In A World: Where Demetri Martin is Awkward and Hilarious

Hello everybody! For today’s movie club we have the hilarious voice actor comedy, In A World…

IN A WORLD…

DIRECTOR: Lake Bell

STARRING: Lake Bell, Demetri Martin,Fred Melamed,Rob Corddry,Michaela Watkins,Ken Marino,Nick Offerman, Tig Notaro

GENRE: Comedy

YEAR: 2013

COUNTRY: United States

Don LaFontaine “The Voice” of trailers dies age 68. In the voice over world 5 voices make all the money, recording 60 trailers a week, sometimes 35 a day. Don is labelled as the voice of God in archival interview footage. TV interviews with Sam Sotto (Fred Melamed) and Gustav Warren (Ken Marino) about their memories of the late Don reveal the enormous ego and self promotion of Sam Sotto who sees himself as equal to Don and mentor to new voice Gustav, young heir to a fortune. The late Don intoned “In a world . . .” the first iconic trailer. Film producer Katherine Huling (Geena Davis) is making a quadrilogy female mutant Amazons tween chick flick. Competition for the trailer voice over is fierce.

Better news still, Bell wrote and directed this gem. The actress proves to have a deeply funny, finely observed sense of subcultures. She’s admitted to being obsessed since she was a kid with the world of voice-over. She also displays a tartly compassionate feel for the human condition — be it achy or loopy, needy or arrogant.

Bell plays Carol Solomon, a vocal instructor and the younger daughter of Sam Sotto, one of Tinseltown’s legendary voice-over artists. Michaela Watkins is Carol’s older sis, Dani. She’s married to Moe (Rob Corddry) and works as a concierge at a lux L.A. hotel. A flirtation with a guest gives the comedy an affecting subplot.

Despite the preponderance of jokes and gags and shtick-dependent characters, In a World… never becomes cloying or too cute. Nearly all the actors pop with well-defined personalities. After a long career as a character actor (seven Woody Allen films), Melamed broke out as a quasi-lead in the Coen brothers’ A Serious Man four years ago and formidably dominates here. The fast-talking Martin and Marino nab their share of laughs, while stand-up stalwart Tig Notaro is hilarious as a butch staffer at the recording studio.

PROS:

• Main cast performance.
• Subplot.
• Strong direction.

CONS:

• Some jokes fall flat.

SCORE: 9.0 / 10

If you have any suggestions for films/TV/Games/Music/Anime for me to review, drop me a comment!

Remember: Like Media In Review @ https://www.facebook.com/MediaInReview?ref=hl Follow Media in Review @ https://twitter.com/Media_In_Review.

All check out my lengthier video game reviews over at Nerd Bacon Games.