'DON'T THINK TWICE' REVIEW.....LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT'S STRUGGLING COMICS....

Don't Think Twice (2016)  Several lifetimes ago, (so it seems) BQ wrote fairy tale musicals for the busy summertime slate of a professional children's theater company.  Eight weeks....eight hour long musical comedies....each rehearsed in three days then taken on the road to perform at theater-in-the-rounds in a tri-state radius.  An insane ordeal?  You bet.....but like the guy who follows the elephant with the shovel, nobody wants to give up show business. It's just too damn much fun.....

             The highs and lows of a comedy improvisation troupe in writer-director Mike Birbiglia's "Don't Think Twice"  took us back to those crazy, exhausting theatrical days......filled with performers who hit every number on the critical dial......from journeyman mediocrity to dazzling, destined-for-better-things brilliance.  Along the way, friendships and romance came and went, egos rose and fell, careers went nowhere or skyrocketed to fame.

             And so it is with Birbiglia's 'The Commune', a collection of nimble comedic minds, spontaneously creative artists who dare to face an audience with nothing but their own speed-of-light wits. In the gladiatorial world of stand-up comedy, improv is the equivalent of one of those Wallenda guys tightrope walking across the Grand Canyon. Some might consider it harder.....Wallenda simply has to make it to the other end of the wire.....he doesn't also have to make people laugh while he teeters over oblivion......

             The Commune members share a deep bond in their friendship and artistry, but their world is shifting under their feet. Unpaid for their performances, they glumly toil at day jobs......and they can sense they're  fast approaching their expiration dates for achieving show biz success. Their Powerball Ticket out of obscurity is to join the cast of the network comedy TV show "Weekend Live" (Yes, it's the movie's not-so-flattering version of You-Know-What)

            The group's most hungrily ambitious member (Keegan-Michael Key) secures this prize, driving a wedge of jealous envy through the others. And it rips apart his relationship with a fellow Commune castmate (Gillian Jacobs), who's the most brilliant member of the troupe, but also the most insecure.

             This all sounds like heavy, life-altering drama....and it is, but keep in mind, the story chronicles people who make you laugh. Birbiglia, who also plays the teacher and leader of the group, amply shows off the cast's comic chops, both in the improvisation shows and their offstage banter. (Masters of dialect, they take turns imitating the agonized rasps of a castmate's hospitalized father.) Our only quibble:  the film wastes the talents of the too-adorable-for-words Kate Micucci in a fifth-castmember-from-the-left role.

             Our favorite moment.....the Commune members sitting slack-jawed in front of a TV, staring absently at the music group segment of "Weekend Live", internally calculating the seconds until it's over and the funny stuff can begin again. So very true.   BQ glares at the music segments of "Saturday Night Live" exactly the same way.....unless the group's so awful we have to channel surf over to a movie until they stop caterwauling.

              "Don't Think Twice" about watching this movie.....it takes you on a fascinating trip through a cutthroat creative life where a lot more goes on behind the laughter. BQ improvises 4 stars.(****)