THE BIG SICK: A Delight Through And Through

Now playing at many indie art houses, and opens wide Friday at many multiplexes:

THE BIG SICK (Dir. Michael Showalter, 2017)

This is one of the most buzzed about independent movies this summer, and it’s for good reason because it’s a real charmer.

It’s not your typical rom com as it’s a love story with an autobiographical bent, and it mixes in a considerable amount of emotional drama between its abundance of laughs.

The film concerns Pakistani Kumail Nanjiani, best known for his role as acerbic programmer Dinesh on HBO’s Silicon Valley, as a stand-up comedian/Uber driver who falls for Zoe Kazan as a woman based on Nanjiani’s wife, Emily V. Gordon.

Gordon, who hails from Winton Salem in my home state, North Carolina, and Nanjiani co-wrote the screenplay which depicts their early relationship when begins when Kazan’s Emily heckles Kumail during his act at a small Chicago comedy club. Actually she yells “Whoo!” but, as Kumail explains to her at the bar later, “heckling doesn’t have to be a negative.”

The two hit it off and hook up that night while watching THE NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD back at his place that he shares with fellow comedian Kurt Braunohler. Emily and Kumail, despite that she says she’s too busy studying to be a therapist, begin dating, while his parents (Anupam Kher and Zenobia Shroff) try to set him up in an arranged marriage.

Emily discovers this when she comes upon a cigar box of headshots of the many Muslim women that are vying for his hand (“Are you judging Pakistan’s ‘Next Hot Model?’), and after an emotional argument they break up. 

Shorty after, Kumail learns that Emily is in the hospital and has to be put into a medically induced coma, and he waits with her parents (Holly Hunter and Ray Romano) who he’s never met before, and who know that the couple is broken up. Awkward!

Gradually Kumail and Emily’s folks bond with them even attending one of his stand-up slots. The scene turns ugly when a frat boy douche yells “go back to Isis” at Kumail, and Hunter’s character Beth goes off on him.

Since we know that in real life Emily came out of the coma, it’s no spoiler to say that that’s what happens here, but I’ll refrain from going further about the plot.

Nanjiani makes for a witty, likable lead who can hold his own in the well executed dramatic moments that dominate the second half of the film. Kazan is equally appealing, quickly quipping through the couple’s courting and effectively exhibiting more layers during her recovery. Although she spends the bulk of the film motionless in a hospital bed, Kazan shows in her awake scenes that she’s no “manic pixie dream girl” (Nathan Rabin™), and the chemistry between her and Nanjiani is palpable.

Hunter and Ramano nail their parts as Emily’s concerned parents, and there are short but sweet turns by the supporting cast including SNL’s Aidy Bryant, Bo Burnham, and Braunohler as Kumail’s fellow comedian friends, and Kher (a Bollywood legend who’s been in 500 films) Shroff, and Adeel Akhtar as Kumail’s brother.

THE BIG SICK is a very amusing and heartwarming love story that proves that there’s life left in rom coms. The genre appears to have died out at the multiplexes, but with help from producer Judd Apatow, this indie refreshens the formula. As I’ve written on this blog before, director Michael Showalter in such films as THE BAXTER and THEY CAME TOGETHER, seems to have a thing about deconstructing rom com tropes, but it appears that he’s best here and in his last film, HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS, when he keeps the narrative grounded in relatable reality.

This is Showalter’s best film, the best comedy I’ve seen this year, and a winner all around for Nanjiani and Gordon and everyone involved. It’s a big success at my local indie art house, the Rialto, where I work part time, as I’ve heard a lot of loud laughter from the crowded theater every time it screens. A delight through and through.

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HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS: A Pleasant Surprise

HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS

(Dir. Michael Showalter, 2015)

Many film fans will never forget Sally Field’s speech upon winning her second Oscar back in 1985. A giddy Field told the audience that getting the gold meant “so much more” to her than her previous win, and after thanking her family and fellow cast members from A PLACE IN THE HEART, she thanked the voters and concluded that “I can't deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!”

It was a moment that was embarrassing, yet endearing at the same time. Field’s new film, HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS, her first starring role in a decade, has the very same effect.

It’s the second directorial effort by Michael Showalter, who comedy fans know from such cult works as the ‘90s MTV sketch series The State and the much loved camp satire WED HOT AMERICAN SUMMER. Judging by his first film, 2005’s THE BAXTER, and his co-writing credit on David Wain’s 2014 spoof THEY CAME TOGETHER, Showalter has a thing about deconstructing rom com tropes, but here he plays it relatively straight.

Field plays the titular Doris Miller, a 60something-aged mousy, bee-hive haired, cat-eye glasses wearing accountant in a hip New York fashion company who falls for the new art director, John Fremont, portrayed by Max Greenfield, best known as Schmidt on the Fox sitcom New Girl.

Doris finds herself having Ally McBeal-ish daydreams about John, and, with the help of her best friend's (Tyne Daly) granddaughter (Isabella Acres), sets up a fake Facebook page so she can cyberstalk him.

Doris’ life is in a state of transition as her mother, who she’d had been taking care of for decades has recently passed, and her brotherTodd (Stephen Root), and his snippy wife Cynthia (Wendi McLendon-Covey) want to her to sell the family’s cluttered Staten Island house.

With inspiration from a self help motivational guru (a great all too brief turn by Peter Gallagher), Doris starts to think she can get John’s attention. This leads to her showing up at a concert of John’s favorite band Baby Goya and Nuclear Winters (Jack Antonoff of the band Fun plays the front man), and she succeeds in making a splash in her colorful ‘80s neon attire. So much so that Antonoff wants her to pose for the cover of the band’s next album.

Doris is able to get close to John – they have a nice scene talking about past relationships at a diner - but it turns out he has an age-appropriate girlfriend (Beth Behrs of Two Broke Girls). Heartbroken over this, Doris posts a message on John’s Facebook wall that causes the young couple to break up. It’s now up to Doris to declare her love for John at his Thanksgiving party.

There are moments that made me cringe in HELLO, MY NAME IS DORIS, but they were balanced with moments of pure charm and heart. Field’s Doris is adorkable for sure, but the actress fleshes out the character making her so much more than the expected caricature. In scenes with her concerned family and friends such as Daly Field is able to give Doris some dramatic heft too.

The well groomed Greenfield does a good job too with John. It’s a standard oblivious nice guy/everyman role but he nails it and makes us feel for him when he learns the truth about Doris.

Showalter, who co-wrote the film with Laura Terruso based on Terruso’s 2011 short film “Doris and the Intern,” has made his most real-feeling work here. It’s a pleasant surprise because from the outside it looks like a typical cheesy rom com, a commercially minded mix of THE INTERN and HAROLD AND MAUDE.

But step inside and you find a much, more likable production that’s not stained with cheap laughs nor cheap sentiment.

For years, I’ve misremembered Field’s Oscar quote that I mentioned above. I thought it was: “You like me, you really like me!” and I was going to say that I liked this movie, but didn’t really like it as it could’ve been a bit funnier and maybe a little less predictable. 

But despite those beefs, I'll stick with the sentiment from her original quote and say that I can’t deny the fact that I liked it, right now. I liked it.

More later...