namashi_1 In 2016's mesmerizing Comedy-Drama 'Don't Think Twice', Writer-Director-Actor Mike Birbiglia asks us a very vital questions: Are Our Dreams Ready For Us? By ready I mean, are the dreamers going to accomplish their dreams or is just an imagination of their minds? For Birbiglia, its uncertain. And interestingly enough, Birbiglia has made a film that's nothing less a triumph in terms of storytelling.'Don't Think Twice' Synopsis: When a member of a popular New York City improv troupe gets a huge break, the rest of the group - all best friends - start to realize that not everyone is going to make it after all.'Don't Think Twice' is about dreams, dreamers & the part of destiny & luck doing its job. No one in this world is born without skill, courage or determination, and the characters here, an amusingly lovable improv troupe from NYC, are shown as dreamers with talent. But, as luck chooses its opportunists, only one of them, actually makes the cut. And its sad what happens here, but not all of it. Triumph in life is usually waived by the amount of money & fame you can make for yourself (not only in showbiz), but at times, when the dreams aren't materializing in reality, you look on the gift on looking at the gifts you have left: To Be You!Birbiglia is up for top-honors. 'Don't Think Twice' is a bitingly great film, whose nakedness on life & dreams, is of high-order. Birbiglia's Screenplay is super strong, while his Direction, is extremely arresting. The Cinematography & The Edit, merit a special mention.Performance-Wise: Birbiglia does well as an actor as well. Clearly, the man has excelled in all the roles he's put himself in! Keegan-Michael Key is nicely restrained. Gillian Jacobs is outstanding. She's at her best here! Kate Micucci, Tami Sagher and Chris Gethard, also deliver magnificently. Others lend excellent support.On the whole, 'Don't Think Twice' takes a piece out of you & stays in your mind long after it concludes. How many films do that? Don't Think, Just Watch It!

NormanCroucher A mumblecore-style comedy drama about dealing with the success of your peers while you struggle on. This is a distinctly thirtysomething dilemma, where your youth is already lagging behind you but you haven't quite given up on trying to attain the ideal life you want for yourself.As with any kind of mumblecore movie - where the focus is on characters interacting in seemingly improvised scenes and creating natural conversational rhythms - it has a triviality to the whole experience as it tries to mine something profound from relatively insubstantial material. Yet somehow, 'Don't Think Twice' does resonate beyond its small cinematic ambitions because all the characters of the improv acting troupe are likable people and feel real in all of their insecurities and eccentricities, while also maintaining a funny and believable group dynamic. This is a character piece made up of selected moments with a thin but defined plot taking us through the various assortment of situations.Writer/director Mike Birbiglia has clearly allowed for his own cast to improvise through many of the scenes. Usually, films that are made up of scenes where actors go off-book to create their own moments end up feel meandering and indulgent - yes Paul Feig and Judd Apatow I'm talking about you two cufflinks - but due to the subject matter at play, it not only makes complete sense for this particular film but it also helps to make Birbiglia's disjointed drop-in/drop-out narrative-style all the more involving.It's a must-see for anyone who works in the arts, in whatever capacity, but it might also appeal to anyone who has ever seen fracture lines appear in their friendship groups as a result of growing up and growing apart. There's an insightful honesty at play here and when it's not plucking on those painful chords of truth, it's just a charming and absorbing story about friendship, failure and success.

