great supporting characters – Watkins and Corddry bounce off each other and Bell as nicely as you please – but spending a lot of time on their flirtations which lead to jealousy and so on and so forth, especially when Carol’s story seems to be running in place, isn’t that great an idea. There are times when Sam and Gustav cross the line from self-centered to just really awful in ways that need to be addressed more directly than they are. Also, Bell only occasionally takes advantage of her actual facility for accents and vocal patterns – for as much as this is what her character is supposed to be good at and as much as the movie is about choosing how to communicate, that sort of thing should come up much more often.
“That’s a bit of a rookie mistake; this is Bell’s first feature as a writer/director, and there are a few of those. Like a scene where she’s got Carol trying to surreptitiously record someone with what is by today’s standards a pretty large microcassette recorder, and the joke seems to be that she’s being really obvious about it… and then there’s no punchline until later, when it’s suddenly a weird obsolete thing again. The last act jams a bunch of ideas together in ways that don’t quite fit so that they frequently come across as things that have to happen rather than payoffs. It’s a shame, because Bell’s individual gags are often quite funny; she just needs to get them pulling in the same direction.
“She’s at least got the knack for selling these gags on-screen, as does the rest of the cast. She’s got a leg up by having wrote the script, but she does well in making Carol confident in the right places and having them fit hand-in-glove with when she’s not; she also does a lot better than many people writing and directing themselves in keeping vanity out of the performance. She’s also generous, giving a lot of the really funny material to her co-stars. Fred Melamed may mostly be cast because he does have a ridiculously great voice for the part, but the way he runs with Sam’s over-the-top pride in it is what makes him funny. Ken Marino’s voice isn’t quite on that level, but he’s very good at playing Gustav as being as much a weirdo as a jerk. Michaela Watkins is a near-perfect fit as Carol’s sister, and Rob Corddry is at his most appealing and funny as her husband. Demetri Martin’s Louis initially looks a bit young to be a legitimate love interest rather than just having a crush, but it’s something that works as the movie goes on. A lot of people do well in smaller roles – Alexandra Holden, Tig Notaro, Nick Offeman, Geena Davis – with perhaps the funniest of these bits going to a self-deprecating Eva Longoria.
“She’s a great sport, as are a number of other people who pop up in the movie. It’s got a fair number of funny bits that it spreads around nicely, and on the whole more gags probably work than don’t. I wish they all came together a little better, because despite it being a fun milieu, I don’t know if anyone will every make another comedy in this particular world. 3 cats
“Seen 30 April 2013 in Coolidge Corner Theatre #1 (Independent Film Festival Boston, digital)”
Chris says: “Since she’s so likable, your first instinct is to applaud Lake Bell simply for writing, directing and starring in a quirky comedy with a novel theme—in this case, the cut-throat competitive milieu of movie trailer voiceover actors (a la the late Don LaFontaine, famous for the dramatic, Voice-of-God phrase that provides the film’s title). Carol (Bell) is a gifted vocal coach forever living in the shadow of her father, Sam (Fred Melamed, nearly as exquisitely smarmy here as he was in A SERIOUS MAN), an industry veteran gunning to become the next LaFontaine. Gustav (Ken Marino) is also in the running for this mantle, but his sense of entitlement exemplifies the industry’s sexism when Carol emerges as a new talent and starts getting jobs that would have previously gone to him.
“As amusing as this all sounds on paper, in practice it turns out to be a rather thin concept. Bell is an adept comedienne (she honed her chops (along with Marino) as a cast member of the surreal, medical drama satire series ‘Children’s Hospital’) and via her connections in comedic circles, she’s gathered a strong, funny ensemble (including Rob Corddry, Nick Offerman, Tig Notaro, Demetri Martin and, in a sharp cameo, the long-MIA Geena Davis). Still, IN A WORLD… feels as slight as the ephemeral medium it spoofs: fitfully entertaining, but you’ll barely remember it after the closing credits roll. It’s the sort of film you’ll probably see perpetually airing on Comedy Central as breezy time-slot filler for years to come—not necessarily a bad thing, but I sense Bell is capable of more than that if she develops her directing chops a bit. 3 cats
(This film screened at the 2013 Independent Film Festival of Boston)”
Diane says: I was really disappointed by IN A WORLD…., Lake Bell’s flick about a woman breaking into the male-dominated trailer voiceover industry. Written by, directed by, and starring Bell as Carol, the misfit daughter of the number one voice.
“Biggest complaint: way too many plot lines. I could imagine many scenes that must have been cut, that would have made full sense of all the background stories–and a five-hour movie. For instance, nothing is made of the fact that the man who’s after Carol’s sister is the producer of the movie Carol is reading for. Bell doesn’t have the discipline to edit for a stronger story.
“There was disappointingly little about voiceover work, and that was unrealistic. (You find out you got the job when you see the trailer?) Main characters are immature and uninteresting, relationships are simplistic, and some key plot turns hinge on great coincidences. 2 cats (because it looked good and there were a few laughs).
“Amybody else?”
Jason responds: “I wasn’t particularly fond of it at IFFBoston; I found it frustrating that they had a pretty unique setting and didn’t do much with it (funny thing: the trailer played before something a week or so ago, and the only laugh it got from the audience was Bell breaking out the sexy baby voice), and I found the mixed messages in the finale frustrating. It’s cute, and I’m probably positive about it on balance, but I found it kind of surprising that Bell didn’t do more with her voice, because it’s apparently something she loves doing as well as being a skill she probably won’t get many other chances to break out.”
TC says: “Kim and I are sometimes of the mindset that Sundance praised and hyped movies are overrated (PRECIOUS and LIKE CRAZY being two recent examples of Sundance monsters that left us totally flat, the latter despite the formidable, always winning presence of Anton Yelchin). But this year’s crop of buzzed-about films we’ve seen has been excellent, and we thought IN A WORLD… was worthy of the buzz and top notch entertainment.
“Kim and I have followed the voiceover world for years, and thought that this somewhat satirical look at the goings-in behind the scenes was a riot. True, the ending was kind of a mixed-message cop-out, but the contest part of it was totally believable to us. The cast had great chemistry all the way around, particularly Lake Bell with everyone she interacted with – Rob Corddray as her sort of brother-in-law, Fred Melamed as her obnoxious, egotistical, and overbearing father, and especially Demitri Martin as her producer turned boyfriend – I love Martin as an actor and wish he would do more. And the role for Nick Offerman that amounted to little more than a cameo was hilarious, and for me that says a lot, as I’m not one of his biggest fans. Ditto Eva Longoria, who had no problem making fun of herself and making it really funny. We also loved the secondary plot-line where the sisters are worried about dad’s new young girlfriend, and we were totally prepared to hate Alexandra Holden’s character, and were pleasantly surprised when she turned out to be not just likeable but arguably the most sane person in the whole group of characters. We both thought Lake deserved the screenplay award she won at Sundance, and can’t wait to see more from her as writer/director/producer, as she’s been a favorite of ours for years, so much so that her work on this film put her at #3 Female on this year’s PNR Rising Stars Honors list in July.
“We both gave it an ‘A’ on Subject:CINEMA a couple weeks ago, so that would round out to 4.5 cats.”