CANpatbuck3664 *Minor Spoilers Ahead* This movie centres around an improv comedy troupe named the Commune. The group is comprised of Jack (Keegan Michael-Key), Samantha (Gillian Jacobs), Miles (Mike Birbiglia), Lindsay (Tami Saghar)and Allison (Kate Micucci). They do their shows out of a theatre that's closing down. Admission for the shows are cheap but they seem to genuinely love what they do. Most of the members of the group have been at this awhile, they're all in their 30s and they're all hitting the point where they're wondering if they should move on. After a show, Jack and Samantha get a call to audition for Weekend Live (an alternative version of Saturday Night Live). Since they're in a relationship, they prepare for it together but when the big day comes, Jack kills his audition and Samantha panics and doesn't show up for hers. Jack gets the job and struggles to balance his new life and keep his relationships with his friends.This movie can be looked at two different ways because its a drama disguised as a comedy. What this movie gets right is the dramatic aspects. This is a grounded and sweet story and I was impressed that the movie maintained that sense of realism throughout. They drew realistic characters and when those characters came into conflict, it didn't feel forced and the fallout didn't stretch how believable the plot felt. Although these characters aren't always fun to follow (they're easy to like but Jack's ascension coupled with his friends failure brings out the worse in them) I liked them all to varying degrees. This movie is ultimately about the nature of friendship and change and it seemed like it rang pretty true in the end.My problem with this movie is that it reminds me a lot of the Adam Sandler & Seth Rogen movie Funny People. When I say that, I mean that this is a movie about comedians that isn't very funny. I could count the times that I laughed during this on one hand. So much of the humour is done through their skits and their improv shows and it feels like you're missing the context for the jokes. It's like constantly listening to in-jokes and not having been there to understand why they're funny. So they nail one part and miss on the other, in my opinion it could be worse.I don't have a ton of notes about the acting. I think that everyone performed well, it's interesting that comedians tend to be decent dramatic actors. They continue that tradition here, they sell what the movie needs them to sell and the cast is more than competent in their respective roles. I don't mean to diminish their work but this is more of an ensemble movie and they're collectively solid without many especially strong or weak performances in the bunch.I'm glad this movie got some critical acclaim but it never reached that next level for me. To me, this is ultimately a small movie that hits its mark. I'd heard lots of good stuff about Mike Birbiglia going in and I walked away impressed with his work. I feel like this movie could have been made by someone like the Duplass brothers and I mean that as a compliment. If you're interested in seeing this, I'd still recommend it but I would also recommend tempering expectations.

Veteransson Don't think twice follows the lives of a group of actors playing in an improv group in New York City. They're not just colleagues, but have formed a friendship and together, sitting on and around the same couch they watch Weekend Live (read Saturday Night Live) and hope to one day become part of the talented pool of people working on the TV show. When one member of the group gets picked up by Weekend Live, the groups' friendship is put at the test.Trying to make it is the central theme of this movie. Writer, director and actor Mike Birbiglia successfully depicts the motivation behind this inner desire to make it in the comedy business, which helps you understand why some feelings of jealousy arise when that one person actually makes it. When the subject comes up, you can feel the tension in the air, you can feel that some friends simply don't grant this person his/her success. What makes this movie great is that we actually understand these feelings of jealousy. The other members aren't jealous for the sake of being jealous, they start to realize they might not make it after all, maybe they aren't good enough, they start to question their future.Throughout the entire movie, you feel like you're watching real people and not just characters. This is thanks to the great directing, writing and acting of the entire cast. The most interesting character was the one Birbiglia plays himself, Miles. He's an improv teacher and there are some great contradictions between his life and passion for improv. He has a routine life, comes back home with the same kind of girls, tells the same joke to each one of them and seems to be stuck in his routine. There's everything but improvisation in his life. Watching his character develop and handle his frustrations was an interesting aspect of the movie. Birbiglia's talent as a writer becomes again very clear in a scene near the end of the movie, between Jack and Samantha (Keegan- Michael Key and Gillian Jacobs), that has a lot of emotional power and contains some clever double meaning. Unfortunately, there are also some flatter characters that didn't add much to the movie. Some dialogues and scenes didn't build the character they intended to do. Also, the ending of the movie worked, made sense, but somehow felt too easyNevertheless, 'Don't Think Twice' is a wrongfully overlooked movie because it's so relatable to anyone with a dream. Making it isn't a given and realizing it might as well never happen can be devastating. On the other hand, as one character shows, some people don't have to make it to be happy.